I have a problem - I've developed an all-consuming addiction to the dreamy, earthy beauty of the seventies. Not to say that I haven't always had a large spot in my heart reserved for this ethereal era - Picnic at Hanging Rock, Sofia Coppola's ode to The Virgin Suicides, memoirs of Buell and des Barres, and the photography of Sarah Moon and David Hamilton all come to mind when I think about the sweet seventies. I now have another film to add to my mental collection of inspirations: Foxes.
The film follows the lives of four Los Angeles teenage girls during the late 1970s. With no discernible adult influence in their lives, the girls teeter on the line between youth and their own naivete during this age of decadence. In the world of the Foxes, there is no such thing as a functional family.
The films stars the fantastically talented Jodie Foster (at her most beautiful, right before enrolling at Yale and taking a hiatus from acting) as Jeanie, the mother-hen of the group who takes cares of her best friends during their many troubles. There is Madge (Marilyn Kagan), the nerdy, repressed virgin of the group, whose wild brown hair and thick, oversized glasses make her look like a cross between Carol Seaver and Stella from the Polanski flick The Tenant. With opposite troubles is Dierdre (Kandice Stroh, in one of her few acting roles), who is continually plagued by boyfriend troubles and repercussions from her own sexual curiosity. Cherie Currie plays the role of Annie, the last and most destructive of the 'foxes'. She a teenage runaway (a not-so-subtle nod to Currie's previous gig, perhaps?) who drinks, parties, and takes drugs to escape the pain that her abusive policeman father has caused her.
That is not to say that Jeanie is without her own problems. She struggles to have some semblance of a normal relationship with her own parents: a mother who is more interested in her married lover than her daughter, and a father who is barely in her life because of his job as a tour manager for the glam band Angel. To forget about their troubles, the girls all like to cut loose and have fun in whatever way they can. While all the girls love to go out and party, Annie always takes it one step further than the rest and puts her safety and health in danger. She has a magnetic quality about her, one that causes everyone in her life to be drawn to her despite how many times she upsets them or hurts herself. The rough-yet-vulnerable portrayal by Cherie Currie is fascinating to watch, and makes me wish that she was given more opportunities to act in mainstream motion pictures.
A great big credit to Le Souffle au Coeur for so many wonderful screencaps from the film
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