SHOWGIRLS: Citizens Of The Underground
"I love the movie "Trash" with Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro, it is an Andy Warhol production," "Everytime I see it, I love it more." So much "trash" has been heaped by critics upon two of Rena Riffel's own seminal credits, Showgirls and Striptease, that any assumptions she might be embarrassed talking about them are refreshingly moot.
"I love it. Showgirls is so campy and over the top. When we were filming it, I think some people thought they were making this dramatic nineties dance musical. Everyone took it very seriously. When I read the script, though, I thought it was a dark comedy, so I don't think anyone knew it was going to turn out like it did."
Though Showgirls had a rocky start with a limited theatrical release do to the first ever NC-17 rating, it openned at the third highest grossing picture of the week in 1995. Since then, Showgirls has more than redeemed itself as Paul Verhoeven's masterpiece. The audiences have grabbed hold of this piece of art as part of their pop culture. VH1 has claimed it as "VH1: Movie's That Rock" and die hard fans repeat Showgirls quotes by screenwriter Joe Eszterhas on a daily basis. Showgirls success is still growing to a huge cult-classic achievement.
Rena's role as the naive and innocent "Penny/Hope" has become iconic. When she appeared in David Lynch's Mullholland Drive, audiences saw her performance, as "Laney" the drug addicted streetwalker, as a continuation and outcome of her role in Showgirls. Somehow, maybe by an unseen force, Rena's roles seem to connect and carry on a developement arc of her legendary character.
According to www.mulholland-drive.net, Rena's character is seen as the true protagonist of the film. "As an aside, reading Rena's bio call to mind the archetypal "rural girl to big city" narrative that is clearly at the core of the Betty/Diane archetype. The details may be off re Cannes, but the crossover to the satirical sexploitative work in the 1995 film (Penny/Hope in Showgirls) is revealing; with time, Riffel's character may have been the literal heroine of MD."
Rena was born March 5, 1976. Her heritage consists of Scandinavian, Latvian, and German. "I am a mix of northern and eastern European. But I was born in the US."
Lucybestrom 19:40, 23 March 2007 (UTC)