Bit of a cheat this one. Virginia Madsen does feature in the Depeche Mode video for But Not Tonight, but only just. I guess.
The single, not featuring on any album would be released along with Stripped, in the UK Stripped would be the A side and But Not Tonight on the B side, in the US it would be reversed.
But also. it’s not really a proper Virginia Madsen thing, hence the cheat part.
But Not Tonight was released as one of the main songs for the film Modern Girls, as such she appears in snippets from the film and in the background while Dave Gahan does his stuff. The double single would release number 15 in the UK Charts and I actually couldn’t find anything for the US so I’m guessing it didn’t make the Top 100?
Ahhhh. I rewatched this not long after Fire With Fire. I said when I wrote about that it was such an 80s movie you would have had to have been there to understand.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Modern Girls ups that ante to a whole other level.
Released in 1986 Modern Girls is very much an 80s film. It’s so 80s it would be hard to make the film today without it feeling like a parody. It is of course not a parody but instead a true product of its time.
Moden Girls takes three women, or, girls, all in their early twenties, all working mundane jobsand all living life to their full in the Los Angeles nightlight. Kelly (our Virginia) works in a Pet Store and has a knack for being able to sell them, Margo (Daphne Zuniga) works in telemarketing and we meet Cece (Cynthia Gibb) just as she’s getting fired from her job in a Department Store.All looking for love in the wrong places, they’ve got the stereotypical 80s males all preening around them and out for what they can get. That’s not to say these ladies aren’t out for what they can get either, there is a game to be played and they are all in.
The main part of the film kicks in when Margo and Cece are getting ready to go out for the night, they’re almost ready but discover Kelly has gone without them, and taken Margo’s car to boot. Kellys date for the night, Clifford (Clayton Rohner) arrives to pick her up, she’s not there obviously, and the two girls convince him to drive them into town to find her.
What follows is a crazy, and probably impossibly implausibly long night as the girls (and Clifford) get dragged on a roller coaster of ups and downs invoiving mistaken identities, drug spiking, detective work, music video direction, car problems and various near sexual assaults.Honestly, I thought I’d had some pretty funky nights myself till I started watching 80s films about nights on the town. There is enough here crammed into one night then most people will have in a month’s worth of nights out. Well, that or I’ve led a very sheltered life.
On a side note, I got about half way through this before I started wondering if a film like this would be made today. It deals with some pretty messy themes at times, especially when it comes to Kelly with the drugs and potential assaults. It was only a PG-13 in the US and has a 15 rating in the UK. I’m no prude when it comes to this kind of thing but the thought of watching it with my school going teenage kids doesn’t fill me with happy thoughts.Virginia shines in this film though, her depiction of Kelly is spot on and I can’t think of anyone else who I’d rather have seen in the role. I think I was particularly impressed with her for Kely being so far apart from Lisa in Fire with Fire. I didn’t hate her performance in that, but it was a very different type or role and character, considering the two were released in the same year it’s all the more impressive. And then when you get to thinking about her other roles before in Mussolini, The Hearst and Davies Affair and A Matter of Principle, even more mind blowing.
Kind of interesting and a bit of accidental foreshadowing that one of the first times we see Virginia past the opening blurb stuff she’s lying on a bed reading about Bruce Willis, funny that in just a couple of years she’d be cosing up to him in Moonlighting, i had a little “ha” moment when I clocked it.
It’s a weird one to try and recommend. The eightiesness of it all kind of dates it, but not in a bad way. Modern Girls wasn’t really a success when it was released, but it’s done OK for itself in the home market and became a bit of a cult thing. There are many a webpage / blog post that think this film is one of the best things to come out of the eighties.
I’m sure if you were there and lived it then you’ll have an easier time enjoying it. It really is like a time capsule of a different time, different place and a different way of filmmaking. Even if you weren’t there at the time Modern Girls does have something to offer that way.
I’ve said it before and will no doubt say it again, sometimes you’ve just got to find out these things for yourself.
If nothing else you should watch Virginia in one of her more serious roles before you watch this to realise just how talented she is.
Availability:
It can be found on VHS if that’s your thing, it has had both a DVD and Blu-Ray release in recent years but they can be hard to find, and expensive.
I bought a copy on DVD from eBay, and paid well for it – I actually thought it might be fake because it had a “DVD-R” label on the back and the disc was blue. Turns out that it’s real. The DVD’s are made to order so they are legit – Just a heads up if you weren’t aware like I wasn’t.
Fire with Fire is the film that properly propelled Virginia to the top of most people’s lists. Released in 1986 to negative reviews it would find its way into many viewers hearts and still has its fans today.
By today’s standards, it’s not that great. It’s a very eighties film. Things were different then.
Joe Fisk (Craig Sheffer) is an eighties bad boy, Lisa (our Virginia Madsen) is an artsy, shy Catholic Schoolgirl. Unlikely to cross paths under normal circumstances, the two do come across each other while Lisa is out in the woods taking a photograph of herself as Ophelia for a project she’s doing and Joe is the “Fox” in a Fox and Hound game the Prison Camp is running.Their eyes meet, tensions are raised.
There are only two problems. Joe is a bad boy and Lisa is a shy Schoolgirl. I know I’ve already mentioned that but that’s how much of a problem it is.
The crime Joe is in Prison for? Punching his Dad. The Prison? Voluntary.
Lisa’s problem? After she graduates from Catholic School she’s to be whisked away to be with her parents in Sweden and attend finishing school.
Gritty stuff. Melodrama is the flavour of the day here.
Joe’s “Prison Camp” is local to Lisa’s school, on occasion the “inmates” are allowed into town for some rest and relaxation. One night when they are allowed a night at the local Cinema they come across each other again, the tension is high.
It comes time for the Catholic School to do something nice for people to show how nice they are, ideas are bandied around but Lisa comes up with the idea / plan that they should do something nice for the inmates at the local Prison Camp in the form of a Dance they can all attend. On the night of the Dance the two steal some moments together before it all goes wrong and the inmates are all whisked away again leaving even more tension between Joe and Lisa.
The next time they get to meet up is at a graveyard where Joe is working, they steal some more moments together before they are caught by Joe’s Boss, uhm “Boss” (Joe Polito) who threatens to throw Joe in proper State Penitentiary for his misdeeds.
Back at the School Lisa is threatened with being immediately shipped off to her parents, never to return.
This is enough for the pair (and a whole bunch of other people) to organise an escape and the pair go on the run. They end up in an idyllic cabin in the woods and the pair can finally be together.
Unfortunately the pair are fugitives, and those gosh darn fugitives must be hunted down.
Cue the helicopters, dogs, guns and plenty of manpower to track the two down.I might sound like I’ve a dim view of the film, but I don’t. But I do recognise the absurdity about it all as well. The whole thing is highly improbable and could only have been made in the eighties.
That said, I was actually surprised to see how much love there is for this film when I was researching a little around it. Fair play, there are loads of dodgy eighties films I love as well, and given the popularity for the whole Stranger Things stuff it seems I’m (we’re) not on my (our) own.
Virginia is obviously young in this film. She’s trying and actually does a competent job at “Eighties Girl in Peril”. But it’s very cheesy acting, it’s not a bad thing, it fits the film perfectly and anything else would just be odd to be fair.If you’re a fan of the whole Eighties thing then you can’t do much better than this for a perfect Romance / Drama film of the time and I would wholeheartedly recommend it. If you’re not, then probably best you avoid watching this one. I guess you had to be there.
Virginia has fond memories of the film. In The AV Clubs now defunct “Random Roles” series she’d be reminded of it;
“I’m becoming one of those older people who has way too many stories. [Laughs.] But I will say that more people ask me about Fire With Fire than any other movie I’ve done, including Sideways. But for some reason, no one ever knows what Fire With Fire is called. They always say something like, “Oh, you know, that movie where you’re floating in the pond?” “Yeah, that’s Fire With Fire.” But the movie was originally called Captive Heart, which is a much better title, but then we were given the song “Fire With Fire” [by Wild Blue] for the end credits, so they named the film Fire With Fire, too. That was an ’80s thing to do: You’d have your soundtrack and your movie at the same time. But, yeah, that was a beautiful experience. I loved making that movie.”
I commented on the Kenny Loggins music video that Virginia was in for I’m Free how similar that was to this movie and having watched it again I’m absolutely convinced you could take scenes from this film and remake the original. It’d be a fun project if anyone could find the time. And, a very niche audience that would get it…
Availability:
Not too bad thanks to a recent American release, it also appears to be a region free DVD so if you aren’t in the States then you shouldn’t have a problem.
The double single would release number 15 in the UK Charts and I actually couldn’t find anything for the US so I’m guessing it didn’t make the Top 100?
