Roughie
Roughie
The English adjective rough, from which the noun roughie derives as a designation for a certain type of feature film, colloquially characterizes physical violence ( rough stuff ), uncouth, unpleasant, brutal, and dangerous people ( roughnecks ) and also often has an obscene or lascivious undertone.
Roughies are generally films that show sexuality in sleazy or dirty contexts, ie in the realm of sado-masochistic everyday violence. However, this does not mean cinematic representations of highly codified fetishistic SM sexuality (such as in bondage pornography, etc.), but rather those black and white films by the American Russ Meyer (born 1923) that he made between 1964 and 1966 in the USA has rotated: Lorna (1964; dt. Lorna - too much for a man ), Mudhoney (aka: Rope of Flesh , 1965; dt. In the garden of lust ), Motor Psycho (1965; dt. Motor-Psycho - Wie wilde Hengste ) and Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! (1966; Eng. The Satans Wives of Tittfield ). In them, the director's breast fetishism, which has become proverbial, lascivious, slovenly blondes, neurotic male friendships and drunkenness, everyday violence up to and including rape in marriage are fused into an anarchic amalgam whose trashy origins are always visible, but which on the other hand is an able explicit and offensive depiction of violence and sexuality as integral parts of the plot. With their constant failures in communication between man and woman, Roughies by Meyers retain their special appeal as a special kind of underground film (or at least can be seen as a parody of it). Meyer himself ironically refers to this period as his "Steinbeck period" (after the socially critical, naturalistic American storyteller and playwright John Steinbeck). Meyer's roughies have an impact well into 1990s popular culture. This is how the desert film Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! as a motif-visual template for an early music video of the extremely successful English girl singing group 'Spice Girls' used. The American Doris Wishman (1920-2002), who achieved some fame as a cult director and film producer (under numerous aliases), also had a pronounced roughie phase in the 1960s .
Roughies were a more aggressively lurid subgenre of classic Sexploitation cinema. These films injected violence and sadism into the standard, rather innocent, softcore mix. They featured stories dealing with S&M, kidnappings and sexual abuse. It was pretty sick stuff and perfect for the adult Grindhouse theater-goers who craved more seedy, exciting thrills.
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