BEHIND THE BURLY Q (2010) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Leslie Zemeckis
A valentine to the golden age of bump and grind, with vintage film clips and testimony from some long-retired headliners recalling the time they spent taking it off in the spotlight. The musicians and comics get some attention, too, but the focus is on the strippers, who talk with insight and humor about origins, ambitions, fears, rewards, long days, hard work, tired feet, wardrobe malfunctions and staying ahead of the law. (And nobody seems to have liked Gypsy Rose Lee.) It's a snapshot history of burlesque, but Zemeckis packs a lot of information into those briskly edited snapshots, and she got to some of her witnesses just in time. The end credits list those who cashed in their pasties and g-strings for good, before the finished movie could be released.
