Chastity

Sonny Bono wrote, produced, financed and probably directed (using a pseudonym) this witless entertainment, made at a time when Hollywood did not know how to draw in a younger audience. This film did not help matters. Valuable only as having captured Cher's first performance in a dramatic role, CHASTITY follows an aimless, wandering young woman in search of something... we never quite know what. She does talk about wanting to be loved, but she runs from that, both at the start of the movie and in the final shot. A narration makes an attempt to hold the movie together, but Bono's dialog and situations are so forced and contrived the viewer is never allowed to engage with her apparent angst. CHASTITY is a cynical take on what ailed late-60s youth, but emerges as shallow and condescending toward the very audience Sonny Bono wanted to embrace.

Cher is agreeably pithy and cynical as a runaway named Chastity (she got the name from the dictionary). She's a wiseass, she's adorable, she's moody, she tosses off quips and straight lines like a jaded pro. This was Cher's third movie proper (following "Wild On The Beach" and "Good Times") and it's fun to see her in Cleopatra eye-makeup and her old nose. So many bad things have been said or written about this film that I half-expected a disaster, but it's clear right from the beginning the movie is visually expressive and evocative. Directed by someone named Alessio de Paola (an alias?), one tends to suspect writer-producer Sonny Bono held the reins, and if so he has a genuine feel for border towns and nowhere-places where people are cheerfully giving but eventually want payback. The picture begins to sag a bit in the middle when Cher tries her hand at prostitution and has a lesbian encounter with the cathouse madam (lots of fingers touching and wind through the trees, that kind of thing). But I certainly admired the film's gritty quality and easy pace. For her part, Cher concocts a true original in our heroine, talking to herself in the third person ("So, Chastity old girl, whaddya wanna do now?") and when her question to a gentleman bedfellow is met with a surprising answer, she tells him quietly in the dark, "I'm smiling." **1/2 from ****

She was born in a wagon of a travelin' show, her mama used to dance for the money they'd throw. Yes, it's pre-nose-job Cher in her absolutely wretched dramatic debut, as a sullen and surly hitchhiking runaway with a heart of pressed tin. With her grating voice and punk-ass demeanor, she can often be misconstrued as acting, but do not be fooled - she is simply a marionette in the hands of producer Sonny `Svengali' Bono (whom one can also presume was also the never-heard-of-before and never-heard-from-again director de Paola). Chastity is a disturbed young woman who hits the road to escape her dreary, unhappy life, and finds more dreariness and unhappiness. In this turgid and lugubrious script, she takes her anger out on men by picking them up, leading them on and then `not letting them get anything.' She works as a prostitute without ever having to give up `the goods,' and winds up in a Mexican whorehouse for a lesbian madam who would like Chastity to be something more than an employee. With a creepy introspective/philosophical voiceover narrative by Cher, it is hippie-age BS and you can definitely see her *Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves* period looming on the horizon. Chastity is perplexing in a way that is peculiarly unintriguing, and despite all her woes, she is supremely unsympathetic. Her eventual confession of being abused as a child may have been shocking in 1969, but in retrospect, it is entirely predictable. There are some who will dig deeply to find some merit to this film, but it should strictly be taken as what it is: pure camp - meaning, of course, that's it's hysterically funny while it tries desperately to be serious. Would *you* name *your* child after this? `Chastity.pick her up if you dare.' Indeed.

Having been curious a long time about this movie, I finally got to see Chastity on Netflix on Demand just now. Written and produced by Sonny Bono and starring his then-wife Cher as the title character, this film basically meanders from one point to another until an explanation of why Chastity does the things she does is provided at the end. Until then, I didn't have much sympathy for her what with her stealing money, impersonating people and professions, and her running to and from places. And at this point, Cher is not enough of an actress yet to really sell her character when she starts to breakdown emotionally as evidenced by her last scene with that madam. I was, however, amused by that scene in Mexico where she calls the police about a stolen open roof car that she took off in-with the ignition keys inside!-and temporarily leaving the phone when asked about the license plate number. Oh, and I can't believe the way that guy she meets one night that let's her stay at his house would tolerate some of her strange behaviors like her constant turning on and off light switches not to mention running water and turning on the stove! In summary, I give Chastity a mixed review. At least the music score and the songs are pretty good...

Sonny Bono, in his autobiography "And the Beat Goes On," maligned his own debut as a writer/producer of serious cinema. But "Chastity" does not deserve a bad reputation: on the contrary, the film is a well-thought out and entertaining exploration of a runaway (played engaging by Cher in her first film as a dramatic actress) trying to discover herself, and in the process, find out what life is all about.

While at times the film strives to be a little too philosophical (it is clear that Bono wanted to make a statement), the film is both visually and aurally creative. From the opening sequence in which a montage of Chastity's thoughts flash through a sketch of her profile and the subsequent telephoto shot of her running towards the camera (she wants to go somewhere - but ends up going nowhere!), to the scene in which she wanders through a Mexican brothel, "Chastity" always keeps the viewer interested in the film itself, and more importantly - caring about its young protagonist.

The film is low budget - and possibly due to casting constraints some of the actors seem rather stiff - but overall the low budget helps to give "Chastity" more of a realistic look. The movie was obviously not filmed on sets - but instead on real locations - and the camerawork at times even gives it a "cinema verite" feel.

Of course, Sonny Bono was primarily a song writer and producer, and his use of music (most of which he wrote) is creative. The title theme is a haunting, beautiful composition that must have been influenced by Ennio Morricone and the music he wrote for Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. For those who may be familiar with the Atco soundtrack album, the music works very nicely in the context of the film.

In any case, "Chastity" is no masterpiece, but it is an entertaining (though downbeat) film that deserves to make its way onto a commercial video release. Bono deserves a lot of credit for writing, producing and scoring the film (and according to his autobiography he even edited a good portion of it). And as the soundtrack is out of print, it would give the viewer the opportunity to hear the Bono theme music and the classic opening tune "Band of Thieves."