"Шоугёрлз: Лас-Вегас әлемi"

1995 film by Paul Verhoeven
the 1995 film

Showgirls is a 1995 erotic drama film directed by Paul Verhoeven from a script written by Joe Eszterhas and starring Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, and Gina Ravera. Produced on a then sizable budget of around $45 million, significant controversy and hype surrounding the film's amounts of sex and nudity preceded its theatrical release. In the United States, the film was rated NC 17 for "nudity and erotic sexuality throughout, some graphic language, and sexual violence." Showgirls was the first (and to date only) NC 17 rated film to be given a wide release in mainstream theaters. Distributor Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) dispatched several hundred staffers to theaters across North America playing Showgirls to ensure that patrons would not sneak into the theater from other films, and to make sure film goers were over the age of 17. Audience restriction due to the NC 17 rating, coupled with poor reviews, resulted in the film becoming a box office bomb, grossing just $37.8 million against a budget of $45 million. Despite a negative theatrical and critical consensus, Showgirls enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals, allowing the film to turn a profit and became one of MGM's top 20 all time bestsellers. For its video premiere, Verhoeven prepared an R rated cut for rental outlets that would not carry NC 17 films. This edited version runs 3 minutes shorter (128 minutes) and deletes some of the more graphic footage. Showgirls was universally panned upon release and is consistently ranked as one of the worst films ever made. Despite this, Showgirls has become regarded as a cult film and has been subject to critical re evaluation, with some notable directors and critics considering it a serious satire worthy of praise.

Young drifter Nomi Malone hitchhikes to Las Vegas hoping to make it as a showgirl. After a driver who picked her up robs her, she meets Molly Abrams, a costume designer who takes her in as a roommate. Molly invites her backstage at Goddess, the Stardust Casino show where she works, to meet Cristal Connors, the diva star of the casino's topless dance revue. When Nomi tells Cristal she dances at Cheetah's Topless Club, Cristal derisively tells her that what she does is akin to prostitution. When Nomi is too upset to go to work that night, Molly takes her dancing at the Crave Club. Nomi is arrested after causing a fight involving James Smith, a bouncer at the club, and pays him little notice when he bails her out of jail. Cristal and her boyfriend, Zack Carey, the entertainment director at the Stardust, visit Cheetah's and request a lap dance from Nomi. Although the bisexual Cristal is attracted to Nomi, her request is based more on her desire to humiliate Nomi by proving she engages in prostitution. Nomi reluctantly performs the lap dance after Cristal offers her $500. James happens to be at the strip club and sneaks a peek at Nomi's lap dance. He visits Nomi's trailer the next morning and tells Nomi that what she is doing is no different from prostitution. James choreographs a dance routine for Nomi, but gives the role to Penny, a former co worker of Nomi's, when Nomi refuses to have sex with him. Cristal arranges for Nomi to audition for the chorus line of Goddess. Tony Moss, the show's director, humiliates Nomi by asking her to put ice on her nipples to harden them. Furious, Nomi abruptly leaves the audition after scattering ice everywhere in a fit. Despite her outburst, Nomi gets the job and quits Cheetah's. Cristal further humiliates her by suggesting she make a "goodwill appearance" at a boat trade show, which turns out to be a thinly disguised prostitution set up. Undeterred, Nomi sets out to get revenge against Cristal and claim her mantle. She seduces Zack, who secures an audition for her to be Cristal's understudy. Nomi wins the role, but when Cristal threatens legal action against the Stardust, the offer is rescinded. After Cristal taunts her, Nomi pushes her down a flight of stairs, breaking her hip, and replaces her as the show's lead. Despite having finally secured the fame she sought, she alienates Molly, who realizes she caused Cristal's injury. Molly later relents and attends Nomi's opening night celebration at a lavish hotel, where she meets her idol, musician Andrew Carver. Carver lures Molly to a room, where he brutally beats her and leads his two friends, who are security guards, into gang raping her to the point of hospitalization. Nomi wants to report the assault to the police, but Zack explains that the Stardust will bribe Molly with hush money to protect Carver, their star performer, before then confronting her about her sordid past. He informs her that she was born as Polly Ann Costello in San Francisco, and she became a runaway and prostitute after her parents' murder–suicide in 1989, when she was 15 years old. After escaping from a foster home in nearby Oakland the following year, she changed her name several times and has been arrested several times in several states for various crimes ranging from drug possession to prostitution and assault with a deadly weapon. Zack blackmails her by vowing to conceal her past if she abstains from informing the police about the assault. Unable to obtain justice for Molly without exposing her own past, Nomi decides to take matters into her own hands. After severely assaulting Carver alone in his hotel room, she then pays two hospital visits, one to inform a semi conscious Molly that Carver's actions did not go unpunished, and another to Cristal to apologize for injuring her. Because her lawyers have secured her a large cash settlement, Cristal forgives Nomi, admitting she pulled a similar stunt years earlier, and they exchange a reconciliatory kiss. Nomi leaves Las Vegas and hitches a ride to Los Angeles, coincidentally robbing at knifepoint the same driver who stole her possessions when she arrived.

Eszterhas came up with the idea for Showgirls while on vacation at his home in Maui, Hawaii. During lunch in Beverly Hills, Verhoeven told Eszterhas that he had always loved "big MGM musicals", and wanted to make one; Eszterhas suggested the setting of Las Vegas. Based on the idea he scribbled on a napkin, Eszterhas was advanced $2 million to write the script and picked up an additional $1.7 million when the studio produced it into a film. This, along with the scripts for both Verhoeven's previous film Basic Instinct (1992) and Sliver (1993, also an erotic thriller starring Sharon Stone), made Eszterhas the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood history. Because of conflicts with the MPAA over the rating of Basic Instinct, which he made cuts to in order to secure an R rating, Verhoeven planned for Showgirls to be rated NC 17. Verhoeven deferred 70% of his $6 million director's fee depending on if the film turned a profit. Eszterhas completed the script in the later half of 1993. He later said, "I wrote Showgirls at the single most turbulent moment of my life," Drew Barrymore, On the role of Nomi, Verhoeven said, "One of the main concerns, next to acting, was the dancing and nudity — both of those elements being extreme. The actress would have to be able to dance. And she also had to be willing to show full frontal throughout the film. These elements, especially the nudity, are extremely difficult for American actresses to accept. And Elizabeth Berkley was the only actress that combined all three."

Verhoeven asked Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics to not only compose the film's score, but to also write the music for the big Stardust hotel shows. "The idea was to make the same loud, sleazy, bad music that you hear in those Vegas shows, because that's how it actually is," said Verhoeven.

The soundtrack of the film featured songs specially composed for the film, including an early version of David Bowie's "I'm Afraid of Americans", and a song of Siouxsie and the Banshees' "New Skin" recorded near Prague in June 1995. It also includes songs by Killing Joke and Scylla (a then new band featuring Curve's singer Toni Halliday). The Young Gods' song "Kissing the Sun" only appeared on the US edition of the soundtrack and did not feature on the European and Japanese releases. The soundtrack album was released on September 26, 1995.

Though marketing opportunities for NC 17 films are traditionally limited, MGM/UA largely relied on the controversy over the rating itself to generate audience hype and mounted a promotional blitz that capitalized on the film's potentially lurid subject matter. The promotion included billboards in Times Square and Venice Beach, an interactive adults only website, and circulation of a "sneak preview" videotape at rental stores that purported to feature 8 minutes of explicit footage not shown in theatrical trailers.

The film was released to 1,388 theaters in North America on September 22, 1995. On its opening weekend, the film made $8,112,627 and opened in the number 2 spot behind Seven. In the second week, it slipped to the fifth spot and grosses fell 60%.

Showgirls performed much better on VHS, DVD, and Blu ray, becoming one of MGM's top 20 best sellers, grossing over $100 million in the US home media market alone. On January 2, 1996, Showgirls was released on VHS in two versions: A director's R rated version for rental outlets (including Blockbuster and Hollywood Video), and an NC 17 rated version. Showgirls was released on DVD for the first time on April 25, 2000. In 2004, MGM released the "V. I. P. Edition" on DVD in a special boxed set containing two shot glasses, movie cards with drinking games on the back, a deck of playing cards, and a nude poster of Berkley with a pair of suction cup pasties so viewers can play "pin the pasties on the showgirl". In 2007, MGM re released the V. I. P. Edition DVD without the physical extras, as the "Fully Exposed Edition". On June 15, 2010, MGM released a 15th Anniversary "Sinsational Edition" in a two disc dual format Blu ray/DVD edition. In 2016, Showgirls was restored in 4K from the original negative. The image restoration was carried out by the Technicolor laboratory and the sound restoration by the L. E. Diapason laboratory, under the supervision of Paul Verhoeven and Pathé. The restored version was released on Blu ray following a theatrical run. It was released on Ultra HD Blu ray in the United States by Vinegar Syndrome in 2023, which received a stronger review for picture quality by High Def Digest. Vinegar Syndrome launched a disc replacement program shortly after discovering sync issues in the film's 5.1 audio track.

Showgirls has achieved cult status. According to writer Naomi Klein, ironic enjoyment of the film initially arose among those with the video before MGM capitalized on the idea. MGM noticed the video was performing well because "trendy twenty somethings were throwing Showgirls irony parties, laughing sardonically at the implausibly poor screenplay and shrieking with horror at the aerobic sexual encounters". The film was heavily embraced by the LGBT community, who would host midnight movie type screenings that became an ongoing tradition. Movie screenings and viewing parties were hosted by performers such as Betty Buckley, and David Schmader. Eszterhas, however, maintains that the humor was intentional: "What Paul [Verhoeven] and I had in mind was something darkly funny. We went through the script line by line, and we were really laughing at some of it. I defy people to tell me that a line like, 'How does it feel not to have anybody coming on you anymore' isn't meant to be funny." and the film been heralded as a camp classic in the vein of films like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. The film was passed uncut for its video release on October 23, 2017. The rights to show the film on television were eventually purchased by the VH1 network. Because of the film's frequent nudity, though, a censored version was created with black bras and panties digitally rendered to hide all exposed breasts and genitalia. Also, several scenes were removed entirely, shortening the movie by at least 45 minutes. Berkley refused to redub her lines because MGM refused to pay her fee of $250, so a noticeably different actress's voice can be heard on the soundtrack. In 2003, the film was ranked number 36 on Entertainment Weeklys 'The Top 50 Cult Movies' list. The film was mentioned a few times on hit network TV shows in the late 1990s, with a mix of affection and sarcasm. On NBC's NewsRadio, a running joke where billionaire WNYX owner Jimmy James has a running list of potential wives made a reference to Showgirls when James is asked by station manager Dave Nelson about the wives' list. James then says it is one number shorter than previously noted because "You know that nice girl who was on Saved by the Bell? She went and made a dirty movie!" In a Season 11 episode of The Simpsons, Homer and Marge go out on a date night to see the film after Bart becomes well behaved from taking Focusyn. The scene playing was a fictional scene where a redheaded man tells Nomi that she's wasting her talent as a showgirl, with Nomi snapping, "Screw you! Screw everybody!" and takes her top off when the stage manager calls for showtime. Marge also comments that she enjoys the friendship between "showgirl [Nomi] and that seamstress [Molly]". Australian rapper Iggy Azalea paid homage to the film in the music video for her 2013 song "Change Your Life" featuring T. I. Many visuals and costumes were recreated or inspired by the film, including the Cheetah's club setting. In 2019, You Don't Nomi, a documentary re examining the film's legacy, was released.

Critics such as Jonathan Rosenbaum and J. Hoberman, as well as filmmakers Jim Jarmusch, Adam McKay and Jacques Rivette, In a 1998 interview, Rivette called it "one of the great American films of the last few years", though "very unpleasant: it's about surviving in a world populated by assholes, and that's Verhoeven's philosophy". Quentin Tarantino has stated that he enjoyed Showgirls, referring to it in 1996 as the "only other time in the last twenty years [that] a major studio made a full on, gigantic, big budget exploitation movie", comparing it to Mandingo. Showgirls has been compared to the 1950 film All About Eve as a remake, update, or rip off of that film. For Rosenbaum, "Showgirls has to be one of the most vitriolic allegories about Hollywood and selling out ever made". In Slants four out of four star review, Eric Henderson rejected the "so bad it's good" interpretation and lauds the film as "one of the most honest satires of recent years", stating that the film targets Hollywood's "morally bankrupt star is born tales." Henderson drew from a 2003 round table discussion in Film Quarterly in which others argued its merits. Noël Burch attests that the film "takes mass culture seriously, as a site of both fascination and struggle" and uses melodrama as "an excellent vehicle for social criticism." In the same round table, Chon Noriega suggests that the film has been misinterpreted and the satire overlooked because "the film lacks the usual coordinates and signposts for a critique of human vice and folly provided by sarcasm, irony, and caustic wit." Berkley's performance, which was heavily criticized as out of sync with the rest of the film's tone, was also reappraised. In 2015, Verhoeven said Berkley had unfairly taken on the bulk of criticism against the film and claimed responsibility for her performance. Jeffrey McHale, the director of You Don't Nomi, opined, "It's completely offensive. I think it's not really necessary [Verhoeven] used Molly's brutalisation as a way for Nomi to find herself and I think that's disgusting." with some contending that the film's many exaggerated aspects—its gaudy dance numbers, In 2020, The Guardian commented: "With Showgirls, the target was the American dream itself – and the dishonest 'star is born' narratives churned out to sustain it."