Cleavage

This is a funny yet informative cultural history of cleavage, produced by the same gay British guys (Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey) who directed and produced "The Eyes of Tammy Faye." This documentary is a playful, yet at times, incisive, look at the body part that fascinates so many. It features lots of archive footage - like that of Jayne Mansfield, Anna Kournikova and Britney Spears - along with the commentary of academic and mainstream media "experts" on cleavage, like author Valerie Steele ("The Corset: A Cultural History"), the FHM magazine senior editor, and the marketing director of Hooters. If you enjoy cultural studies/anthropology or women's history, this documentary should be a worthwhile watch.

Just saw this on a DVD a friend had bought from the A&E website. And all I can say is ignore the incoherent review that says the Russ Meyer line was taken out of context--it wasn't (and the rest of that review is bewilderingly lame). In any case, this is a well-written, comprehensive, and enlightening look at breasts and their place in pop culture. The section about women athletes and breasts covers some topics that no one ever talks about, the bit about women who use their breasts at work contains some surprising revelations, and it's also interesting to learn how much cleavage has been involved in political scandals. Plus, the editing, interviews, and cinematography are all top notch. At two hours, this documentary might be a bit long, and Carmen Electra isn't going to put professional narrators like Liev Schreiber out of business, but this is definitely worth seeing.

The filmmakers are obviously not going by their guts: they don't point out a single element of the stupidity of this obsession (possibly they assume the viewer already knows most of the information, but it is so condescending one would think not.) Not a thing is said about the damage that is done to a person by the corsets or the side effects of surgery. Everything is hunky dorry, la de da, but almost totally unfunny. (Joan Rivers and Carmen Electra(narrator) are just annoying) The filmmakers even suck the humor out of a line from a Russ Meyers movie by taking it out of context! The alleged irony they try at doesn't work because it comes out of the interviewees themselves, which makes it considerably less. This isn't a documentary: it's an E! feature: i.e., almost worthless.

This show is the high point for all breast shows. It isn't a porno but you still get to view the ample assets of many famous women. I believe that there should most definitly be a Cleavage 2: The Return of the Push-up Bra. I think that most men (and a few women) out there would agree with me.