Browsing through those $5.00 videos at the local CVS, I ran accross "Hi, Mom" (1970) which I'd been curious to see as not only is it a very early Brian DePalma film, it had an interesting cast including Jennifer Salt ("Soap"/"Play It Again Sam"), Gerrit Graham ("Phantom of the Paradise"/Dan Curtis's "The Love Letter"), a very young Robert DeNiro and our own Lara Parker. I'd read a few reviews so i was prepared for the dated style and "messages" of the film. The plot, if there is one, has Robert DeNiro as a young filmmaker trying to see "Peep Art" or amateur films he makes from filming the activity in the apartment building across from his.(Obviously, his main intent is to satisfy his voyeurism and make a buck off it.) Lara Parker and her family are one of the apartments he (briefly) films. Lara's appearence in the film is relatively short, aside from the window views, in her case very simple domestic life, we later see her at the camera shop where DeNiro is also a customer, but mostly hear her discuss the home movie camera. We later see her use it with her family, her real life sons play themselves, and she vanishes from the film after running into the very taciturn Gerrit in the elevator. This whole scene is shot from her POV as she is narrating her home movie. The most interesting thing is Lara's voice is unlike the Angelique voice or her voice now. She still has a soft Tennessee accent here. Of course, the few times she's in front of the camera, she's immediately recognizable.
I can't actually recommend the film. The scene that Lara's last appearence segues into is a very badly dated "Performance Art" or "Theatre of Reality" scene called "Be Black Baby" that is pretty hard to watch at times, not only because of the brutal confrontationalism, but that part of it is a viscious rape (fortunatlely not Lara!). Also, the DeNiro character commits an act of urban terrorism at the end that is also supposed to be laughed off, but's really too pointless and savage in the context of viewing the film today to be able to balance it with the satiric tome of the first third of the film. So be forwarned. But for $5.00 my curiousity was finally satisfied. Its now somewhat easliy found on DVD as well.
Michael
