“Give Me Pity!” is overarchingly beautiful to look at, with this golden haze permeating throughout the special’s set making it feel like a dream in its best moments. When the distortions come in, that comfortable, welcoming atmosphere is warped and maimed into something sinister and altogether wrong. It’s a stunning visual for the ugly side of show business, and how it seems to creep up on you, ever-watchful and omnipotent in its hold on us all. Sooner or later, it’ll seep into your skin, and the visuals Kramer imposes on the audience are assaulting enough to make us feel like we’re vulnerable to it too, just watching.
By the end of the film, it feels like Sissy — and in turn, the audience — has been trapped in this place, a place where this television special goes on forever. The quest to make it goes on forever, playing on an infinite loop. This film is intentionally exhausting because it wants you to feel the way Sissy feels as the special concludes: chewed up, spit out, used, abused, martyred for something you thought could love you back. Everyone uses the artists, which is why the starlet doesn’t make it by the end. But she dived in headfirst willingly, and achieved what she set out to achieve, no matter the cost. Taking the ride with her was more than worth it, but whether or not she feels the same, we’ll never truly know. Ah, fame.
/Film Rating: 8.5 out of 10
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