Street wise

>> Penelope Spheeris on The Decline of Western Civilization Part III

by MATTHEW HAYS

It's a good thing Penelope Spheeris has such an unusual name. If it were any more common, it would invite the suspicion that she is, in fact, two very different people.

But indeed, she's the same person behind two very different career paths. On the one hand, Spheeris has become an icon within punk, metal and indie music scenes, having made the cult 1983 movie Suburbia (aka The Wild Side) about alienated youth in L.A., as well as the hugely successful rockumentaries The Decline of Western Civilization and The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. On the other hand, Spheeris has a career path equally shocking in light of the first. After directing the Saturday Night Live sketch-cum-feature film Wayne's World, Spheeris got pegged as a director who could perfectly handle TV-to-big-screen crossovers. Thus she was also hired to direct The Beverly Hillbillies Movie and Little Rascals. Pretty straight-up fare for a director renowned for her edgy docs about underground scenes.

Now Montreal audiences finally have the chance to see Spheeris' latest documentary effort and third in her trilogy, The Decline of Western Civilization Part III. The most moving of the three, this chapter has Spheeris move away from focusing on the performers and looks at the punk subculture itself. Shot over a 13-month period, the film captures the underbelly of L.A.'s hardcore scene, with characters discussing their philosophies of life and why they're living on the street.

Future shock
"The music itself wasn't new anymore," says Spheeris from her L.A. home. "There was this breed of humans called gutter punks and I thought I must document their lives. Unfortunately, I see this scene as growing and pervasive. I think it's a wave of the future."

For Spheeris, the switch back to the Decline series was a welcome break from the Hollywood TV vehicles which had become her bread and butter. "I realized at one point that I wasn't put on this earth to make Beverly Hillbillies movies. That doesn't mean I'm not thankful for that work--I've got a nice house in L.A., which I call the house that Jed built. But I'm much happier doing my documentary work."

At times, Spheeris' unblinking gaze into the lives of the youth in Decline III is gruelling to experience. Many of the people interviewed, with monikers like Hamburger, Troll, Eyeball, Squid and Why-Me?, are devoid of any hope for the future, and two of the subjects of the film died during its making.

Trusting Leeza?
While watching Decline III, it's clear Spheeris had the complete trust of her subjects, a tricky task for documentarians. "Yeah, I was on the same cosmic orbit. But they knew me and my work. They knew Suburbia upwards and backwards. And one of them had a poster for one of my movies up on their wall.

"I really noticed how much trust they had in me when we were promoting the film in L.A. We went on The Leeza Gibbons Show. I took Leeza to one of the squats they were living in. Some of her crew ended up with body lice. When we went on set the kids were very uncooperative. She was just so different, I think they felt the situation was bound to be exploitative. I was trying to calm them down. One of them knocked a hole in the wall of the bathroom in the studio. It was a real collision of worlds."

Spheeris says the idea of keeping emotional distance from the people you're profiling on film is impossible. In fact, she ended up romantically involved with one of the youth seen in the film. The director "fell very much in love" with one man, but the relationship has just ended, due in large part to his chronic psychiatric problems.

Now Spheeris is working on her next doc, The OzzFest, based on the Ozzy Osbourne/Van Halen rock concert tour. "Whether mainstream or independent, this is a tough business," she contends. "You may as well be doing stuff you like doing." :

The Decline of Western Civilization Part III opens Saturday, January 15 at the Cinema du Parc. See repertory listings for showtimes