Shampoo

Washes Out

WARREN BEATTY DISCUSSES HIS NEW FILM

by R. MORGAN ELLIS

George loves women, nothing very unusual. However, George, in three days, makes love to a mother (Lee Grant) and her daughter (Carrie Fisher), attends to his steady girl friend (Goldie Hawn), and resparks a romance with an ex (Julie Christie), who is the mistress of the aforementioned mother's wealthy husband (Jack Warden) and best friend of his steady girl. Certainly a lethal collection of amours, but this is not too remarkable for George Suffers (?) from an unsublimated sex drive. The one catch with George and a continuing joke throughout the film is that George is a hairdresser.

Shampoo is a film that is dividing audiences and critics into two factions, those who enjoy the film immensely and those who detest the film immensely. In addition to starring as the macho hairdresser, Warren Beatty has produced and co-authored this picture. It is truly Beatty's baby.

Situated in Beverly Hills, Shampoo's three days of action fall around election day, 1968. At this time, the volatile circle of lovers explodes, leaving George in the debris of broken relationships.

Recently, Warren Beatty was in San Francisco to discuss with the press his views on Shampoo. Asked about when he started working on it, Mr. Beatty replied, "I've been working on it since about 1968, actually before that, 1967. I had always wanted to do a story about a compulsive Don Juan. One that didn't necessarily say that Don Juanism is a manifestation of misogynistic feelings or latent homosexuality. A film that didn't take the old classical Freudian, puritanical dogma that hypersexuality was symptomatic of hatred."

Questioned why he chose the character of a hairdresser and if that was to

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destroy another myth, Mr. Beatty answered, "Myth about homosexuality of hairdressers? I don't think that is a myth anymore. I don't think that anybody thinks that hairdressers are gay anymore, but maybe back then in '68 there was more of a feeling that they were, Hairdressers are always with women; he touches them and if the hairdresser loves women, the woman is in a position of a certain amount of vulnerability. He sees her with her hair down. Also, it seems like a nice avenue to certain basic narcissism that seems to be prevalent in southern California and more specifically

Beverly Hills."

I asked Beatty if he didn't think an obstetrician would have been equally as appropriate. "Obstetrician is not a bad idea, which, believe me, was not unthought of. But a hairdresser offers something more unreal about the cosmetics of people, prettifying something."

I asked him why he had not produced a film since the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde. "Laziness, indulgence, and I took a long time out of movies completely for political work. There are only a few subjects I feel strongly enough to put that kind of energy into. I've been working with