On Tour, Mathieu Amalric's recent film about middle-aged, overweight American strippers performing at provincial clubs in French ports, was a genuine slice of old-fashioned burlesque, that low form of unabashedly vulgar entertainment for urban working-class audiences that flourished in the States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its recent revival as "the new burlesque" is altogether smarter and generally aimed at trendier audiences, and the movie Burlesque features the form thought acceptable on peak-time TV of The X Factor variety that might be called family raunch. The bumps and grinds are performed by dancers seemingly trained in ballet schools, and the result is as domesticated as Mrs Slocombe's pussy.
The Los Angeles Sunset Strip theatre run by Cher in Burlesque is a thoroughly respectable place. The girls never so much as reveal a nipple on stage or off, and the boys, who wear bowler hats to remind us of the "divine decadence" of Cabaret, constitute one big happy family. Into this warm ambience comes ambitious small-town orphan Ali (Christina Aguilera, who recently strutted her stuff on British TV), and she's immediately taken in hand by the motherly Cher, counselled by the club's costumier (Stanley Tucci reprising his gay confidant from The Devil Wears Prada), and protected by a handsome musician who works at the bar. She wants nothing more than to gyrate her butt, thrust out her bosom, proffer her crotch, and kick up her fishnet-stockinged legs, all in the name of female empowerment. Her great innovation is singing with her own voice rather than miming to discs. Don't let your daughters see it.
Gwen Stefani Sunny Mabrey Karolína Kurková Laura Harring Naomi Watts
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