As it’s critiquing itself, it’s also shoring up theĪudience’s fascination with how it works.”
Humanity.’ But really that movie is obviously also a product of As though the point of view of the movie is with theĪudience, being like, ‘Look at this horrible place, and what it does to Self-critical, as though they’re being made by somebody outside of Hollywood makes these movies, like A Star Is Born, that are supposedly “It’s Hollywood’s favorite structured myth about itself. The classic-Hollywood podcast You Must Remember This and author of theįorthcoming book Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s This mythology that there’s only so much space in the universe of stars,Īnd for one to ascend, one has to fall,” says Karina Longworth, host of So why and how has it endured? “Hollywood people buy into Limitless, likes and re-tweets a bottomless well for quenching our Internet celebrity, when the potential venues for attaining renown seem What each version of this story has in common is the notion that fame isĪ finite resource, an idea that seems somewhat outmoded in the era of Navel-a selling point for the film then and now-but I can’t recall a Kristofferson’s shirt is rarely buttoned above the Streisand’s actualįame so overpowers her leading man that it’s a little hard to tell whatĮxactly is happening to Kristofferson’s character in between her manyīacklit close-ups. Meta twist, the moviemaking mimics the story line. The 1976 version substitutes rock ‘n’ roll and cocaine, and in a In the first two films, the male lead is broken by the corruptĪnd soulless new business of moviemaking, and by his personal demon ofīooze. Tour through the anxieties, social dynamics, and vices of Hollywood in Watching any telling of A Star Is Born is like taking a Starline bus Starts the rift between them, not her success.” With, and the kind of music she wanted to create. Upset that she’s not being true to her voice, and what he fell in love Is, he doesn’t resent her success whatsoever,” Gerber said. “The difference between Jack and the other guys But the 2018Įdition will present a new twist in the gender dynamics, according to So beloved-romance, music, a peek behind the curtain, and a femaleĬharacter with a devastating inner conflict to play out. The fable will feature all the elements that have made its predecessors This October, a new A Star Is Born will arrive, co-written and directedīy Bradley Cooper, who also stars as Jackson Maine, a hard-drinkingĬountry musician who falls in love with a promising young singer playedīy Lady Gaga, in the pop star’s first major movie role.
Her elevation is his humiliation, and the cruelty Himself in front of her Malibu beach house-or fatally crashes hisįerrari in the desert. Lead boosts the career of his struggling romantic interest, getsĮclipsed, staggers drunkenly onstage during her award speech, and drowns Though the wardrobeĬhanges-and so does the hair-the story remains the same: The male Kristofferson as the arena rocker who uplifts her. It returnedĪgain in 1976 with Barbra Streisand as a nightclub singer and Kris Judy Garland as the ingénue and James Mason as her guide. In 1954 the story found new life as a musical, with To date, there have been three versions of A Star Is Born,beginning in 1937 with Janet Gaynor as aspiring actress Esther BlodgettĪnd Fredric March as fading movie star Norman Maine, who helps launchĮsther’s career. Zero-sum game, in which stardom comes only at the expense of someoneĮlse, that the movie industry likes to retell the tale every generation There is a myth so central to Hollywood’s conception of fame as a