STARDOM (2000) / ** 1/2
Directed by Denys Arcand. Screenplay by Arcand and Jacob Potashnik. Starring Jessica Pare, Dan Aykroyd, Charles Berling. Running time: 100 minutes. This film is not yet rated by the MFCB. Reviewed on January 24th, 2001.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
As moviegoers, there is a temptation to believe that we understand more about the actors and actresses than we really do. All too often, fans come to think that they know how the stars behave off-screen, when in fact they're merely extrapolating from the performers' on-screen personas. Natalie Portman, for example, stirred up a minor controversy last year when she dared to suggest that those "Star Wars" aficionados who would approach her thinking they could automatically be friends had the wrong idea.
Denys Arcand's new film "Stardom" takes this cult of celebrity as its inspiration. It's a movie about how stars are as much manufactured as they are born -- how the way a person appears on camera may not only be completely different from the way they really are, but even different from the way they want to be seen. In particular, Arcand examines the rise from obscurity of a model -- because, after all, what better embodies the notion of packaging over personality better than modelling, a career which is all about grooming your appearance, and very little else? In a scathing lampoon of the industry, "Stardom" depicts its inherent superficiality by examining the way that true identity is not only glossed over but, in fact, is virtually quashed.
Tina Menzhal (Jessica Pare) is a small-town hockey player in Cornwall, Ontario, who happens to be captured in a nationally-distributed photograph. Tina's alluring, enigmatic (but entirely accidental) pose captures the attention of fashion photographer Philippe Gascon (Charles Berling) and soon her star begins to rise on the Canadian modelling scene. But fame is a fleeting thing, and Tina quickly finds her stock dropping, particularly after a disastrous attempt to give her face international recognition by working in Paris.
Just when it seems Tina's career is on the verge of fizzling as quickly as it came about, though, she has the good fortune to sign on with a powerful agent (Thomas Gibson from TV's "Dharma & Greg" in a delightfully subdued performance). Soon, Tina is a household name and a tabloid fixture -- especially as she finds herself the object of affection of various powerful men, including Gascon, restauranteur Barry Levine (Dan Aykroyd), and Canadian ambassador Blaine de Castillon (Frank Langella). As her fame grows, Tina's life starts careening perilously out of control.
The most striking feature of "Stardom" is Arcand's decision to relay his story about the medium through the medium: virtually every scene is cast in the form of a TV interview or documentary segment or something similar. En route, Arcand takes the opportunity to satirise such media stalwarts as Oprah Winfrey and Jerry Springer, and other programmes which use appearance and formula as a substitute for genuine content. Some of these are successful parodies, some less so. For instance, a spoof of MuchMusic (Canada's MTV counterpart) is manic and frenzied when programming on the real television station is laid back and relaxed; a takeoff on MuchMusic is not necessarily unwarranted, but Arcand adopts entirely the wrong approach.
Still, this narrative technique works well for a time. It allows us to see Tina's development in almost exactly the same way as her fans, with only an occasional glimpse behind the curtain. However, as the film wears on, the device becomes cumbersome, forcing Arcand to go to more laborious lengths to maintain the conceit. In particular, he eventually resorts to using scenes from a documentary being made about Tina by an eccentric filmmaker (Robert Lepage). In small measures, this would not have seemed so awkward, but because Arcand comes to rely on the "documentary" increasingly in the latter half of the movie, it begins strain disbelief. Its status as nothing more than a storytelling artifice becomes transparent.
Similarly, Arcand's entire parody of the fashion and television industries starts off fresh, but gradually loses steam as he fails to find much new to say. "Stardom" is amusing and intelligent enough, but has little insight not already imparted by numerous other treatises on the trade. It loses its way as Arcand getting caught up in the absurdities of his storyline.
Fortunately, "Stardom" does possess a fine cast to ease the way past its rougher segments. Jessica Pare, in her first major film, does a fine job as Tina. It might appear at first that Pare has little work to do, given that the whole point of her character is that she is a media-molded cipher whose personality extends no further than this month's magazine cover. But Pare doesn't forget that there is a real person beneath the glitter and lipstick, even if Tina's depths are never fully plumbed. One running gag is that, whenever Tina tries to offer her own opinions or say something intelligent, she gets cut off mid-sentence, so instead she eventually resorts to speaking only in the sort of meaningless sound bites that too many reporters love. But before this happens, Pare effectively communicates the frustration -- more accurately, perhaps, the disappointment -- Tina feels at not being allowed to be more than just a model. It raises the question of how her time in the spotlight would have gone had she not been automatically pigeonholed as a mindless camera drone.
Also excellent is Dan Aykroyd as Tina's erstwhile paramour, Barry. Barry starts the film as every bit as much the media whore as Tina. But once he gets sucked into her orbit, his own fifteen minutes of fame quickly begin to wear out, until the only thing saving him from obscurity is his relationship with Tina. Aykroyd's degeneration from a savvy smooth-talker to a desperate, ranting lunatic is "Stardom"'s most fascinating story arc.
But in too many other respects, "Stardom" is just not very satisfying. It is not a bad film by any means, and certainly has a lot to recommend it, but it sets its sights high and misses the target by a fair margin. Ironically, its lack of true substance means that it suffers from the very deficiency it seeks to criticise.
Copyright © 2001 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies/Stardom.html
_______________________________________________________________________ / Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \ | shannon@mun.ca | are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde | \___________________________|__________________________________________/ | Popcorn Gallery Movie Reviews www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | | Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) /drwho.html |
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