Screenings index

Stardom

dir. Denys Arcand / Canada, France 2000 / 100’

subtitles: Polish and English

Cinema of Canada All That She Wants, Before Tomorrow, Carcasses, Edison & Leo, Fig Trees, Imitations of Life, Life without Death, Lost Song, Polytechnique, Pontypool, Stardom, The Corporation, The Fast Runner, The Necessities of Life, The Tracey’s Fragments, 97 Percent True, Barber Gull Rub, Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight, Manuelle Labor Section index

Cast

Jessica Paré, Charles Berling, Dan Aykroyd, Frank Langella,Robert Lepage, Victoria Snow, Jessica Mackenzie, Macha Grenon

Film description

Arcand's critically underrated satire on the construction of stardom chronicles the rags-to-riches story of a small-town girl who is 'discovered' by a local photographer and is suddenly catapulted into the glamorous jet-setting world of professional modeling. Moving to Montreal to Paris to New York, the strikingly beautiful Tina is pursued an obsessed restaurateur, her ex-fashion photographer and lover, as well as a senior level Canadian diplomat. As her life becomes exposed by tabloid television shows, celebrity stalkers and even intellectual panel discussions, girl life is also being videographed by documentary filmmaker (Robert Lepage). This is a narrative constructed almost entirely out of media reports about main character's life. While a satirical detonation of a society consumed by celebrity and a culture defined by superficiality, Stardom also poses serious questions about how knowledge itself is constructed in a technologically mediated world.

Tom McSorley