Posts Tagged ‘old Hollywood’

Short Take: An homage to Hollywood that comments on the contemporary film business by looking back to an earlier time.

Director: Michel Hazanavicius

Screenwriter: Michel Hazanavicius

Cast: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman

Length: 1 hour 40 minutes

Synopsis:It’s 1927 and George Valentin (Dujardin) is a Hollywood silent film actor at the height of his career. At the premiere of his newest film, he bumps into a young, aspiring actress named Peppy Miller (Bejo) and poses for pictures with her. They meet again when she appears as an extra in his next film and he encourages the studio-head, Al Zimmer (Goodman), to use her in more films. Zimmer soon decides to exclusively produce sound films and chooses Peppy as one of his new stars. He offers George the chance to transition as well, but George rejects the new technology and strikes off on his own to make his own great silent. When George’s film fails and the stock market crash leaves him broke, he is forced to face the reality that his career is over. Peppy, on the other hand, becomes a great star and though their lives are on divergent paths, she and George still feel a connection. Read the rest of this entry »

Gossip magazines like this Photoplay have been around since the dawn of the film industry, but why are they so popular?

For as long as I can remember I have been enormously bewildered as to why so many people find gossip publications like The Inquirer, People Magazine, Star Magazine, and US Weekly so appealing. Beyond having a lack of interest in fashion I fail to recognize the purpose behind holding celebrities’ figures and overall looks under a microscope; praising one on a given week and criticizing them the next. And aside from all of this I also fall short of understanding the undying interest in celebrities’ social and romantic lives. This is not all to say that I consider celebrities uninteresting, quite the contrary, however the sex life of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt is not anywhere near the top million interests I have in the film industry and the people who are part of it.

But why is this? Why do so many people follow the romantic storylines of celebrities’ lives? All judgments aside, because for many the interest is indeed a guilty and harmless pleasure, the answers could lie in the history of the film industry – particularly the history of the “star system.” Read the rest of this entry »