This IP may be unfamiliar to everyone, but for Americans this is a popular legend that spans generations, and it is "The Birth of a Star".
"The Birth of a Star" is one of Warner's treasures, as early as 1937, there have been the first generation of works, by 1954 there was a second generation, in 1976 the third generation, to this year is the fourth generation.
The latest "A Star Is Born" can be described as ill-fated, warner once wanted to invest heavily in this film, when he wanted to find Director Clint Stwood, because the narrative structure of the film has some western tragedy core, but the last to find Bradley. Cooper as director.
And the male protagonist initially considered Tom. Cruise, Kristen Bell, Xiao Li and other super-first-line Hollywood superstars to play, and finally was Bradley. Cooper took down the male protagonist, and the female protagonist wanted to find Beyoncé, although it was not negotiated, but it became the same well-known lady gaga. Of course, Lady Gaga also lived up to expectations, and her performance and singing became the only guarantee that the film deserved to hit the Oscars.
The first two generations of "The Birth of a Star" set the story in Hollywood, telling how to tap the star-making process of film and television stars, and the last two generations of works are placed on how to tap singers with musical talent.
Each "The Birth of a Star" attracted the attention of people at that time, because the story of star-making in the film must have invited the most brilliant stars at that time to interpret this movie.
The main plot of "The Birth of a Star" is very straightforward, the male protagonist Jack is a popular singer in country rock but declining, with drug addiction and alcoholism, hearing loss due to not wearing earplugs for a long time when singing, and a paranoid personality, but it doesn't matter, who calls him a lonely artist.
Jack's music career was so successful but depressed that one day Jack went to a small bar to drink heavily, accidentally found a female singer with great musical talent, Ellie, and the two fell in love at first sight and talked about music for one night, and improvised a song at the same time.
Jack immediately invited Ellie to his next concert guest, and the two continued to motivate each other musically, and Ellie had more opportunities to become famous, and he was out of control, more than ten times more popular than Jack, and was nominated and won a Grammy Award.
Jack, on the other hand, took a sharp turn in his musical career, and the two had very different musical statuses at first and at the end, but the disparity was just the opposite. In the end, music and love dissolve the joy and sorrow of the two, and also achieve or annihilate the lovers.
At present, the reputation of "The Birth of a Star" in Western countries can be described as explosive, and it has been said that it is good, some because of music praise, some because of the story moved, and more because of lady gaga's appearance and burst full scores.
But the film once again staged a cultural aesthetic isolation, just like "Black Panther", the United States and Western countries gave praise one by one, but at home, they felt like a film. "The Birth of a Star" also has the problem of cultural aesthetic isolation.
In fact, this is easy to understand, the film has a length of 135 minutes, in these two hours of film time, the first time to pick up the guide tube Bradley. Cooper can't be perfect, and in the second act of the film, the main narrative of the film is a bit disoriented, and the plot progression is a bit boring.
But the ultimate reason why the film caused the aesthetic error between China and the West is that "The Birth of a Star" was made for Americans to see, talking about the American music industry and talking about the feelings in the hearts of Americans.
The songs in the film, the mental journey of the characters, if you do not have an understanding of the plight of artists in American music culture, or do not understand the cruel survival of the fittest in the American entertainment industry, it is difficult to set the male protagonist in the film, and the female protagonist insists on being moved by her own posture.
"The Birth of a Star" should not be a problem to be shortlisted for the Oscars, and the Oscars are plainly awarded to American films rather than the world, so if you think that "The Birth of a Star" is a bad film, maybe you have not seen the diversity of the film and the taste of it.
——Spoilers started——
The film is mainly divided into three segments, from The perspective of Ailey, that is, before Ailey became famous, The process of Ailey's fame, and after Ailey became famous.
From Jack's point of view, it is Jack who is just red, Jack is getting down, and Jack is in a slump.
The two meet at their best, Jack needs to find a breakthrough in musical innovation, and Ellie longs for a piece of the sky of his musical dreams. So when they met, they fell in love and knew each other, reveling in the 12 notes of the music.
So I thought of "Philharmonic City", although the story and background are different, but the male and female protagonists in "Philharmonic City" also embraced each other when the two needed warmth the most, encouraging each other to pursue their dreams, but in the end, the two because of the success or failure of their respective careers, as well as the struggle and compromise between reality and dreams, so that the two who originally loved each other and have been deeply in love, but finally failed to have a happy ending.
I admit that when watching "A Star Is Born", I think Jack is a bit of a work, obviously the two are in love, Jack personally praised Ellie, and achieved beauty, but Jack wanted to make unreasonable trouble again and again, hurt Ellie and Ellie's career, hurt his brother who has been taking care of him (also his agent), which made people feel a little unreasonable.
But in fact, Jack's mental journey alludes to the helplessness and sighs of old-school singers in the modern music environment of the entire American industry.
This is expressed at the beginning of the film, when Jack and Ellie are at the bar, Jack is asked for a group photo by the so-called other person, whose purpose is not idolatry, but because of the person's private unreasonable request. This also implies that Jack's dedication to music in exchange for others treating themselves as a secondary consumer product in the fast food era, and finally after Jack committed suicide, everyone began to reminisce about his music, and satirized that this era really did not know how to cherish the people who dedicated their lives to music.
The lyrics in jack's song "maybe it's time" in the film are a good interpretation of Jack's sunset music road:
maybe it's time to let the old ways die Maybe it's time for the old school to die it takes a lot to change a man It takes a lot to change a man hell, it takes a lot to try Hell, it takes a lot to try
Most of us see that Jack does not know how to cherish the people around him, but if you look at it from the perspective of music, Jack's life is given to music first, in the belief in music, Jack gave everything, so he also used this musical belief to infect Ailey and let Aili take the first step in his music career.
Jack originally excavated Ellie, but also wanted to break through the bottleneck of his own music, the two of them during the joint performance, wiped out a lot of musical sparks, these sparks made Ellie a star, but did not let Jack get the expected success.
Such a gap caught guard, and here it is not possible to simply use jealousy to understand Jack's heart, but Jack's musical belief is shattered by the unforgiving reality, making him more lost on the road of music.
Jack's hearing in the film reflects this very well, Jack's hearing problems herald the beginning of his musical demise, the more he wants to make his own music, the more his hearing will be damaged.
When Jack saw that Ailey's music career was becoming more and more successful, I believe Jack must be relieved and happy, but looking back at his music, Jack relied more on drugs and alcoholism, and from my hypnosis to fill the huge abyss in his heart, but this filling will invisibly hurt the people around him.
So Jack for Ellie, for all the people around him who love him, he has to try, he has to go to the alcohol rehab center, trying to become the person who everyone thinks of to regain strength, but in the end he finds that he has no cure, this spiritual dilemma, is the real music environment to Bring Jack, not Jack does not want to redeem himself, so Jack chose to end his life in order to better protect Ellie.
Jack's death is the controversial point of the film, and many people do not understand and complain, and some people express sympathy and empathy.
Jack's death is to satirize the old-school singer with the original intention of music into the entertainment circle, but was ruthlessly abandoned by the entertainment industry in one iteration after another, which is the helplessness and law of reality, and it is also the heaviest blow to the old-school singer, so Jack uses death to maintain his original intention for the music, and Jack also ends his life form to protect Eli's musical road.
Lady Gaga starred in "The Birth of a Star", which is undoubtedly the biggest attraction of the film, and it is also the almost true appearance of Lady Gaga.
In Lady Gaga's documentary "Gaga: Five Feet Two Inches", Gaga mentioned why she was so exaggerated and horrified when she first debuted, because she wanted to use such a look to resist the label's packaging of her, gaga used such an image to want to be herself in the music circle and even the entertainment industry.
So gaga, after years of going around, is now back to the normal image of a musician, and really keeps its own posture in music to interpret music.
The same is true of Ellie in "A Star Is Born", who rebels under the packaging of her agent, who does not need extra dance partners, does not dye her hair color that she does not like, or even abandons the European tour to protect Jack who is wounded inside.
Although Aili has a successful career and the road to music has been soaring, he is still resisting many temptations and bad habits in this industry, and has been trying to maintain his original intention.
Like Gaga's "Always Remember Us This Way" in the film, translated into lyrics, it is "always remember how we look young". They were in their youngest state, in love with each other, and together they made a lot of perfect music.
So the high-level place of this film is not the clichéd love story between Jack and Ellie, but the discussion between dreams and reality, love and career, being yourself and being lost.
"The Birth of a Star" has been remade for the fourth time, digging out these hidden problems in the current industry in the United States, although it is the old wine for the new, but this new movie is very suitable for the times, a current music era in the United States.
This can also be seen from the side, why the "Birth of a Star" IP, although born in 1937, is still remaking, and more than once, because this is the eternal regret of the American music industry, that is, there are always stars born, there are always stars falling, cruel industry update iterations, in exchange for the music industry and even Vanity Fair in front of the world's attention. Only in this way can we continue to hear more updated and different music.
So as long as this eternal problem exists, "The Birth of a Star" will continue to be born, and there will be "The Birth of a Star" of that era in the future.