Plot
French Canadian director Denys Arcand pushes the boundaries of the mockumentary with Stardom, the tale of a fictional neophyte supermodel (Jessica Pare) told entirely through clips of her appearances on talk shows, television interviews, and documentaries. Originally titled 15 Moments, Stardom begins its portrait at a women's hockey game in the nether regions of Ontario, Canada. When the team's formidable teenage forward Tina (Pare) pulls her helmet off, letting her brunette tresses fly, a bystander snaps a photo, and Tina soon becomes the buzz at the country's hottest fashion houses. Her rise through the industry, however, is plagued by advances from older men with sundry motives: a smitten French photographer (Charles Berling), a smarmy entrepreneur (Dan Aykroyd), the Canadian Ambassador to the U.N. (Frank Langella), and a slick promoter (Thomas Gibson, the latter half of TV's Dharma and Greg). Stardom was the closing film at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time in over 50 years that a Canadian production was chosen for such an honor; it would go on to open the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival before its theatrical premiere. ~ Michael Hastings, RoviReview
More restrained, yet more caustic than the popular mockumentaries of Christopher Guest, the innovative Stardom risks flying over unsuspecting audiences' heads with its dry humor and barbed media criticism. Yet for all its vitriol and comic restraint, the film still manages to entertain and provoke. By co-opting the formal elements of infotainment, renegade writer/director Denys Arcand and cinematographer Guy Dufaux give their film an immediately recognizable visual rhythm; from gaudy talk-show debacles to steadicam sequences that recall the most annoying moments on MTV's The Real World and House of Style, Stardom's disparate formats all seem instantly familiar. How many celebrities' lives have we seen played out in just these sorts of tacky forums? As the time line accelerates and nouveau supermodel Tina Menzhal moves inexorably from obscurity to the A-list to pop culture's trash heap, the film achieves a sort of temporal poetry. Like a Behind the Music episode without the intrusive voice-over, Stardom dissects the cycle of celebrity build-up and decay with perfect acuity. The inverse of the loquacious hit man protagonist from the similarly themed Man Bites Dog, Tina is at once hopelessly omnipresent and utterly inarticulate -- a human being glorified in image but reduced to mute ubiquity. And because she's not a real celebrity, burdened with meaning, we're free to empathize with the indignity of it all. ~ Brian J. Dillard, RoviCast
- Jessica Paré - Tina Menzhal
- Dan Aykroyd - Barry Levine
- Charles Berling - Philippe Gascon
- Thomas Gibson - Renny Ohayon
- Frank Langella - Blaine de Castillon
Credit
Zoe Sakellaropoulo - Art Director, Jean Morin - Art Director, Deirdre Bowen - Casting, Lucie Robitaille - Casting, Philippe Carcassonne - Co-producer, Michel Robidas - Costume Designer, Daniel J. Webb - First Assistant Director, Charles Bertrand - First Assistant Director, Denys Arcand - Director, Isabelle Dedieu - Editor, Michele St-Arnaud - Location Manager, Daniel Louis - Line Producer, Francois Dompierre - Composer (Music Score), Micheline Trepanier - Makeup, Cecile Rigault - Makeup, Nathalie Trepanier - Makeup, Zoe Sakellaropoulo - Production Designer, Guy Dufaux - Cinematographer, Michel Chauvin - Production Manager, Robert Lantos - Producer, Denise Robert - Producer, Marcel Pothier - Sound/Sound Designer, Claude La Haye - Sound/Sound Designer, Noah Vivekanand Timan - Sound/Sound Designer, Callum Greene - Unit Production Manager, Anthony Katagas - Unit Production Manager, Gilles Perreault - Unit Production Manager, Denys Arcand - Screenwriter, Jacob Potashnik - Screenwriter, Brett Albright - First Assistant Camera, Marie-Josee Dupont - Production Coordinator, France Lachapelle - Script Supervisor, Buck Deachman - Second Assistant Director, François Daignault - Steadicam Operator, Takashi Seida - Still Photographer, Christian Biron - Assistant Location Manager, Catherine Lavoie - Assistant Makeup, Joan Patricia Parris - Assistant Makeup, Pierric Jouvante - Electrician, Carl Lessard - Graphic Design| Starcrossed (1985 Film), Starcom: Galactic Adventures (1987 Film) | |
| Stardust (1937 Film), Stardust (1921 Film) |
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