Backstage (2005) - film review

Lucie, a typical 17-year-old girl, is obsessed with her pop idol, Lauren Waks.  How then should she react when, one evening, the pop star should walk into her living room and sing a song for her benefit?  Joy, shock, bewilderment – a whole tide of emotions hits her and she flees to her bedroom.  The publicity stunt over, Lauren leaves with her entourage of cameramen, sound technicians and personal minders, leaving Lucie confused and bereft.  The adolescent tracks the pop star to her hotel in Paris and manages to gain admission to her rooms.  At first, Lauren is hostile to this intrusion but as Lucie persists in getting to know her she relents and takes her under her wing.  Perhaps Lauren needs Lucie more than Lucie needs her...?

With its near-documentary realism and strikingly naturalistic performances, Backstage offers the most unsettling portrait of teenage obsession and celebrity life.  This is surely a film for our time, a time when the cult of the celebrity has never been more potent, nor more destructive.  With an almost visceral ruthlessness, Backstage shows us the tawdry reality that lies beneath this glam sham, the vacuous lives of those who are propelled to godlike statuses and the harm that can ensue, to all those who get caught up in this sea of senseless adulation and self-aggrandizement.

The film has its artistic strengths but it is also pretty damn heartless and is marred by some unfortunate plot contrivances towards the end.  Despite a threadbare narrative, the characters are convincingly portrayed by talented performers (such as Emmanuelle Seigner and Isild Le Besco), who give the film its cruel realism.  Yet it is hard to sympathise with the characters and the cold cinéma vérité approach adopted by director Emmanuelle Bercot distances the viewer from their predicament.  Backstage deals with a worthy subject and does make an impact, but is perhaps a little too earnest and lacking in humanity to be completely effective.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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