Opening Statement: As this is my first blog post ever, I hope to enlighten my readers on a short journey into my views! From this point on, I plan to post every Sunday for the most part, excluding any spur of the moment ideas I may have or a busy schedule which may restrict me from posting that week. Thank you and enjoy!
Wow. What can I say, this is my favorite film of 2018, and not just because I love Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga together, and not just because it's this intense love story...well yes, I do love it because of those reasons, but for me, A Star Is Born means so much more.(I must mention that I have not seen any of the earlier versions of this film, this post is about the 2018 version only).
Let us start from the beginning shall we? My family and I were planning to go see a movie one November night in 2018 and everyone wanted to go see, well you guessed it, A Star Is Born. Make that everyone but me. I don't know why, I just wasn't as excited as everyone else. I had nothing against it, nor did I think it would be bad, I just had little interest in it. As the movie began, I remember thinking "oh s**t" this seems good (excuse my French, but I'm just being honest and that's what I thought)! Seeing Cooper up there jamming to his music, and the awesome lighting techniques making the scene shine had me intrigued right away. Now I am sure many of you have seen the movie, and if you haven't yet, I'll try my best not to spoil too much-- but I can't make any promises.
From the opening scene, I was hooked, and when it came to an end, I did not even know what to do with myself. I didn't even cry like most of the audience. I was physically exhausted and in pain from this movie--not necessarily a bad thing, but I'll get to that later. It was so powerful and had such an impact on me that I couldn't leave my chair for a good 5 minutes after the ending. I had a plethora of emotions racing through my head: anger, anxiousness, frustration, confusion, happiness, sadness, a longing for love, and even some sort of relief because the entire movie is a roller coaster and although I did not want it to end the way it did by any means, it's hard not to consider that "Jack," Cooper's character, could finally be at peace. The rest of that night, I could not stop going through the film in my head. It was as if I was in the movie and personally knew these characters.
The next day, I woke up and realized something. For the past few years now, I have been slowly building my dreams and my career as a filmmaker/artist, and this movie was IT. By it, I mean that if I could explain to people why I want to make movies, and what sort of movies I want to make, all I'd have to do was 1. show them this movie and 2. at the end tell/ask them this (if they were heavily affected by this film as I was) - "You see how you feel right now, you see how much of an affect this film had on you? THAT is why I want to direct. That is why I'm doing this."
Now, this is not to say I want to make movies exactly like this, but rather to explain that I want the films I make to be as captivating and engaging for audiences as A Star Is Born was/is for me and many others. Even if I leave the audience with a more positive feeling at the end, I still want it to stay with them until the next day, just as this film had done for me.
It all made sense when I saw this film. My dreams of becoming a filmmaker, explained for me through my feelings for this movie. A few aspects I felt made it so great include an array of subtle choices that Bradley Cooper had made when directing this, which really made the ending even more overwhelming. I believe what separates this love story from others that have similar factors- love, sex, drugs, celebrities, trauma, death, etc. - is that the pacing of A Star I Born has much more "air," as I like to call it. There may be a more technical term for this, but "air" is my own way of describing it that makes sense to me. It is simply the openness of a scene, with little to no music, and many long periods of time spent on that one scene or action. This detail, I feel, really builds the love for the story that you don't realize is so ridiculously big until the end. Longer scenes, with no music, allows you to really tune in to every detail of the scene, every tiny sound, set piece, expression, etc., deeply connecting you with the characters and what is happening. These scenes also bring great anticipation for what is to come which is another important aspect of a powerful story.
Another subtle aspect that I picked up on, was that "I love you" is only said once throughout the whole film (there may have been another time, but I only picked up on this one instance, where Cooper makes it clear to the audience that those 3 words were said). The entire movie displays this epic love story through great imagery, creative dialogue, and long intimate scenes, truly bringing the saying "show don't tell" to life.
I could go on and on about everything I genuinely loved about this film and even some things that I didn't love so much, or that seemed awkward, but I'll stop here. If anyone would like to discuss this film even more, please feel free to message me!
The overwhelming and raw feelings that A Star Is Born conjures up within viewers, is exactly why I want to enter the movie business. This story may still be a fictional tale (as far as I know), with mostly unrealistic occurrences, but due to the way the story was told, the reactions are as true as can be. The emotions are very much real at the close of this film, and that, my friends, is why I want to make films. To cause people to feel things they didn't even know they could and to be overwhelmed by the power of an amazing story, just as I was after watching the 2018 version of A Star Is Born.
~Francesca Reviews
Disclaimer: All of my posts are based off of my own knowledge, opinion, and beliefs and this blog is only meant to be a platform to share those things with the world. I am always open to hear what you all have to say about the topics I write about, listening to many perspectives can only enhance my knowledge! Therefore, feel free to start a friendly conversation sharing your opinions! Thank you!
Photo Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517451/
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