VOX LUX
US, 2018, 114 minutes, Colour.
Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Raffey Cassidy, Stacey Martin, Jennifer Ehle, Christopher Abbott, narrated by Willem Dafoe.
Directed by Brady Corbet.
Unless you are a pop-concert aficionado, you may need some time to settle down after seeing Vox Lux. (Fans will be quiet revved up by the quite spectacular finale and may not want to settle down at all.) In fact, the final credits are in silence, so that is settling.
This is quite a strange film, a different kind of star is born. It opens with some home videos showing the talent of Celeste as a little girl, with a voiceover narrator, Willem Dafoe. That seems rather nice, even cute. Then the title comes on screen, Prologue 1999. At first night and darkness, cars on the road, a solitary walker – then a transition to music class after the new year’s break, a genial teacher, eager students – and then a shocking experience in the school (memories of the killings at Columbine that year). It has a deep effect on Celeste who was in the class, knew the boy, is wounded, spinal difficulties.
Celeste is close to her sister, Eleanor, and in hospital they spend time creating a song, lyrics and music, to commemorate those who have died. They perform in a candlelight memorial. So far, so American, normal and abnormal.
The abnormality will tend to pervade the rest of Celeste’s story.
There are two chapters and a finale. The first chapter is called Genesis and is set in 2000-2001, New York City and the experience of 9/11. The second chapter is set in 2017, called Regenesis. The focus is on Celeste and her career which takes off more spectacularly than anticipated. Celeste is fourteen.
We are introduced to her sometimes snarling manager (Jude Law) and her rather smarmy agent (Jennifer Ehle). Appearances are managed. Celeste is able to manage dance lessons despite her spine. More music, trips to Sweden, meeting a local pop star (with consequences) – there is a certain fascination in how a star is born and how a star is created and a star is moulded.
The director of this film is actor Brady Corbet (Mysterious Skin) whose other directed film was the often eerie Childhood of a Leader, again the portrait of a young disturbed child and his growing into a fascist leader. In Vox Lux, we finish with Celeste at 31, something of a wreck of a woman, emotional and beyond, feuding with her sister, relying on her manager and her agent, imposing her erratic, sometimes collapsing, sometimes stage triumphant on her daughter.
While the portrait of Celeste is intriguing, it is the casting which contributes considerable to the intrigue. The teenage Celeste is played with initial innocence, increasing shrewdness, ambition-fulfilment by British actress, Raffey Cassidy. But, not only does she play the young Celeste, she also plays Celeste’s daughter, Albertine. She is most persuasive in both roles.
Natalie ortman is the older Celeste, a bold, sometimes brazen, performance, pitiable at one moment, repellent the next. It is a tour-de-force performance, very different from other Natalie Portman performances. And, in the glamour and glitz of the Finale, she is the supreme embodiment of the singer, dancer, performer (beyond-Madonna, for example).
At times, Corbet directs sequences of his films like installation pieces. At other times, he is realistic. In the Finale,he goes for broke in the lavish concert style.
It’s not exactly a recognised word, but at the end of the film it occurred to this reviewer, ‘bizarrity’.
1. The title? The songs? The story of a career?
2. The work of the director, limited films, his directing perspective? Some of the sequences like installations? His use of angles and editing? The performances?
3. The US in the 1980s, the home movies, the focus on Celeste and her family, her talent? The voice-over and the information about her and her subsequent life? The prologue in 1999, the school, the killings, the memorial? 2000-2001, Celeste as a celebrity, her manager and the agents? 9/11? Celeste and her life and tragedies? Sweden, the performer, her relationship with him? 2017, performances, hotels, meetings and diners? The staging of the finale, the concert, spectacular? The scope of the story?
4. The musical score, the songs and their range, the same songs after the massacre, Celeste and her style of song, writing the lyrics? Promotion, performance, recording?
5. The role of the voice-over, Willem Dafoe, his tone, the information, perspectives?
6. The home movies, Celeste as a little girl, her talent?
7. The prologue, opening in darkness, the roads, the lights, the sky? The person walking on the roads? The contrast with the music class, the students happy at returning, the music teacher and her enthusiasm?: Coming into the room, his introduction, shooting the teacher? His attitude towards Celeste, her standing at the back, the shooting of the students, the shooting and her injury? His killing himself? The police arriving on the scene? Celeste in hospital, the spinal injury?
8. The effect of the shooting, Celeste and Ellie, composing the song, the lyrics? It’s being used as the theme at the candlelight memorial? The effect? The promotion of the song, the response throughout the US, popularity? Celeste becoming an artist, icon?
9. The chapter called Genesis: Celeste and her physical disabilities, the performance by Raffi Cassidy as the young Celeste? Ellie, the collaboration, the beginnings of her career, at her age, the sensibilities, and a shrewd teenager? The agent, his gross style, giving advice, swearing? The meeting with Josie, her smooth manner, the agent reacting against her? Celeste going to the dance training, succeeding despite the injury? The arrangements, success, the effect of 9/11, Celeste and her career associated with tragedy? Going to Sweden, her success, the singing, the sexual relationship, Celeste on her way?
10. The chapter called Re-Genesis? 2017, the transition from 911 to 2017 the Trump era? The talk about the past disaster and its effect on Celeste’s career? The critique? The audience discovering her daughter, Raffi Cassidy and her performances Albertine? The relationship between mother and daughter, her knowing her father, Celeste and the picking up of her career?
11. Celeste in her 30s, the performance by Natalie Portman, her appearance, and manner of speaking, brusque, her manners? The moods? The antagonism towards her sister? Her motivations? The accusations, the role of her manager, liaison with him? Josie and her continuing with PR, the preparation for the concert? The drugs with the manager? Fit for the performance or not?
12. Albertine and her father, knowledge of her mother’s life and career, the discussions, the meal, Celeste hiding the winding, insulting the manager who asked for a photo? No apology? The effect on Albertine?
13. Her going on stage, the buildup to the finale, the spectacle and the staging, costumes, lighting, dancing, singing? The audience? Exhilaration and the audience and her sister, the manager, Josie?
14. Celeste and the United States and celebrities, but becoming something of a secular icon, secular goddess?
15. Critics and audience, and on the film – and asking whether it was pro-US or anti-US?
