CINEMA-USA: ‘Celebrity’ Shows Woody Allen’s Sour View of Stardom

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Nov 30 1998 (IPS) - Leonardo DiCaprio is a spoiled actor who trashes his hotel room and abuses women; Winona Ryder is a wilful actress who cannot be tied down; models are enticing but ultimately concerned about their image.

All this might sound like the gossip from any issue of a weekly celebrity tabloid, but it’s actually the synopsis of several of the plot threads of Woody Allen’s scattershot new movie ‘Celebrity’.

Writer-director Allen, of course, is a celebrity himself – one with enough power among the movie elite that he can coax heart throbs like DiCaprio and stars like Ryder and Melanie Griffith to turn in performances that wryly mock their images.

‘Celebrity’, however, indicates that Allen’s sour view of the star-making process is both trite and smug and the film does little to shed light on the issue of fame in the United States other than to indicate that it is largely undeserved.

From Griffith’s randy actress to DiCaprio’s brat, stars seem like a pampered group, unable to comprehend ordinary life. But the film’s protagonist – a journalist played by actor Kenneth Branagh (in perhaps the most annoying Woody Allen impersonation ever delivered) is no better – abandoning several women over the course of the film in his own solipsistic search for happiness.

Nor can Branagh find happiness, either with a sexy supermodel who needs herbal allergy cures (Charlize Theron), a caring book publisher who is driven to destroy his novel-in-progress (Famke Janssen) or a young aspiring actress (Ryder). Given his Allen-like mannerisms and constant griping, one wonders what any of the women see in him anyway.

The journalist’s travails contrast with the rise of his ex- wife, played by Judy Davis, who herself achieves celebrity status once she abandons teaching and becomes a television host. Davis, in a shrill and neurotic performance, comes to the realisation that she is happier in the shallow world of fame than in her previous, hard-working life.

Woody Allen seems bitter and depressed about ‘Celebrity’ and, to a certain extent, who can blame him? As one of the most respected independent filmmakers in the United States he has been a target for tabloid rumours ever since he abandoned his live-in companion, actress Mia Farrow, for her adopted daughter – Soon-Yi Farrow Previn.

For the past several years, Allen has been blasted with a wide range of complaints: that he chased a younger woman, that he is a misogynist, that he is cold and uncaring. Remarkably, ‘Celebrity’ – like his previous film ‘Deconstructing Harry’ – rejects any attempt to soften Allen’s image, reveling instead in a sour view of most human relationships.

Nor is the film likely to improve Allen’s record among women, with the film – which opened nationally last week – already drawing ire for its view of sexually-available women pursuing Branagh and its repeated references to oral sex. Even in the United States of President Bill; Clinton, some of Allen’s depictions of women seem boorish.

Ironically enough, the lack of fun in Allen’s new comedy proves the director’s point about celebrities: Fame needs to be backed up by talent and work – otherwise it’s no achievement at all.

‘Celebrity’ might coast along to financial success on the basis of its all-star cast, but it won’t make anyone forget Allen’s funnier, and deeper, work.