Friday, March 25, 2011
CELEBRITY ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE
Today's film was the documentary
This is the story of Ron Galella who single handedly invented the American paparazzi (swarm of bees).
This interesting film delivers a lot. Discussions of the freedom of the press, the right to privacy and the value or not of the celebrity culture which Galella helped invent. Well, not really. We have been celebrity obsessed forever but he is the guy to get behind the masks of celebrities and show them as they are off stage. And they don't like it.
His famous years long duel with Jackie Onassis is shown in detail, perhaps a bit too much, but is fascinating. Who led who on?
Galella is an egomaniac with a single mission. Photos of people who don't want to be photographed or, at least, not that way.
The thing about this film is that it is a slice of history. Many of the celebrities that he photographed are no longer known by young people. We see this at the end as we follow a stupid young woman through the gallery. She doesn't know fucking anybody.
But also how, today, any event is setup to play to the papps and instant photography has made the type of photograph that Galella made with real film a thing of the past.
He took hundreds of films of thousands of people. We go into his archives. He chose the best shots. He developed and tweaked the photos himself.
Side benefit. We see hundreds and hundreds of beloved photos of my time. These are images which I grew up with. I did not know they were Galella's.
I would not mind seeing this again just to see all these faces.
Oh. And there are talking heads to love and hate the guy. But the film makers never let any of this get in the way of the pictures.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
Labels: films
