THE FASCINATION FOR 'TRAGIC DIVAS'
La fascination pour les divas au destin tragique
Si Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston ou encore Judy Garland ont accédé au statut de légendes de la chanson pendant leur carrière, elles jouissent désormais d’une aura qu’elles n’avaient pas de leur vivant. A l’occasion de la sortie en salles du documentaire Whitney, un journaliste de The Independent se demande pourquoi les réalisateurs et le grand public se passionnent tant pour les divas au destin tragique.
They’re young, talented and beautiful. They make it to the top and then their lives veer violently off track as the drugtaking, alcoholism and general self-destructiveness take hold. They have grim family backgrounds. They’ve suffered abuse or bereavement at an early age. Welcome to what is fast becoming one of cinema’s favourite new genres – tales of the “tragic divas”. Whether it’s Amy Winehouse or Judy Garland, filmmakers can’t resist these figures. And audiences share an intense and sometimes morbid fascination with them too.
2. The latest of the films, Kevin Macdonald’s Whitney, telling the heartbreaking story of Whitney Houston, is being given one of the widest releases in British cinemas of any documentary in history. “So many people are fascinated by her,” Macdonald said of the troubled star during an interview at the Edinburgh Film Festival premiere of his film, which charts her life up to the moment she was found dead in a bathtub in a Beverly Hills Hotel in 2012, aged 48. “Why are they so fascinated? Is it something to do with her unknowability? People project conspiracies
1. to make, made, made it to the top réussir, arriver au sommet / to veer off track litt. quitter la route, dévier de sa trajectoire; ici, basculer / to take, took, taken hold s'installer, prendre le dessus / grim grave, sombre / background antécédents, passé / abuse abus, sévices / bereavement deuil / tale conte; ici, histoire / filmmaker cinéaste / figure personnage, personnalité / audience public. 2. heartbreaking déchirant / release ici, distribution / troubled perturbé, tourmenté / to chart retracer / up to jusqu'à / bathtub baignoire / unknowability ambiguïté, côté énigmatique (unknowable mystérieux, incompréhensible). on to her, conspiracies around her death, conspiracies around her love life. Also, you have that very singular talent, very easy to recognise.”
“AN ARCHETYPAL TRAGIC FIGURE”
3. The Oscar-winning director of One Day In September agrees that Whitney is “an archetypal tragic figure, whether male or female; somebody who has it all and is brought low because of whatever hubris or character 3. director ici, réalisateur / Un jour en septembre / to agree admettre, reconnaître / to bring, brought, brought low abattre, ruiner, détruire / hubris orgueil (excessif) /
flaws. Her story fits so perfectly into the way of understanding which obviously goes back to Aristotle. We are all drawn to these stories of the greatest and the best being brought low.
4. “One of the powerful things about the Whitney film and other films [about tragic divas] is that you see somebody who is so beautiful, so fresh, so young and who seems so innocent – and yet, within an hour and a half, you’re seeing the same person as a wreck. That fast-forward through somebody’s life is so powerful. We are all thinking about our mortality.” Whitney’s release is being handled in the UK by Altitude Film, the same company which distributed Asif Kapadia’s Amy, grossing a record-breaking £3.7m at the British box office in the process. The two films have many obvious similarities.
WHITNEY AND AMY
5. We know the ending before we go in, even if we suspend our disbelief as we watch the films and hope for a happy ending that will never come. And both Houston and Amy Winehouse went from being media darlings to becoming the subject of vicious tabloid headlines and comedians’ jokes as their lives unravelled. But if there is darkness inherent in the subject matter, this isn’t a case of inviting audiences to rubberneck at the site of a deadly and spectacular crash.
6. “We want to celebrate Whitney and remember how amazing she was… people love flaw défaut, faiblesse / to fit into entrer dans, s'inscrire dans / obviously évidemment, bien sûr / to go, went, gone back to remonter à / Aristotle Aristote / to draw, drew, drawn attirer. 4. within au sein de; ici, en l'espace de / wreck épave / fast-forward avance rapide / to handle gérer / to gross rapporter (recette brute) / in the process par la même occasion, ce faisant. 5. to suspend one's disbelief accepter les invraisemblances / darling chouchou / headline gros titre / comedian comique, humoriste / to unravel s'effilocher; ici, se dégrader / to rubberneck faire le curieux, voyeur. 6. amazing incroyable, extraordinaire / her. They always have,” Hamish Moseley, Altitude’s head of distribution, says of the company’s plans for an upbeat marketing push. “Our campaign will be about reminding people how brilliant she was and how much they enjoyed the music.” The enduring power of Houston’s music was underlined recently when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their first dance to one of her songs at their wedding reception; she appeals to generation after generation.
CLOSER TO THE REAL FIGURE
7. Dramatised versions of tragic divas’ stories may also be popular with actors – after all, they offer their stars an opportunity to give grandstanding performances. Marion Cotillard won Golden Globes and Oscars for playing French chanteuse Edith Piaf (dead at 47 from liver failure) in La Vie En Rose. Diana Ross was Oscar nominated when she starred as Billie Holliday (dead at 44) in Lady Sings The Blues.
8. Lee Daniels is making a new Billie Holliday biopic, while various attempts have been made to tell the story of opera diva Maria Callas on screen. In documentaries, though, we get closer to the real figure. Years after their deaths, a sense of mystery still surrounds all these singers. Amy Winehouse had written extensively about her own life in her songs. In his documentary about her, Kapadia set out to decode those lyrics. Houston didn’t write her own songs, but she expressed herself (as the director puts it) “solely through the sound of her voice”. head directeur / upbeat optimiste / marketing push campagne de promotion / enduring qui perdure, éternel / to underline souligner, mettre en avant / to appeal plaire à, séduire. 7. with ici, auprès de / liver failure anévrisme artériel hépatique (liver foie) / La Vie En Rose La Môme / to star tenir le rôle principal. 8. biopic film biographique / attempt tentative / screen écran / to surround entourer / extensively amplement, considérablement / to set, set, set out to entreprendre de / lyrics paroles, texte (chanson).