Lady Gaga – a film star is born
Lady Gaga, the singer, poses in the rain on the red carpet for the premiere of A Star is Born at the 75th Venice Film Festival. The third remake of the Hollywood classic, released next month, sees Gaga follow Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland and Janet Gaynor in the lead role. She stars alongside Bradley Cooper, who makes his directorial debut
Film A Star Is Born Palazzo Del Cinema, Venice
Dir: Bradley Cooper; Starring: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott, Anthony Ramos, Rafi Gavron, Dave Chappelle. Cert 15, 135 mins.
Music is essentially 12 notes between any octave – 12 notes and the octave repeats,” Sam Elliott’s gruff industry veteran advises Ally (Lady Gaga), A Star Is Born’s singer on the rise. “It’s the same story told over and over, forever. All any artist can offer this world is how they see those 12 notes. That’s it.”
This isn’t just a neat summing-up of an entire art form: it’s also a nifty rationale for the existence of this fourth version, and third remake, of Hollywood’s archetypal rise-and-fall romance. The first, directed by William A Wellman and starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March, came out in 1937, and was repurposed as a musical in 1951 by George Cukor, with Judy Garland and James Mason. The 1976 take, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristoffersen, moved from the film world to the music business – and it is there, on spotlit stages and in hushed recording studios, that the 2018 version also unfolds. But, happily, director Bradley Cooper has taken his own script’s advice to put a personal spin on those familiar 12 notes. The story of A Star Is Born may be as old as showbusiness, but it is also electrifyingly fresh – a well-known melody given vivid, searching new force.
In addition to making his extraordinary directorial debut here, Cooper co-stars as Jackson Maine, a country music superstar. After a swig of vodka and a handful of pills, he strides onstage and plays a crunchy blues rock number to a capacity crowd. In the fervour it’s hard to tell where the wailing of his guitar stops and the audience’s screaming starts.
Afterwards he unwinds in a secluded dive bar – a drag bar, in fact – and watches Lady Gaga’s Ally, a waitress moonlighting as a cabaret singer, croon La Vie en Rose, against an intoxicating, ruby red backdrop. He lights up: he wants to see this young woman in his bed, but also wants to see her thrive. They leave together, wander the sleeping city, and talk about their lives in a deserted car park. It’s a scene most films would skim through, but Cooper luxuriates in it.
The following day, she and her best friend/chaperone Ramon (Anthony Ramos) are whisked to Jackson’s next gig by private jet. He ushers her on stage, cedes the microphone, and destiny beckons.
In a sense, what follows is exactly what you would expect: Ally’s career lifts off in a way that partly mirrors Gaga’s own, and also has overtones of Amy Winehouse. Meanwhile, Jackson’s own star begins to wane, through drink, paranoia, selfie-snappers and an inability to face down the ghosts of his past. But it does so from an exhilarating ringside perspective. Scenes thump with truth, with stadium set pieces shot at real-life gigs including last year’s Glastonbury festival, and have the livewire fizz of Scorsese’s concert films. It helps that Cooper and Gaga are such a well-matched screen couple: they have serious yowch-myfingers chemistry, while she has a rawness and freeness that roughens up his more actorly approach.
For any singer, following Judy Garland in your first major film role is a nightmare brief, but Gaga more than meets it, even paying gorgeous, subtle tribute by singing the opening few lines of a certain show tune as the film’s title fades up on screen. Cooper’s baritone, meanwhile, has never been gravellier, often dropping into the range of an idling cement truck.
The new songs were written by Cooper, Gaga and industry names including Jason Isbell and the sometime Winehouse associate Mark Ronson. With the exception of a (deliberately) tacky pop track, whose lyrics grapple with the age-old question “Why you gotta come around me with an ass like that?”, there isn’t a lull. Gaga’s final number, performed almost entirely in a single-take close-up, gives the film the kneeweakening send-off it earns.
This is deluxe studio entertainment like they used to make. A Star Is Born premiered at the 75th Venice Film Festival last night and is released in UK cinemas on Friday Oct 5.
‘Scenes thump with truth, with stadium set pieces shot at real-life gigs including last year’s Glastonbury’