“Gotta tell you a secret.
I think you might be a songwriter.”
When we think about movies that get remade again and again,
a lot of them tend to be literary classics
or they might be monster horrors, superhero epics.
And then there’s A Star is Born.
This Hollywood story of a man who believes in a woman’s talent
doesn’t immediately seem like a movie that needs to be made over and over again
-
yet the fourth version of this movie is hitting theaters.
So what makes A Star is Born so timeless?
“Hey.
Do you mind if I take just one more look?”
“Hey.”
“Hmm?”
“I just want to take another look at you.”
“Hey, Esther.”
“What?”
“I was just taking another look.”
“Hey.”
“What?”
“I just wanted to take another look at you.”
The 2018 version has crafted a canny marketing strategy
around stars Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper
that taps into what the story has always been about:
the power of two artists who believe in each other’s talent.
“When you see an artist of that caliber treats you like a peer,
it’s very emboldening.”
“There was a true exchange:
he accepted me as an actress, and I accepted him fully as a musician.”
This movie is the quintessential Hollywood tale.
“Here she is, ladies and gentlemen, a star that shines bright and high.”
capturing the all-encompassing romance of show business:
the thrill of someone truly believing in you, the rise to stardom, the pitfalls of fame,
and the complex male/female dynamics of the process.
So let’s look back at all of the Star is Born movies
and explore why our culture keeps returning to this tale.
“I have ‘A Star is Born,’ all three versions.
We can compare and contrast performances and dosages.”
“Don't settle for the little dream.
Go on to the big one.”
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"Norman, it's so exciting."
"A star is born."
The premise of A Star is Born is this:
a world-weary star meets a talented ingenue and encourages her to follow her dreams.
“He’ll soon know your name, Esther.
The whole world’s going to know it.”
They fall in love and she becomes a huge success,
at the same time as his inner demons are driving his career downhill.
“I'm sorry, baby.
I can't find my place.
They don't seem to have a place for me down here.”
Beware, spoilers are coming for the older versions of the movie
but not the 2018 version.
Eventually, he dies.
In the 1937 and 1954 movies the man drowns himself,
and in the 1976 version he dies in a car crash after some reckless driving.
This story has now been made into four movies,
and they each came out in a very different decade.
A fifth movie, George Cukor’s What Price Hollywood?
in 1932,
is also sometimes considered an unofficial precursor
and inspiration for A Star is Born.
"You're a motion picture star; you belong to the public.
They make you and they break you."
Cukor actually turned down the opportunity
to direct the first version of A Star is Born in '37
because he thought it was too similar to What Price Hollywood?.
"Why do you drink all the time?
Can't you cut the heavy swilling?"
"One'd be bored all the time."
"No, Mr. Niles isn't slipping me a case of scotch, Cuddles.
This is just a handshake."
But he eventually went on to direct the '54 musical remake
starring Judy Garland and James Mason,
which is considered the best version up to this point.
"She said that's what star quality was, that little something extra.
Well, you've got it."
The 76 movie, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson,
kept the same basic plot as the two earlier films,
but set the story in the music world -
"There's a little ball of fire inside you whenever you hook into a big marlin,
and you never forget it.
And that's what it felt like... hearing you sing."
and the new A Star is Born focuses on the music industry, too.
"It's the same story, all over and over."
You might be wondering -- is A Star is Born based on a true story?
The '37 movie took some inspiration from the lives of real stars
like John Barrymore and John Bowers --
Bowers was a silent film star who drowned in a presumed suicide
while A Star is Born was in production.
People have also speculated that the central relationship in the '37 movie
was based on the real-life marriage of Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay,
since Stanwyck became very successful as Fay's career faltered,
just like in the film.
The casting of Lady Gaga as the female lead, Ally,
is a savvy meta move that completely fits with both the narrative
and the history of A Star is Born.
This film capitalizes on Gaga’s real life journey
from being Stefani Germanotta to becoming a pop icon.
“This movie is a story that I know, that’s a part of my real life.”
We’ve seen other movies play on an actor’s persona or life story --
think Iron Man, The Wrestler, or Sunset Boulevard.
And this technique is so effective because it indulges the viewer’s curiosity
about the actor’s real personality and past.
There’s kind of a mythology surrounding Lady Gaga’s rise to fame --
because she’s such a performative, shapeshifting star,
her pre-fame self feels very mysterious to us.
So A Star is Born lets us experience what that journey may have been like for her,
and also exposes a stripped-down version of her
that we’ve never had access to before.
The new movie also plays on Lady Gaga’s real-life relationship to her appearance.
Gaga has said, quote,
“When my character talks about how ugly she feels —
that was real.
I’m so insecure.”
She’s described being told to get a nose job early in her career --
and in the film, Ally has faced the same thing.
“Almost every single person that I’ve come in contact with
in the music industry has told me that my nose is too big,
and that I won't make it.”
The 1954 A Star is Born played on Judy Garland’s persona in the same way.
Garland was known for being very insecure about her looks.
“It's the nose.
The nose is the problem.”
It’s kind of surprising that the 1976 movie didn’t make this
a part of Barbra Streisand’s character’s story, too --
since it’s well-known that Streisand was not
considered conventionally beautiful
and refused to get a nose job.
Cooper and Lady Gaga have also been incredibly clever about crafting a narrative
around making this movie that mirrors the story itself:
“I’ve always wanted to be an actress,
and there can be 100 people in the room and 99 don’t believe in you
and you just need one to believe in you and that was him.”
just as Jackson Maine discovers Ally as a singer,
press around the film has been fanning the idea
of Cooper believing in Lady Gaga as an actress when no one else did,
even though she’s already won a Golden Globe for acting.
Listen to this anecdote about Cooper insisting that Gaga go makeup-free
during the screen test.
“He had a makeup wipe in his hand and he put his hand on my face
and he went like this and there was makeup.
We had put just a little bit, and he said ‘I want no makeup on your face.’”
"Now, take every bit of that junk off your face."
So this story is about Cooper making Lady Gaga
feel comfortable in her own skin,
just as Jackson encourages Ally to sing her own songs and love her nose.
“Your nose is beautiful.”
Pretty much every interview Cooper and Lady Gaga do together is a love-fest.
“I just fell in love with her face and eyes,
I mean, there wasn't anything other than that --
I just wanted to be as close as possible in shooting it.”
"She's such a beautiful human being."
"So are you.
Thank you, Bradley."
So in these offscreen marketing situations,
these two stars are recreating the A Star is Born romance -
the idea of having an artistic partner who sees your potential,
is completely captivated by your talent, and has boundless faith in you.
“Look at me.
All you gotta do is trust me.
That's all you gotta do.”
This shrewd casting and marketing -
the way that the story of fame extends offscreen -
has always been a part of A Star is Born.
The 1954 version was intended as a comeback for Judy Garland
after a period of personal upheaval --
and it was also a way for her then-husband Sidney Luft to prove himself as a producer.
"My darling husband."
"I know your darling husband."
Film critic Karina Longworth argues
that the 1976 movie was likewise intended to present Streisand in a new light
and to give her then-boyfriend Jon Peters more credibility as a producer.
“The 1976 version was designed as an image-makeover vehicle for Streisand,
through which she could prove that she was hip to a culture that had changed,
while she was making mostly old-fashioned musical movies.”
A big draw of the new A Star is Born is
that it’s Lady Gaga’s first major film acting role
and Cooper’s directorial debut.
We also get to hear Cooper sing,
"Maybe it's time to let the old ways die."
just as in the 1976 movie people were intrigued to see Kris Kristofferson act,
"Where to?"
"Back about 10 years."
since he was more well-known as a singer.
So part of the allure of this movie has always been exploring the way
that stardom operates both within the story
and through the film as a vehicle for its players.
“It's all yours, baby!
Everything you want.
Your own personal piece of the American dream.”
At the same time, the real-life sagas surrounding A Star is Born
have sometimes proved the movie’s darker message about the transitory nature
of fame.
The '37 film’s star Janet Gaynor would only do a few more movies after this
one
before she chose to retire.
And despite the hoopla about Judy Garland’s comeback,
she aligned more with the fading male star than with the rising ingenue
at this stage of her life.
Her unstable behavior, drug dependency and illness caused production delays,
and this was actually one of her last major roles --
she would die of a barbiturate overdose in her forties.
"You don't know what it's like to watch somebody you love...
just crumble away bit by bit...
and day by day in front of your eyes."
A Star is Born presents an intriguing portrait of what love is,
especially for creative types --
the foundation of this romance is two people’s mutual need
to express themselves artistically
“I somehow feel most alive when I'm singing.”
The male lead is drawn to the female character
because he recognizes her talent and creative spark,
and the woman is drawn to him because he sees this in her.
“He gave me a look at myself I've never had before.
He saw something in me nobody else ever did.
And he made me see it, too.”
At one point in the '76 movie, Streisand’s character plays a tune on the
piano
that she doesn’t think could ever be a song.
“Make a hell of a song.”
“I can’t imagine that.
It goes so high, nobody could ever sing it.”
But then Kris Kristofferson’s character makes up a song to that tune.
“Time... has come again.”
So the symbolism is that this love is about facilitating each other’s self-expression
--
together they can create something beautiful that they can’t apart,
but there’s also the sense that for artists, romance must always come second
to the need to make art.
"Norman, you make this sound like, like the end of something,
instead of the beginning.
You make it sound like g-goodbye."
"I did all I could for you.
You've come along the road with me as far as you should."
And there’s a lesson in the movie that love isn’t everything -
it can’t fix a deep personal unhappiness or emotional void.
“Love isn't enough.
I-I thought it was.
I thought I was the answer for Norman... but love isn't enough for him.”
“I love you, Johnny.
But it's not enough, is it?”
As her career takes off while his falters, he doesn’t know how to deal,
and some interesting gender dynamics can result --
he might feel emasculated
“You can live off your wife now!”
and not be able to take being reduced to just a husband or a secretary.
"No, Miss Lester isn't home as of yet.
No, I'm not the butler."
Or he might disagree with the direction her career is going in.
He makes a drunken scene at an awards show where the woman is being honored.
But even as the man screws up royally, the story still suggests
that he’s redeemed by the initial good thing he did --
believing in the female character and helping her get her big break.
"What makes you so sure about me?
"I heard you sing."
"Yeah, but that-"
"I know, just my word.
But you know yourself, don't you?
You just needed somebody to tell you."
Significantly, while he does get her that chance in Hollywood,
the truly important thing he gives her is the courage to dream a bigger dream for herself.
"You're better than that.
You're better than you know.
Don't settle for the little dream.
Go on to the big one."
There’s even a father-daughter dynamic between the couple in the way
that her talent seems to represent an extension of his legacy,
and in how selflessly he devotes himself to her career.
"Look, forget the camera.
It's the Downbeat Club at 3:00 in the morning,
and you're singing for yourself."
In the '54 version, after Norman hears
Vicki say she’ll stop working to take care of him,
"I can't do any more pictures."
he drowns himself so this won’t happen.
So Norman essentially becomes a martyr.
Later Vicki’s friend says this:
“His love for you and your success.
That was the one thing in his life that wasn't a waste.
And he knew it.
Maybe he was wrong to do what he did, I don't know.
But he didn't want to destroy that, destroy the only thing he took pride in.”
In the ‘37, ‘54, and ‘76 movies,
in the final scene after her husband has died,
the female character uses some form of the man’s last name.
“This is Mrs. Norman Maine.”
“This is...
Mrs. Norman Maine.”
“Ladies and gentlemen...
Esther Hoffman Howard.”
So this is a tribute to the fact that his faith in this woman’s talent
was an incredible gift that made everything possible for her.
“For a chance at being something... something bigger than I ever dreamed of.
And I'm not gonna turn back now.”
"The show must go on.
That is the performer's first commandment.
But Mason's Norman Maine couldn't take it anymore."
A Star is Born gives us a pretty clear-eyed look
at what fame really entails --
we get to see the spectacle of it and the loneliness of it.
“The thing about fame that I find fascinating is
the sonic element of it and that’s what we have in the movie --
you know, it's very much like:
[MAKES NOISE] [SILENCE]
there’s tons of noise, and then all of a sudden you’re alone.”
The movie makes it clear
that fame isn’t an answer or a cure for what’s wrong in our lives.
“They love my music.
They think I got all the answers.”
“You mean, you don't?”
“I don't even understand the questions.”
“There isn't a man here that's had the advantages you've had.
And look what you've done with them.”
Fame and love are not enough to overcome this man’s addiction
which stems from a deep underlying unhappiness that he’s not faced.
“What is it that makes him want to destroy himself?”
We see this from the beginning of the 54 version in the scene
where Norman Maine breaks these mirrors,
which tells us he’s on a path to destroying himself and his image.
“I destroy everything I touch.
I always have.”
But for many years,
the Hollywood machine masks, covers up and enables his problem,
rather than forcing him to address it.
"Twenty years of steady and quiet drinking do something to a man."
And when he’s at his lowest point, the business just moves on.
"I need a job!
It's simple as that.
I need a job, that's all."
"This was not a musical comedy.
This was a musical drama about the sad ironies of show business."
So most of all, the story’s message about fame
is that it’s fickle and ephemeral.
The two main characters embody
that never-ending cycle of one star rising while another flames out.
This impermanence is the tragedy at the center of A Star is Born.
"How I hate to run into these has-beens.
They give me the creeps."
"Me too."
"He was good while he had it.
And he had it quite a while."
A person’s great accomplishments can suddenly be meaningless.
But the positive side of this is
that it’s always a new up-and-comer’s turn
to get their chance.
“You know what your chances are?
One in a hundred thousand.”
“But maybe...
I’m that one.”
More than 80 years after the first film,
A Star is Born keeps returning into our shared consciousness
because so little about show business truly changes -
the romance of stardom never goes out of style -
and the cycle of fame keeps on spinning.
“The wheel goes round and round, and if you just wait long enough,
it's finally your turn.”
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