VOX LUX

"The film is an onslaught, sometimes silly, sometimes profound, but always riveting and emotional, and dazzlingly sure of itself." Sheila O'Malley, rogerebert.com (2018)

"The sumptuous, satirical VOX LUX follows young Celeste as her life changes radically following a violent incident at school. Although she suffers physically and emotionally, this is also an opportunity. The song she writes inspired by the shooting becomes a hit – the start of a successful singing career. VOX LUX is not just about Celeste (played by both Raffey Cassidy and Natalie Portman), but also about the radical, violent changes in American society, with Columbine and 9/11 as the low points. Influenced by fear and fame, Celeste becomes a cynical superstar. Director Brady Corbet uses Willem Dafoe's voice-over and Sia's music to critically analyse Western culture, in which emotions and talent have been replaced by ostentation and empty success." International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019

"VOX LUX begins with a scene of absolute devastation. A gunman massacres many of his classmates in an American high school. A sequence as shocking as anything in Gus Van Sant's "Elephant". After this bloody overture, the movie turns into a satirical, macabre version of "A Star is Born". Austrian audiences may be intrigued to discover this most American of films was inspired by Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities". 'It’s about a character who is on the periphery of major events during the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,' Corbet reflected of the links between the modernist Austrian novelist's book and his movie after the film's premiere. Bizarrely, the character in VOX LUX always there at the most seismic moments is Celeste, a pop star. Played by Cassidy/Portman, she is a survivor of the high school shooting who becomes the nation's darling. Corbet is a true auteur with a very distinctive storytelling style. His first film took an oblique approach to fascism, showing how a boy develops the character tendencies that turn him into a Hitler-like friend. In VOX LUX Corbet portrays pop stardom with a cold, anthropological eye, showing precisely how Celeste becomes so cut off from the outside world that she can no longer maintain ordinary relationships with those closest to her." Geoffrey Macnab, Viennale 2019

"Dennoch entfaltet Corbets zweite Regiearbeit in vielen Passagen eine irritierende Ausdruckskraft. Zum einen, weil Raffey Cassidy die Unsicherheit der jungen Celeste überzeugend in den Kinosaal transportiert und Natalie Portman als affektierte, angeknackste Diva eine wahrlich raumgreifende Show abzieht. Nicht weniger reizvoll sind die ungewöhnlichen Mittel, mit denen Corbet seine im Kern altbekannte Geschichte aufpoliert: Geisterhafte Kamerafahrten sorgen für handfestes Unwohlsein; ein in der Originalversion von Willem Dafoe gesprochener Erzähler greift regelmäßig erklärend in das Geschehen ein; einige Abschnitte werden im Zeitraffer wiedergeben; und mehr als einmal verengt sich das Bildformat." Prisma

CREDITS

englische Originalversion

• Regie: Brady Corbet
• USA 2018
• 112 Min.

• DCP
• FSK 16
• Deskriptoren: www.fsk.de

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