The rockist approach of A Star Is Born to authenticity and pop music.

This article discusses the end of the new A star is born, identical to the end of the versions published in 1976, 1954 and 1937.

A few minutes after A star is bornJackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) discovers the ally of Lady Gaga in a drag bar, he sings about[ting] the old ways are dying "and at the end of the film he kept his promise. In all its iterations, from the 1930s to today, A star is born This is the story of an endangered male icon who passes the torch to a rising ingenuous, but in the new version, it is also the story of the passage from rock to pop and the authentic signifiers of the rock era to understanding. that, especially in the field of celebrity, identity is a construction in perpetual mutation. The arch of the film clearly positions Ally as the winner of this cultural contest, and not only because in the end she is the only star remaining. But scratch the surface of Cooper Star is born and you'll discover a deeply conservative film in which the pitfalls of contemporary pop celebrity are viewed with skepticism on the verge of disgust, and the best way for a rock star to prove his true torture is to commit suicide.

To work, A star is born must convince his audience that Jackson and Ally are the real deal – and to do that, we must believe that his stars are too. The film begins with Cooper in full Rock God mode, immersed in the crowd's electric hum before embarking on "Black Eyes," a rhythmic anthem that spans the blues-grunge border. As he enters a screaming solo, his fingers tilt the strings in close-up, the portable camera and public clichés (borrowed from a Willie Nelson concert) suggest that's all.is really happening. From his mournful voice of marsh mud to his kinky hair and leathery skin (actually the product of a daily tan), Cooper does the opposite of making it simple; he has trouble showing his work. Even the round of victory of a promotional tour for the film becomes another opportunity to stay behind the machines.

Scratch the surface of Cooper Star is born and you will find a very conservative movie.

With Lady Gaga, another type of validity is at stake. The film does not linger on her fingers that move on the keys of the piano, because we already know that she can do it. this. Instead, she is introduced in blue-collar fashion, working in a restaurant and literally taking out garbage. Ally is not afraid to get her hands dirty, and neither is Gaga. But to prove that she's not just a pop star slipping on another person, as she did on American horror story, Gaga must let the mask crack, show us something that gives the impression that it was created at the moment rather than behind the scenes choreographed. Even if you do not know A star is bornThe story begins, you know where she is heading and Gaga's performance is based on how she delays and satisfies the desire to see her in full bloom of pop stars. What makes the "Shallow" unveiling so exciting is not just the song itself, but the uncertainty it is in, the way Ally trembles when she comes on stage, surprised by the surprise invitation from Jackson. The first line of Cooper is stifled, closed, weighed down by the lassitude of the world. But he barely registers, because you're impatient to know what will follow: the moment when Ally opens her voice to the world. The song and the film give us step by step: a delicate couplet, a growing chorus, then a chorus that opens the doors wide, at the moment of the birth of a star. Ally does not fall anymore; it plunges into feelings so deep that they go beyond words.

The film spends the rest of its length chasing the intensity of that moment, and a way of looking at his story Does Ally and Jack do as well? But another solution is a zero-sum battle between art and commerce, where art is pure and where trade is rude and where the mixture of the two is a necessary but unfortunate evil. (Never mind that Lennon and McCartney begin their inspiration by saying, "Let's write a pool.") Ally is fine when she is touring with Jackson and her band, but as soon as she comes out alone, she falls down. influence of Rez (Rafi Gavron), a legend of the music industry whose first directive is to get her out of the way with musicians (a group that calls in real life Promise of the Real, like after the trip to Russell Hammond's acid of Almost known) and in the studio with pre-recorded tracks. He prepares it with a choreographer, dancers and a stylist and, before you even realize it, she dyed her hair red and worships at the altar of Mammon. Saturday Night Livegyrant on synthesized rhythms and singing a song whose lyrics repeat the phrase "It's not like me". It's enough to bring Jackson back to the bottle and the viewer is supposed to tell.

The first thing Jackson does when he has Ally alone, after hearing his belt in a drag bar, is to wipe the makeup off his face just like Cooper would have apparently done when he 's done. Gaga's audition for the role, the best to see her without artifice. (According to Gaga, he would have even banned her putting on makeup on the set, a restriction that he had not extended to himself.) The film hints that Jackson's act is a form of drag. when his brother, played by Sam Elliott, accuses him of imitating his speech – "You stole my voice" – and in an ephemeral moment where Ally applies false eyebrows to Jackson's forehead while they are in the bath.

But that does not undermine or complicate the idea that the further Ally moves away from Jackson's influence, the more his music gets worse. What makes a star is not just talent, says Jackson. It's not enough to be a good singer, and Jackson's brother, with his identical voice and totally different career, is living proof of that. You must have "something to say". And as Jack, anxious, repeats to Ally in front of an airbrushed billboard, it must come from the depths of his "fucking soul." In music criticism, the turning point of 21^st The century was marked by the struggle between rock, which Kelefa Sanneh defined in the New York Times as "idolizing the old authentic legend (or underground hero) while making fun of the latest pop star … adoring the live show and hating the video clip; praising the grumbling singer while hating lip sync "and poptimism, which Saul Austerlitz regretted in the Times a decade later, had replaced the rigorous standards of rock criticism with a superficial worship of artifice. It has never been so simple, but A star is born acts as if the debate never took place. A popular online board game involves sink the version of A star is born that should have happened in the 90s, but especially given the fact that the current version is being developed, you can forcefully claim that it is version 90, with only two decades behind. The division between "authenticity" rock and pop artifice seems like an impasse at a time when selling was considered an unforgivable sin rather than a trivial fact, where lip synchronization was a betrayal and not a spectator sport.

The film presents a zero-sum battle between art and commerce, where the art is pure and the trade is fault.

But the most harmful vestige of an earlier era is the path A star is born treats Jackson's suicide as a noble act of self-sacrifice and the ultimate validation of his tortured words. The first time he sings for Ally, he announces his own death alongside the "old manners" that he represents, describing the world as a "big old Catherine wheel" with endless torment. In the bluesy duo "Diggin & My Grave", he looks forward to the time when "I'll be gone from here and where you'll all be dressed in black," and in "Too Far Gone" he proclaims, I can not continue if I do not live in your arms. "It is hoped that" I'll Never Love Again "will not be true for Ally, as touching as the version she's singing at Jackson's post-mortem tribute, but that's not the case. is certainly true for him. (It does not take much to imagine that the death of Jackson Maine casts an indescribable shadow over his work, as was the case with Kurt Cobain or Amy Winehouse.) Although the film does not really position Jackson as a fool, "Strongly denies that the best thing he can do for Ally is to stray from his path."

Maybe Jackson was still doomed and the best ally that we could hope for was to slow down his descent. But it is revealing that her final act actually brings her back to the right path. After Jackson's death, Ally performs at a concert in his honor, singing in front of a live orchestra – no drum machine here. Having abandoned her last name to become pop, she takes it for the first time and introduces herself: "I am Ally Maine". Her voice is loud and clear, but the film cuts her back to the moment Jackson first played it. his composition, and it is he who has the last word. She is a star, but the song is hers.