Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Monsieur Jude Law et Le Samourai

The massive impact of celebrity on American culture is undeniable. Although it can be argued that the impact is not as great here in England as it is in California, famous personalities have a universal effect of captivating their audiences.

With the opportunity to witness first hand the mayhem that surrounds/is celebrity, we took off to the screening of Jean-Pierre Melville’s "Le Samourai." The most obvious feature of the the audience was the percentage of female attendees. While it is impossible to know for sure how many were at the Institut Francais to view Melville’s film and how many were there to see the Jude Law, the majority must have attended because of the latter. The people in the front row were giddy as school girls and their cameras came close to matching the number of flashes that go off when the paparazzi are constantly following Jude. It was also noticed that some ladies even left twenty minutes into the film, after they had seen there fill of Mr. Law.

The media portrays celebrities such as Jude Law as alcohol absorbed and lusting after everyone and anyone. From this fabricated image the media creates, (although not all of it is untrue--after all where there’s smoke, there’s fire) we stop thinking of actors as artists. For that reason, it was surprising to hear Jude talk about Alain Delon and his character Jef Costello with such fervency. One memorable anecdote from the night was when Jude told the audience how much he loved the opening scene, with Delon lying on the bed, almost lifeless-looking, except for the bellowing smoke coming from his mouth. When we viewed the film, I took note of this scene and it definitely made it more significant to me knowing Jude Law himself picked it out.

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