成名是一种什么样的体验?
Late US artist Andy Warhol is believed to have once said, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” But in this age of social media, selfies, and the internet, it’s hard to say what “fame” actually is. In the movie Vox Lux (《光之声》), which was first shown this month at the Venice Film Festival, US director Brady Corbet tries to answer that question. “[Fame is] a commodification of everything, where violence becomes something you sell, news becomes something you sell, even private life does,”the movie’s star Natalie Portman told reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival. In the movie, the Israeli-US actress plays the lead role of Celeste, a pop singer who’s 14 years into a hugely successful career. By that point, however, the character has become bitter and her fame is beginning to fade – compared to her younger self, a sweet and carefree girl who suddenly finds herself in the spotlight. This is a classic tale of a rise to fame, but in today’s world of social media, it’s easy for just about anyone with a smartphone to become famous. But as more and more people search for the spotlight, this may add pressure on many of us to keep up with the “perfect” lives we see on the internet. “It appears that most people ... are living lives full of nothing but happiness, love, and rewarding events and experiences,” psychologist Kurt Smith wrote on HuffPost. That isn’t to say that everyone uses their popularity to make others feel bad about themselves. Take UK beauty blogger Em Ford for example. In 2015, the online star, known for her makeup tutorials, posted a video in which she slowly removed her flawless makeup, showing her bad skin underneath. “I wanted to create a film that showed how social media can set unrealistic expectations for both women and men,” Ford wrote in the video’s description. So, it seems that the definition of fame changes all the time. But if Vox Lux teaches us one lesson, it’s that if we’re lucky enough to obtain the “commodity” of fame, we should spend it wisely. |