Primary Care Connect in collaboration with Goulburn Valley Libraries will screen the 1937 classic version of A Star is Born at Shepparton Library on Monday, 13 November, commencing at 1pm. These sessions are free, and directed towards the CALD Community.
A Star Is Born
The core story of the 1937 film is much the same as the subsequent versions: A young woman has dreams of making it in Hollywood (or the music industry) and meets a famous man who both falls for her and helps put her on the path to stardom. That male star is on a downward trajectory, wrestling with alcoholism and addiction as his own career dwindles.
The 1937 movie is extremely self-referential, packed with references to Hollywood stars, films, executives, and landmarks of the era. It opens and closes with filmed pages of a screenplay, outlining the scenes we are about to (or have just) witnessed on screen. It’s a winking nod to Wellman and Selznick’s awareness that they’re mythologizing the very business in which they work. As an extension of that, the film is also far more cynical than its more modern iterations. (As the world becomes more cynical, A Star Is Born grows more earnest.)
What the Critics Said:
A May 3, 1937, TIME review critiqued Gaynor, not only for her acting in A Star Is Born, but for her talent in general. March stole the show and lent the movie its “effectiveness”:
A Star Is Born (United Artists) starts by making the point that one girl in a hundred thousand who go to Hollywood to be stars becomes one. It then examines the career of the exception—Esther Victoria Blodgett (Janet Gaynor) who, the day she arrives on the Coast, financed by her grandmother’s nest egg, tiptoes into the outer lobby of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and stands tremulously in the cement footprints of her favorite actor, Norman Maine. From this point on, the story of A Star Is Born does not differ in superficial outline from the story that has been told a hundred times, usually as an excuse for weak screen musicals.
TIME’s critic also praised the film for containing “a magnificent shot which is possibly the best individual justification of Technicolor yet seen on the screen.”
The movie will start at 1pm with a light afternoon tea supplied. This activity is free to attend, but seats are limited so participants must register to attend by calling Sam Spinks at Primary Care Connect on 03 5823 3200
