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Backstage
Strand Releasing


8.0

based on 11 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 2 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Emmanuelle Seigner, Isild Le Besco, Noémie Lvovsky, Valéry Zeitoun, Samuel Benchetrit, Édith Le Merdy, Jean-Paul Walle Wa Wana, and Mar Sodupe

Teenager Lucie (Le Besco) is an overly zealous fan of a famous pop diva, Lauren Waks (Seigner). In order to cope with her bleak small-town life with her mother and little brother, Lucie obsesses over the singer, covering her bedroom walls with images and posters of her mysterious, inaccessible idol. One day, a chance situation allows Lucie to meet Lauren and gain access to the star's vastly unstable life. Gradually their lives intertwine as, with near-operatic intensity, the film delves into the emotional dependency on both sides of celebrity culture. (Strand Releasing)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign \| Musical
WRITTEN BY:	Emmanuelle Bercot Jérôme Tonnerre
DIRECTED BY:	Emmanuelle Bercot
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: November 22, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	115 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France
LANGUAGE(S):	French (with English subtitles)

Nominated, Best Supporting Actress (Lvovsky), 2006 César Awards

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

TV Guide Ken Fox

The line separating "fan" from "fanatic" has never seemed as thin or as permeable as it does in this harrowing, and at times surprisingly humorous, case study from actress-turned-director Emmanuelle Bercot.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

Under the clichéd spell of rock-and-roll promiscuity and pills popped, Seigner shows astonishing range as the detached superstar who still fixates on her ex-boyfriend and has mood swings like a manic-depressive on fast-forward.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Director Emmanuelle Bercot's film offers a fascinating account of how a vulnerable star might mistake fan worship for something real.

New York Post Kyle Smith

There's a pleasing tension in the air as their relationship comes to seem like something of a contest: With two women this needy, who will out-crazy the other?

Variety Derek Elley

With its booming soundtrack of songs -- written by Laurent Marimbert and sung by Seigner herself -- and good chemistry between Le Besco and Seigner, pic at times has an operatic emotional intensity that will turn off some viewers but provide a guilty pleasure for others.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

An enjoyably overwrought meditation on the consequences of celebrity and the vicissitudes of fandom, Backstage stars Le Besco as the schoolgirl acolyte of Emmanuelle Seigner's pop diva, a singer-songwriter and high priestess of cheese.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

As long as it focuses on its feverishly needy central characters, neither of whom you would ever want to have as a friend, it remains true to itself.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

As a take on celebrity as religious mass derangement, Backstage is nominally interesting. As a study of two characters, it's not very convincing.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The results aren't gothic and bloody, as they were in the Lauren Bacall film "The Fan," or elegant and ironic as in the Bette Davis classic "All About Eve"--though the plot suggests a bit of both.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The limiting factor, despite serious performances by the two leads, is that neither character is entirely believable.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Bercot moves the characters up and down like lines on a chart, never granting full access to what any of them are thinking. And access is what Backstage promised.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it an8:
The opening scene of "Backstage" takes its cue from the final scene in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous", when the rock star makes a house call to a fan, and updates the crazy, single-minded intensity we see flickering across the happily anguished faces of the original Beatle fans as their heroes rocked the Ed Sullivan theater so many years ago. Lucie(Islid Le Besco) loves the singer-songwriter Lauren Waks(Emmanuelle Seigner) a little too deeply. How do we know? "Backstage" also evokes Lars Von Trier's "Breaking the Waves" later in the narrative, as it dawns on the viewer that this film is a commentary on reality television, when the groupie's interactions with the singer and her close associates becomes increasingly unfilmable.

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Backstage Strand Releasing

Backstage
Strand Releasing