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Backstage

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 11 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
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)
Summary
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)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site Film Forum Profile
What The Critics Said
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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?
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The limiting factor, despite serious performances by the two leads, is that neither character is entirely believable.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
