In 2012, a film by Thomas Langmann, called "Stars 80", premiered in France. It was all about the 80's; the music, the culture, the general feeling. Despite the country's nostalgia for the period, it failed. Why? There are many answers to this question, that can help one discover lots about the nature of stardom in 80's France, audience preferences, and (of course) nostalgia.
The film's plot concerns two fans of "Les années 80", Antoine and Vincent. These two have the dream of creating a big show with all the stars of the decade in it; but we're not talking about international stars, but French ones. François Feldman, Lio, Jean-Pierre Mader and other unknown singers to the non-accustomed to the French cultural landscape of the 80's (or simply those that aren't from France). After going out of their way to find them, many of them working in odd jobs or just not wanting to take part, they set off in a bus for the land of opportunity - by this I don't mean the US, rather the big stadiums of Paris-. It's up to the public now to make or break the show.
While this film is a comedy, it makes some interesting points about the notion of stardom, and the culture of the period;
The stars (Patrick Timsit and Richard Anconina) were back then two of the new faces of French cinema, so the role of the obsessive fans of the 80's is quite ironic to be played by them.
The singers all had their peak of popularity during the 80's, with most of them being forgotten shortly after. Because of this fact, the film makes plenty of jokes about them being unrecognised and mistaken for others, when asked for autographs. There is a hilarious sequence that shows just that, but the viewer must be acquainted with French culture of the time in order to get the humour.
"Stars 80" continues its obsession with a star's fall from grace with the scenes starring duo Début de Soirée. They rose to fame unexpectedly with the massive hit "Nuit de folie" in 1987, and made the quintessential French summer song, which has remained an evergreen in France ever since. It was maybe due to this success that the other singles didn't attain the popularity of the first one and relegated the duo to the dustbin of music history. In the movie, Début de Soirée work in a fast food restaurant, and are often asked to sing the famous chorus:
"Et tu chantes, chantes, chantes, ce refrain qui te plaît
Et tu tapes,tapes, tapes, c'est ta façon d'aimer
Ce rythme qui t'entraîne jusqu'au bout de la nuit
Réveille en toi le tourbillon d'un vent de folie"
When the two former stars leave their jobs in order to go on the tour, the bemused owner asks his assistant to "go and find David et Jonathan". This is a reference to another former singing duo, that scored a timeless success with the slow "Est-ce-que tu viens pour les vacances ?" in the same year as Début de Soirée. Due to the lower quality of their next songs, they dissolved in the early 90's.
Still, the hits of both duos still live on. And so, when Antoine and Vincent tell Début de Soirée that no one remembers them or knows their first names, they get exasperated. For a star, even the one remembered for the most kitsch of a song, the one almost forgotten except by members of their own generation, telling them they are nothing deals a major blow to their self esteem. No person wants to be forgotten, especially one who has met the trappings of success, even for a short time.
But, besides all that, if we suppose that this film was funny, why did it fail? Because, unfortunately, the target group for such a film is small. It mostly consists of people who grew up in that time, and maybe some of their children. This kind of movie is targeting an audience that is connected to these songs and stars. Essentially, a specific generation, the one that, as children and teenagers would buy the "45 tours" of "Femme que j'aime" or "Macumba", watch "Club Dorothée " on TV, record "Dallas" in video tape and spend their money on tickets for "La Boum ", "Les compères", and "Subway", or maybe on magazines like "OK! Âge tendre" and "Top 50". A generation that, while being nostalgic for the time, didn't go in massive numbers to watch this celebration of their shared cultural memories. Or, actually, it did - around one million people saw it- but the film itself was too ambitious.
This ambition is indicated by the fact that the budget of the movie reached ten million euros (!). How else would the audience-filled shows be created? While this may be true,
it just goes to show the director's ambition that a film with such a restricted audience base would be able to make a profit from such an expensive budget. One million admissions is a respected number of tickets for a French film, but the movie ultimately flopped because it didn't gross enough money to surpass the budget's huge costs.
All in all, "Stars 80" is an indicative example of what happens when a film targets a specific demographic, which doesn't respond as enthusiastically as expected, and when the director is too ambitious to see that the movie's extravagance doesn't help in anything but make the feature even more ridiculous.
Still, this is a nice kind of ridiculousness. For all its faults, the embarrassing performances of the stars, the dated references, the weak plot, it's a film that at the end of the day succeeds in its goal: Have us all tapping our feet and having a great time with the eternal hits of the 80's, this decade that has remained a synonym for the kitsch and the old-fashioned, but also the innocent and the fun.
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