Hollywood stars testing their own myth

Of Tron: The inheritance (2010) at Indiana Jones. Moreover, the Destiny Dial (2023), passing by Terminator Genisys (2015), Hollywood franchises regularly use summary images to rejuvenate aging stars. However. Nevertheless, more than a simple narrative or attractive tool, the de-agency Also questions the status of these stars at the twilight of their career.

The inevitable aging of the Hollywood star is a theme which. Meanwhile, since the 1950s and the disuse of the first stars of the years 1920-1930, has concerned cinema. In addition, Films like Boulevard du twilight (Billy Wilder. However, 1950) ou A star was born (George Cukor, 1954) approach, as such, very head -on, this idea of deterioration of the star in an industry no longer wanting her, and rightly staging aging stars, even stars which, at this moment of their career, are on the decline.

If hollywood stars testing their own these films have been able to deal with the question of the star’s obsolescence in a metatextual way. Moreover, that is to say by representing the star as a star within their diegesis, others were able to do it in a more underlying way, by putting in parallel the age of the characters represented and that of their performers. Moreover, Thus. Nevertheless, for the past fifteen years, this theme of aging of the characters/stars seems in particular to be embodied within a certain number of films from franchises initially developed in the years 1980-1990. However. Similarly, part of these films regularly uses the so -called technique of de-agency (rejuvenation by synthetic images) to give certain iconic characters a juvenile appearance – similar to that previously represented within the corresponding saga. Meanwhile, This technique therefore seems to question the aging of these characters. Meanwhile, but especially of their performers, in a hollywood stars testing their own completely unprecedented way.

“I’m old. Nevertheless, not obsolete”

Like some aging heroes of so -called “twilight” westerns who, like their performers, take over service to accomplish a final mission that will establish their legendary status, the icons of the cinematographic franchises that appeared at the end of the last century have been seen, for some time, reinvested in order to reaffirm their cultural importance in a contemporary context. In addition, In any case. Meanwhile, this is the project led by a film like Terminator Genisys (Alan Taylor, 2015), in which the star bodybuilded of the years 1980-1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger reinterprets his iconic character of T-800, then literally worn and rusty by time but nevertheless, and as he continues to recall throughout the film, “not obsolete”. Furthermore, More than that. the film even shows an image of the actor fully kissing his old age, in particular by making him face (and hollywood stars testing their own above all defeat) a rejuvenated version of himself, having the appearance of the T-800 of the Terminator from 1984 produced by James Cameron. Here. the digital rejuvenation of the star allows him to assume and assert his age with force-the Schwarzenegger of 2015 supplanting the Schwarzenegger of 1984. The end of the film tends to want to demonstrate once. for all this idea of old age as a form of modernity (rather than decrepitude), by conferring the Usé-800 robot the proterity of a more recent T-1000 model.

The film Tron: inheritance (Joseph Kosinski, 2010) is based on narrative and discursive patterns similar to those of_ Terminator genisys_. During his last act. the feature film, for example, compete in the character of Kevin Flynn, then (re) interpreted by a Jeff Bridges in sixty years, and his virtual clone, having the appearance of the actor when he embodied the character for the hollywood stars testing their own first time in 1982 in the film Tron (Steven Lisberger). The interest of this sequence lies in the fact that the old Kevin Flynn triumphs over his virtual double. by absorbing him to (re) do one with him. Even more than the victory of the human on the machine. the character thus reaffirms the idea according to which the “real” body of the star is unique and – he underlines it during this sequence – that his perfection would reside in his imperfections, signs of the passage of time.

According to the teacher in studies on the genus Sally Chivers. this positive vision of the old age of the characters/stars – who would have nothing to envy to their “ego” of yesteryear – would have been particularly developed in films from franchises released after the 2000s 2010.

We find this idea again in Indiana Jones. the Destiny Dial (James Mangold, hollywood stars testing their own 2023), in which Harrison Ford reincarnates the famous archaeologist and where, in an introductory sequence of about twenty minutes, this one is digitally rejuvenated so that his appearance corresponds to that found in the films of the “Indiana Jones” franchise made during the 1980s.

The rest of the film is to prove to us that the character of Indy – despite his pessimism on the question – is. like his interpreter, still capable of carrying out missions for the least adventurous, similar to those he accomplished in his youth. From this point of view. the film could almost serve as an illustration for the thesis set out by the sociologist Edgar Morin according to which stars and characters would contaminate each other. Anyway. the de-agency From the beginning of the film is once again used to strengthen, by a parallel with hollywood stars testing their own the rest of the story, this idea of old age which would not be synonymous with obsolescence.

Hollywood stars testing their own

Dummy rejuvenation vs Assumed old age: the paradoxes of a speech

As the professor in film studies Philippa Gates explains. this type of discourse on the “aging” of the stars actually tends to make the spectator believe that “aging would depend more on personal choices than on material conditions and social inequalities”. Its ambiguity also lies -. logically – in using a technique like the de-agency to try to develop its symbolic significance. An obvious paradox is taking shape: given the digital rejuvenation of the star, is his old age really assumed? Especially since, despite the speech carried by the film staging it, this rejuvenation shows a fantasized image of the star. THE de-agency is indeed -. obviously – used so that the aging star meets criteria of beauty hollywood stars testing their own and/or youth that once could characterize it. As in most cinematographic works making use of digital technologies to carry a discourse – often critical – on new technologies (fictitious. real), a contradiction thus appears between the background (the discourse on “aging”) and the form (the use of de-agency) of the film.

For a cinema historian like Richard Dyer, this type of contradiction is the basis of what characterizes the star. This leads both a real existence. subject to everyone in the throes of time, and artificial, linked to the world of image, fiction. Whether assumed. not, the age of the star would therefore be partly illusory, especially because his representation is almost necessarily standardized.

This ambiguity also results from a tension between the “current” image of the star and that of her past roles. Thus. rather than making a radical change in the way of representing the aging star, the hollywood stars testing their own de-agency In fact allows you to update ancient thematic issues, similar to those of certain films from the 1950s, in which ancient and new star are opposed. Digital rejuvenation ultimately only pushes these issues at the end of their logic (viaamong others_. _A new form of capitalization of nostalgia).

But beyond that. is there not also in the films studied here a desire to make this technique coincide with the narrative-and economical-franchises, so present today, and to which these films are attached? The logic of variation (by the use of digital imaging as such). repetition (by the use of digital imagery in order to reproduce something from the past) of the de-agency seem indeed, and as such, very close to those specific to the cinematographic franchises.