Judy

A little while ago Amazon suggested that I would like to buy the DVD of the 2019 film about Judy Garland with Renée Zellweger in the lead. The sort of suggestion which I usually ignore but which I followed up on this occasion, probably because my mother had had some records of her songs - Garland being very much a star of her generation. I am fairly sure that I have seem the 'Wizard of Oz' in my time, but I didn't really know anything about her except that she died of an overdose. At the time when I was an undergraduate in London in 1969: I dare say I knew about it, but she was not then someone in whom I took any interest. I was aware of the Talk of the Town being a large night club offering fancy floor shows, and did vaguely think of raising the necessary to go there one evening, but never made it.

The young Garland

Zellweger as Garland: at just about the right age

A good film, which we have now watched twice. The second time in one sitting, which is unusual for us. And I dare say we will watch it again at some point. In any event, the DVD is in the ready-use box in the house rather than in the retirement box in the garage, destined for the big sale in the Methodist Church in February. 

An unexpected outcome in that I do not usually care for films which go in for a lot of cutting between past and present, which this one did, with my preference being for films which move more or less steadily forward in time.

A few more random thoughts follow.

Was it all laid on with a trowel? Did Garland really look as ravaged by the end as she was given here?

I was struck by her thrust at her husband at one low point. You cook up these deals for me to do all these performances, but you have no idea what it is like to have to get out there and do it, night after night. From where I associate to the IT trainers with whom I once had quite a lot of dealings, who took large amounts of black coffee to keep them going. That kept them cheerful, friendly and functioning however they might have felt inside, however they might have felt about the punters.

Then there is the need to be loved. For her to be a star, people needed to like her and maybe when you are a young star you just take this for granted. But maybe as you get older you start to worry. What if they don't love me any more? What on earth can I do to make them? From where one can see their need for constant reassurance, for the clapping never to stop. From where I associate to my need to like an actor or actress, at least in what they do. They might be portraying a bad person, an unpleasant person, but at some level you have to like both the portrayer and the portrayal. Which must be a difficult trick to pull off - and certainly plenty don't - with the result that I struggle to watch the film in question.

From where I get to my old chestnut about the way that luvvies love to do plays within plays, films about films, luvvies playing luvvies. And we the public love it. We are all fascinated by the whole peculiar business, the whole business of pretence, the whole business of putting on a show.

And the other old chestnut about the reliability of biopics, of docudrama, of historical fiction generally. With my take being that it is reasonable to expect the portrayal of whatever it is to give the flavour, but not reasonable to expect it to give the minor facts. So was the extensive sub-plot of the two gays who loved all things Garland a flavour or a fact?

I wondered about the extent to which a star like Garland chose to be a star. My feeling is, right or wrong, that while she might have been coerced by circumstances, by overbearing parents and studio people, at some level she chose to be a star. She chose not to drop back into normal, anonymous life. And so to that extent at least she was a volunteer and has to take responsibility for what happened.

But perhaps not so much for being a substance abuser. If she was fed uppers and downers as a child to keep her going, to keep her slim and young-looking, she would end up addicted to the things. To that she did not give her consent.

Zellweger was well supported. The movie mogul (Cordery), the impressario (Gambon) and the doctor (Lukis) all did well, to name but three. As did the minder (Buckley) - from where I associate to someone whom I used to know who was in this very trade, that is to say the trade of minding the older star. I wonder if she got to see the film.

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Garland. The story of Judy according to Wikipedia.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome,_London. The venue. The 'Talk of the Town' gets a twenty year slot in its now more than 100 year life.

Reference 3: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7549996/. The story of the film according to IMDB.