A Star Is Born (1937)

William A Wellman's A star is born could almsot have been written by Tennesse Williams. Cruel human relations, self-loathing characters, plenty of self-searching on the screen. And then there's the bloody (in several ways) world of entertainment: a world of business, rising stars and has-beens. The film, almost a chamber drama, delivers a raw image of a corrupt industry and conjures up an equally jaded image of the human sacrifices and humiliation within that branch of business. The drama takes off with the encounter of the struggling young woman who has travelled from her small town family to Hollywood and who nurses big dreams of becoming an actress, and the movie star that eventually takes her under his wing - and marries her. The girl becomes famous, while the husband is torn apart by doubt and by more than a few drinks. Janet Gaynor as the actress - at first insecure, then growing into being the big star, the modern woman with a career - is excellent, luminous even. But what I remember most of all from this movie is its sympathetic rendition of the flaws of the two protagonists. They are troubled people, but the film shows their struggles with their lives and with business to be a complex and emotionally ambivalent affair. The film addresses tough questions about what it means to experience oneself as a burden. It mostly does so without sentimentality. The husband's career is not looking bright, he is drinking and the wife considers giving up her own acting for him. The husband misses his work, and feels depressed. This couple's problems is not rendered as a power struggle, or a clear-cut man/woman conflict. They both acknowledge one another's point of view, but dealing with the factual situation, taking responsibility and living on is difficult for both.b  I must say that in quite a few ways, it is hard to believe that this film is from 1937.