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Fame (1980)
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by MGM (Warner)
Sales Rank: 14446
Price: $14.98
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This early effort by director Alan Parker is lively but jagged as it follows four students through their years in the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. Rather predictably, the kids fall into four clearly defined stereotypes: brazen, gay and hypersensitive, prickly, shy. It makes up for a disjointed presentation with a lot of heart and a great soundtrack (for which it won two Academy Awards). The hopes and disappointments, failures and successes of these teens are fodder for emotional scenes and exuberant dancing in the streets. It also turned out to be the first of many imitators and spawned a popular television series. (It was the breakout film for the short-lived feature film career of Irene Cara, who sang the title song.) <i>--Rochelle O'Gorman</i>
Viewer Reviews
After reading a few pages of Richard Yates' celebrated novel A GOOD SCHOOL I tossed it onto the cushions of my bed, rebelliously thinking that if I wanted a disjunctive, multivalent account of four years of high school, the good times and the bad, I would rather be watching the DVD of FAME. Bruno Martelli, the hero, has a supportive father and uncle, a pair of colorful taxi drivers who cheer their boy's talent though they don't fully understand his drive to make music. And yet Bruno suffers from low self-esteem, thinking that he will never score with a girl, which seems sadly true, at least until his musical talent allows him to give Coco, his Puerto Rican muse, the sort of gift which a girl might really appreciate--a brace of pop tunes that might make people "remember her name."
Director Alan Parker struggles with his actors, especially with stolid Lee Curreri in the role of Bruno--he could really have used somebody mercurial or fiery, instead he wound up with a curly-haired pound cake. "Coco" has to do all the work, the impressive Irene Cara, good in both the tender moments and the hard ones, and very affecting in the scene in which she is tricked into taking off her clothes in front of the camera for a con man affecting a French accent and an acquaintance with the films of Jean-Luc "Goddard." The other young players are awfully good, though it is hard to believe that Godspell-like Barry Miller, as a would be standup comic with a Freddie Prinze obsession, is magnetic enough to attract both Doris (Maureen Teefy) and Montgomery McNeil (Paul McCrane), both of whom run quiet circles around the brash young Miller. FAME is sometimes decidedly hard-edged and nasty, which is all to its credit and reflects its appearance at the tail end of the 70s, while the New American Cinema could still get a movie like this made, and the hopeful ending does not feel unjustified--these boys and girls have already lived life hard, and maybe they'll make some use out of all the pain in their lives. Though as Montgomery warns, it's a pie in the face business and there are no guarantees.
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Fame (1980)
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