Shooting Stars

British films set in film studios are as rare as hens teeth.I can only recall about 5 in all.So this film probably represents our only ever opportunity to view Elstree as a silent era.studio.What makes this film quite Erie is the fact that like her character in the film Annette Benson literally disappeared from films after two 1931talking pictures.In fact there is virtually no biographical information about her whatsoever.Brian Aherne her leading man went on to a fine Hollywood career.Donald Calthrop was a fine actor but alas became an alcoholic and died young.Anthony Asquith went on to a distinguished directorial career.certainly one of the most interesting of the British silent films still extant.

I can't answer for the rest of the audience; but I went into the screening anticipating a silent comedy that was a satire on contemporary Hollywood formula drama, 1920s cinema laughing wryly at itself. And at the start of the film, that was just what we got. Ripple after ripple of laughter rolled around the auditorium, from the opening moments as the languishing heroine of the film-within-a-film attempted to kiss a dove, got roundly pecked, and swore like a trooper. (One suspects lip-readers would have a treat at this point...)

It's hard to put a finger on when the audience stopped laughing. The change is very subtle; and if, as I was, you are not expecting it, the effect is gradually almost overwhelming.

The basic plot is the stuff of comedy, or of broad melodrama -- cuckolded husband, vain and silly wife, mistaken identity, unexpected return, and a gag involving a lipstick and, of all things, a shotgun cartridge. If it were a film -- which is to say, in one of the ridiculously bad films-within-the-film -- it would be played for laughs, inadvertent or otherwise. It is, I think, a very great tribute to both the actors playing actors, and to the director of "Shooting Stars" itself, that it comes across instead as contrasting real life with celluloid performance.

What starts off as slapstick becomes, by the end, desperately unfunny. Humour and double meanings have turned to the bitterest irony. Lines that once would have raised a laugh -- "I never knew Mae had it in her," says the director admiringly as his lead actress collapses on set in guilt and horror that are all too real for the scene -- now come closer to wrenching out a twisted sob. There are two different allusions even in the black wordplay of the title.

The film walks a very fine line between comedy and tragedy. Perhaps this, above all, is what I admire most -- Julian's cheerful ignorance as Mae faints, the empty, swinging chandelier, the alluring professional smile that drains from Mae's face as she turns to wave to her celluloid lover and witnesses her real lover's approach... By the end, comedy is now longer used for laughs. It is used to point up the sting of the tragedy by robbing it of melodrama.

I think the last actual laugh among the audience came when Mae runs to forestall the owner of the approaching footsteps, only to encounter an elderly an innocent clergyman. After that, there was nothing but gasps and silence until the last frame of the film. Judging by the outbreak of coughing and seat-backs that followed -- not to mention applause -- I wasn't the only one to have been sitting frozen, holding my breath. You could have heard a pin drop.



I felt particular credit should have gone to Brian Aherne, giving a wonderful performance as matinee idol Julian in what could have proved an utterly thankless part. Julian is essentially playing straight-man to his two co-stars, as open-hearted and naive as the stereotyped cowboy hero he is being asked to act, but without audience sympathy for him his wife's antics would be little more than a harmless bedroom farce.

Aherne makes us care about Julian -- makes us genuinely like him, and wince to see him hurt. The young man finds excuses for Mae's behaviour on-set, and for her sake laughs off being trailed like luggage in his wife's wake to Hollywood; and when he wishes that Mae's tenderness when they star together could correspond more closely to their off-screen married life, it is not farcical but poignant. When we smile at his childish vanity as he cheers himself on while watching his own film, just like the two schoolboys in the neighbouring seats, it is with amused affection.

Yet Aherne can also use his height and classic good looks to startling threatening effect, as we discover in the scenes where Julian learns the truth. By the end of the film, the character has grown; and Aherne gives him well-deserved authority to hold the role.(

After revisiting this film it became clear to me what a great gem it is. And it is definitely too obscure, much more people should know this film.

The three main characters are well-acted, the directing is phenomenal, the pacing is admittedly somewhat questionable here and there, but all in all, it was very enjoyable.

The film follows actress Mae Feather, who lives a life of publicity, though most of her public image is acting too as can be seen in an interview she gives in the beginning. She is married to a guy named Julian, who also works on the film she currently acts in

One shot during the start stands out - a tracking shot beginning at a man working on the set light, then moving to a Mae, following her from her film set, which is being wrapped up at that very moment, up the stairs to another film shot parallel in the same studios. This introduces us to the third part of the love triangle - Andy Wilks an actor in that other film.

This is not just a classic love triangle story though, this is an absolutely intense ride from comedy, suspense, drama and tragedy. Two scenes, in particular, are very suspenseful, I am sure Alfred Hitchcock was inspired by this to further develop his suspense technique (though Anthony Asquith definitely also used Hitchcock's The Lodger from a year earlier as influence to create suspense in this film).

The lighting in this film is phenomenal; the number of scenes that amazed me because they aren't lit with normal ceiling light, but rather by table lamps spread throughout the room, therefore creating depth in the image is immense.

Several artistic touches also stand out, such as words edited into the images to symbolise a radio report, or creative intertitles during a scene in a film shown in the cinemas (in the plot of Shooting Stars).

Yes, this film is absolutely about films, similar to Singing in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, 8 1/2, and one of my personal favourites: The Last Command. Shooting Stars also demonstrates filmmaking, some parts are almost documentary like. And Shooting Stars absolutely deserves to be a part of that list, as it is in of itself a master class film.

Anyway, the main flaw in this film is the pacing, as some parts towards the beginning and towards the very end are somewhat dragging (though the final conclusion is very well made).

Definitely check this film out, it is such an underrated film that deserves to be a classic.

--- SPOILERS FROM HERE ON ---

This film is a masterclass in symbolic filmmaking, foreshadowing, suspense and a perfect depiction of a ruined life.

When Mae Feather and Andy Smith start having their affair, you can see the blinking text: "Mae Feather in My Man" in the background in the cinemas. At that very same moment, one can see Julian watching the very film. In it, we can see how Mae is saved from an evil count by Julian, and the film has a happy ending. This shows how Julian's and Mae's relationship is to the public, and how it should be. The blinking sign, which can be seen through Mae's window constantly watches Andy and Mae, therefore symbolically also reminding the viewer of the third part of the love triangle.

Mae then gives Andy her key (also a visually impressive scene, only the hands of the two people are in the frame and the background shows parts of the elevator, while she gives him the key, the elevator comes up to their floor and opens, therefore visually reminding the viewer of her departure from Andy, whilst the key visually tells the viewer that they will meet in the future.) She says that her husband won't be home the next evening. Then, the next day, Andy plays a man in his film, who is also given a key from a woman (in fact, Mae's key is used as a prop), however the husband overhears the conversation and begins shooting Andy's character. During the shooting, Andy's stunt double is tragically injured, and reporters temporarily mistake him for Andy himself.

This scene is just full of foreshadowing: the husband will find out, and Andy will die.

Then three very suspenseful scenes follow, Julian is not out that evening, which encourages Mae to play loud music in order to overshadow the noise of Andy's entrance - her efforts for doing this are however stopped after the radio (falsely) reports of his death. This leads to Julian finding out. The next scene is on the film set again. In a film scene, Julian's character is to be shot. Mae, in an effort to get rid of him, puts a real bullet into the firearm. The next part is just pure suspense. During the shooting, there is even a slow-motion shot of the bullet travelling through the air - not something that I would expect from a film of the 1920s.

However, it turns out that, as there are multiple bullets in the firearm, the real bullet hasn't been fired yet. And just as it has to come: Andy gets shot with that one. Yet another very suspenseful scene, seeing Andy sitting on a chandelier and then falling all the way into the dark corners of the film studio - figuratively moving him from the height of his fame to the darkest parts of death. When Julian finds out about the incident, he figures out Mae's plan, and she then faints. This entire sequence has many interesting cinematic touches, such as the shadow of the chandelier still moving through the image after Andy fell down, over shocked people reacting to the incident. Or the camera movement towards Julian resulting in a closeup for added tension.

Unfortunately, the final 10 minutes drag a little, though they are still very well made: Mae Feather now lives in complete obscurity, whilst Julian is a film director. When by chance she is chosen as an extra for one of his films, she cries, as she remembers the time when she was a famous film star. The lights for the set are turned out one by one, putting her into darkness. She is the last person to leave the room (apart from the director) and just before that asks Andy: "Do you want me anymore?" A sentence that is of course loaded with emotion due to its multiple meanings. He doesn't even look at her and just shakes his head - he didn't even recognise her. The final shot sees her leaving the set, slowly becoming smaller and smaller in the frame filled with props, lights etc. She is now figuratively leaving her life of films behind completely. When she enters the doorway leading out of the room - now a tiny silhouette in the massive screen filled with camera equipment, one can just about see her looking back into the room. One last glance at her lost career, one last glance at her lost husband, one last glance at - figuratively - her lost love, and then she exits the screen, leaving only the studio in sight.

An early silent from Anthony Asquith, who displays enormous creativity in the way he sets shots up. The story might take a while to get going, but it builds to a thrilling crescendo before calming down for a poignant ending. Only the casting of the two male leads is a little off.

I watched the movies Shooting Stars and Underground because it was Brian Aherne's time as Star of the Week and I was interested to see him in silent films. I'm so glad I found them, because they were both fantastic! They're both directed by Anthony Asquith, a man with a vision far ahead of his time. Both films look like they were filmed in 1958 rather than 1928. The inventive angles, use of foreground and background, and refusal to conform to static shots were groundbreaking at the time.

In this one, Brian Aherne, Annette Benson, and Donald Calthrop play silent movie stars. There's an incredible shot that shows different sets filming on the same lot. In modern movies, we're used to seeing such a depiction of a silent movie studio, but in 1928, it was a thrill to show audiences what it was really like. Brian and Annette are married, but Annette isn't happy. She's a diva and finds excitement with Donald, who plays a Charlie Chaplin-esque slapstick star. Will their affair cause a scandal and damage their careers? Will Brian find out? This drama will keep you on the edge of your seat, even though no one speaks a word. It's extremely entertaining and riveting, and Asquith's directing is a marvel. You've got to watch one of his movies (or preferably more) to see his fantastic talent.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. When the stunt double starts riding his bicycle, look away for about a minute since there are some handheld shots that will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"