“A Star Is Born” directed by Bradley Cooper with Lady Gaga is not an original film, since it is the third remake of a 1937 film!
This evening TF1 is broadcasting the musical drama A Star Is Born, by and with Bradley Cooper, but also Lady Gaga in her first major film role! A huge box office success and nominated for eight Oscars, the film is nevertheless the remake of several feature films released before it… Because yes, three A Star Is Born films were released before this 2018 version!
A remake
But the subject of A Star Is Born is not new, since before it, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson had given the answer in A Star Is Born in 1976. Again located in the field of music, the film chronicles the self-destructive journey of rock singer John Norman Howard, who meets Esther, an aspiring singer who will soon eclipse him.
Warner Bros.
Their stormy personal and professional relationship is at the heart of the film, and echoed largely by Bradley Cooper’s version. And it was the first version to transform the initial subject by transposing it to music. Because before, A Star Is Born was about… cinema!
A remake of a remake
A Star is Born (1954) features a fading movie star (James Mason) meeting a young singer (Judy Garland) and introducing her to a studio boss. The young actress climbs the ladder at lightning speed and marries her mentor. Their relationship again will suffer many setbacks, one of which is repeated almost as is in Bradley Cooper’s version: when the drunken husband ruins a ceremony dedicated to his wife.
A remake of a remake of a remake
But before A Star Is Born, there was another A Star Is Born, yes! A previous film, also titled in French A Star is Born, released in 1937! Worn by Janet Gaynor and Fredric March and directed by William A. Wellman, this version is supposedly inspired by actress Barbara Stanwyck’s life with her first husband, Frank Fay.
Warner Bros.
Excerpt from the credits of A Star is Born
Having been a success, a sequel to A Star Is Born had been announced. Entitled Heartbreak Town, it was to focus on the journey of a child star in the world of cinema. Ultimately, it will never see the light of day.