Not a month goes by without his biopic. Dylan, Callas, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen will appear on screens in 2025. Before, it was Marley, Aznavour, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and Amy Winehouse. How can you succeed in surprising people by telling the story of the life of a star? It is the half-successful bet of Better Manin theaters Wednesday January 22.
Robbie Williams is a charming English pop singer. Known for participating in the boy band Take That, he then had a solo career marked by 12 albums and worldwide hits. It weighs millions of records sold, pharaonic tours and the image of“a fool”, he says at the very beginning of the film, which succeeded despite a life of highs and stubborn demons.
The film arrives in France after a disappointing American release in terms of attendance figures. In Better Manhe takes on the features of a monkey. Two questions arise. Did he already deserve a biopic at 50 and why the hell a monkey?
To make a good biopic, you need a great story, a complex character and a talented artist. Robbie Williams has his beautiful story. The film begins in the family living room of a typical British working-class home. Robert – his name is still Robert – is in front of a television set. In the image, Frank Sinatra, crooner among crooners.
And here are the father and son, comb and beer can as a microphone aping the singer. The father dreamed of being a star, he instilled the virus in his son. Better Man is therefore the portrait of a little kid who will fight fiercely to become a celebrity. His father, a half-failed artist, gives him this warning: “You don’t have the trick.” (to succeed). He will spend his life wanting to prove her wrong and he will succeed.
Robbie Williams is a complex character. He is pretentious and endearing, a brilliant actor of his own existence, from the heights of glory to destructive excesses with pathetic accents. The film does not hide any dark, even suicidal inclinations of the singer. Cocaine, alcohol, drugs, Robbie plunges into the depths of depression with every possible product imaginable.
But is he a remarkable artist? A single scene takes the viewer into the secrets of creation. Robbie is in distress at the time. Guy Chambers, English songwriter, saves him by shoving him. “To write a good song, you have to dig deep inside yourself.” They will write together Angelit’s an understatement to say that it will be a hit.
Since the trailers for the film have been circulating announcing the biopic, everyone has been asking the question, what a crazy idea to represent the pop star as a monkey. Man is descended from apes, so would Robbie Williams claim to be an ancestor of man? Reverse anthropomorphism? A fascination for Planet of the Apes ?
Robbie Williams clarified the enigma by declaring to Variety that he'is always felt “less evolved than other people.
But he's the director Michael Gracey who solves this riddle. His choice was not to make a classic biopic, to stand out. To thisEvery time he listened to Robbie Williams interviews, he noticed the singer kept calling himself a monkey.
-Robbie would say things like:I'm in the back dancing like a monkey” or “I was totally in a funk, but they brought me on stage so I could express myself, so I can play like a monkey.” The director testifies: “After a while, I thought it would be great to portray Rob as a monkey in the movie.”
“Rock stars can change the energy of a room, making it suddenly revolve around them”declares the director. He quickly discovered that the monkey was transmitting Robbie's energy. “When you put a monkey in a scene, you can’t help but be drawn to him, even if he doesn’t speak,” Gracey explains. “And this is how we understand what it is to be a star. You can't look away from this person. So, to me, the monkey fits how Robbie sees himself. Because Long before she was famous, Rob was always that person who, when she walked into a room, was the center of attention.” he continues.
Technically, it's stunning. The spectator ends up forgetting that it is a monkey who dances, sings, takes drugs… The process already used by Peter Jackson and his New Zealand special effects company Weta FX works wonders, this has caused nearly 2 000 visual effects shots and three years of work. Robbie's antics are successful and we end up forgetting that we are not watching the last episode of Planet of the Apes.
Better Man is therefore the drama of a puny little kid, one of those people who are not chosen to play football as the opening scene illustrates. And not being selected by your friends, even on a muddy and lousy pitch in England, is traumatic. But this somewhat whiny story is saved by a production by Michael Gracey who, for 2 hours 15 minutes, is eye-popping.
The choreography of Rock DJ on a recreated Piccadilly Circus is crazy like a music video from the 2000s or a scene from Moulin Rouge. Et Let Me Entertain You at the Glastonbury festival where the singer sees all his demons appear in the crowd before fighting them in a scene worthy of Gladiatorwill delight fans of special effects.
Better Man is therefore faithful to his character. Flamboyant, but annoying, spectacular, but sometimes vain. Robbie Williams is madly in love withentertainmenthis portrait is therefore entertainment.
Genre : Biopic/Musical
Director: Michaek Gracey
Actors: Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Kate Mulvany
Duration : 2h15
Sortie : 22 January 2025
Distributer : Paramount Pictures France
Synopsis : The rise of famous British singer/songwriter Robbie Williams. Having become a star with the boy band Take That in the 1990s, the latter gradually plunged into artificial paradises before finding solo success in 1997 with the song Angels.
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