5th Academy Awards

The Celebrity (Power as an insider and outsider and how that relates to Grand Hotel and multi-narrative filmmaking)

Hollywood Melodramas

The Importance of Casting the Cast and then that Ensemble Cast working (also it being not valued by the Academy)

Celebrity: Power as an insider and outsider

MGM once promoted this film as “the greatest cast ever assembled”. No it wasn’t an Avengers movie, It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, or Ocean’s 11 or 12 or 13 or 8. It was the Best Picture winner of 1931/32, Grand Hotel. The attraction of the celebrity in Hollywood was the biggest ploy to get audiences to see this film. Faces sell and Hollywood continues to grow as the stars become marketing tools. Going to the cinema becomes more than just watching a story take place. The celebrity embodies the character and presents it to the audience in order to establish a connection. The celebrity is important for pop culture because they can represent fashion, cultural/political views, and at times encompass a general feeling within these high-priced dramas. These representative feelings or characterizations are relatable to a general audience. The layered entertainment is a tool for the audience to engage intensely or minutely with the story. Melodramatic stories are perfect for general audiences because that particular story can connect at an emotional-human level. The exaggerated moments and emotions in these films help celebrities because we are now identifying the entertainment with a face. That face now speaks for their character on screen as well as the off screen character that everyone gets to consume. This elevates the celebrities status and then puts them into more films for us to consume. It’s just the Hollywood Circle of Life.

When done right it can be an enjoyable watch that makes you grow fond of a film. So fond of a film that you award it Best Picture.