- published: 30 Apr 2016
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Celebrity is a 1998 comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The screenplay focuses on the divergent paths a couple takes following their divorce.
Lee Simon (Kenneth Branagh) is an unsuccessful novelist turned travel writer who immerses himself in celebrity journalism following a midlife crisis and subsequent divorce from his insecure wife, Robin (Judy Davis), a former English teacher, after sixteen years of marriage.
As he stumbles his way through both professional encounters and sexual escapades with performers, models, and other players in the world of entertainment, Lee increasingly questions his purpose in life. He blows numerous opportunities due to his fame-seeking and neuroses.
Meanwhile, Robin trades her many neuroses for a makeover and a job with television producer Tony Gardella (Joe Mantegna) that leads to her own celebrity interview program. She takes advantage of numerous opportunities and ends up happy and successful.
The film was shot in black-and-white on location in New York City by cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Celebrity was the last of four films shot by Nykvist for Allen. It also marks the end of Allen's long collaboration with editor Susan E. Morse, who had edited the previous twenty of Allen's films beginning with Manhattan (1979).
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media. The term is synonymous with wealth (commonly denoted as a person with fame and fortune), implied with great popular appeal, prominence in a particular field, and is easily recognized by the general public.
Various careers within the fields of sports and entertainment are commonly associated with celebrity status. These fields have produced prominent figures within these two industries. Many professional athletes have risen to fame such as golfer Tiger Woods, former boxer Muhammad Ali, football player Tom Brady, hockey player Wayne Gretzky, and basketball player Michael Jordan. Prominent entertainment figures have also reached celebrity status such as models Sofia Vergara, Gisele Bündchen, and Adriana Lima, authors J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyer of Twilight, pop singers Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, rappers Eminem, Jay-Z, Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Drake, Lil Wayne and Kanye West, musicians Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, artists Damien Hirst, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Lucien Freud, radio personalities Don Imus and Howard Stern, political pundits and infotainers Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck, television talk show hosts Barbara Walters, Larry King and Oprah Winfrey, movie actresses Julia Roberts, Demi Moore, and Jessica Alba, television actors Charlie Sheen and Ashton Kutcher, national television correspodents Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric, and Meredith Viera or comedians Ellen Degeneres, Joan Rivers, Jay Leno and George Lopez.
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.
Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.
Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.