It will be difficult for another artist to revolutionize the Berlinale as the British singer Charli XCX (Cambridge, 33 years old) has done today, and that is why the event has scheduled a press conference for her film The Moment, when the parallel section in which it participates does not appear before journalists. The tumults in the street, with fans chasing a photo with her, could be used for some sequence of The Moment, a mockumentary that plays with the idea that Charli XCX and her record company want to extend the success of her sixth studio album, Brat, published summer 2024. Now, at what price?
In Berlin, the singer recalled that for years she was “a pop star with an extremely loyal gay fan base; and that changed with Brat”. For this reason, she explained, she experienced a change in perspective: “When you launch art into the world and it reaches a wide audience, and in my case, this was the widest audience I have reached, the work begins to transform and change its meaning. I had never experienced it on this scale, and it made me reflect a lot on how we communicate art, at what moment the art stops being in your hands and passes into those of the public, and how that makes you feel as a creator.”
The Moment It coincided with the premiere of the film Wuthering Heightsin which the British has contributed three songs (one of them, House, composed with John Cale, from The Velvet Underground). It may not be the hype of Brat, but it is clear that this week there is Charli XCX everywhere. “In the film I am and I am not, so two different Charlis have coexisted in me,” he joked at the Berlinale. “I’ve been rehearsing for this role my whole life (laughs). I’ve met versions of the characters we play in the movie, and I’ve definitely reacted in similar ways to how I do in the movie (laughs). Have I ever had a nervous breakdown in the back of a Mercedes Viano van? Of course… although in real life I hope I’m nicer.”
A few weeks ago, in the Substack application, in its second entry, titled The reality of being a pop starthe British woman told the best and worst things about being famous: “You feel special, but also, sometimes, you are ashamed of how absurd it all is.” Or her daily life: “You end up spending a lot of time inhabiting liminal, strange and soulless spaces. Whether it’s the waiting room of the event you’re about to enter, the VIP lounge at the airport, the visa office (…), you often find yourself stuck in the middle. You’re in transit, you’re going somewhere, but the trip itself takes up most of the experience.”
That’s at the heart of The Moment, that she, as co-producer, co-writer with director Aidan Zamiri (one of her best friends) and protagonist, has nourished with her experience. For the occasion she has brought together friends who play themselves, such as the actress Rachel Sennott, and other figures of the 21st century, such as Kylie Jenner, with whom she has a hilarious moment in the most pretentious spa in Ibiza. Other characters are played by professional performers: the mega-boss of the record label is played by Rosanna Arquette, and the megalomaniac director of the film about a Charli technobro of Succession or the leader of a sadomasochous gay biker gang in Pillion. “I am also a quite emotional and volatile artist,” the artist confessed, “like many others. I feel like making this film has been a way to not only talk about art and its longevity, but also to address my experience, my personal experience as an artist, and how I feel in the industry.”
Skarsgård’s character elevates the film to the absurd, and in that moment, when imbecility infects Charli XCX’s decisions to capture on screen Brat, An obvious reproach comes to Taylor Swift, an artist with whom the British woman has her ups and downs, and who receives several indirect taunts on screen (for example, a shiny microphone like those of the American). It makes sense: Swift has launched herself into audiovisuals as another land to conquer. On the other hand, when Brat multiplied the world fame of Charli She wasn’t interested: “It wasn’t something that really spoke to me as an artist.”
Charli XCX believes that in real life she has “more freedom” than on screen. “How strange it sounds to say Charlie from the movie,” he stressed. “In the world of pop everything is planned and that controlled final image is what the public sees. However, there is a long road to that final point that in The Moment It’s the disaster. There are crazy ideas thrown around by deranged people who have no idea who you are as an artist. Brands come in and suggest completely crazy concepts. One ends up asking: ‘How did we get here?’ In this film I have been able to express my frustrations, my fears. By the way: yes, summer Brat It’s over. With this film I close that stage.” In the German capital it has become clear that she rules. In The Moment, Charli deals with a textbook identity crisis for not knowing how to leave behind Brat and shouts, helplessly: “I don’t know what the hell I want!”
Although both the artist and the director have mentioned in the interviews references such as This Is Spinal Tap (the film that introduced the concept of mockumentary the false document), opening night, by Cassavettes, where the film by Ruben Östlund, has The Moment It lacks a tusk. It does not quite fulfill the golden rule of the mockumentary of satirizing the protagonist as Joaquin Phoenix did in I’m Still Here, In addition, it advances among too many winks for unrepentant fans. There are good ideas; However, he does not step on the accelerator of mockery. And when the debacle comes of a bank that has launched credit cards Brat, It does not finish the slap to either capitalism or corporations. Even the film is all too aware of the totemic nature of Brat for its potential audience to criticize the green color of the launch or to laugh at its songs (which are barely heard). In the US, its production and distribution company, A24, released it after Sundance in a limited release: only 50 theaters in New York and Los Angeles, so that generation Z, Charli XCX’s base, could support it. Result: you fill all the sessions. Almost all the spectators were under 35 years of age.
This is neither Charli XCX’s first nor last film. In the fall it premiered 100 Nights of Hero; Sacrifice, by Romain Gavras, y Eruptionwhich he also produced and co-wrote. At Sundance he appeared with The Momentand with secondary fictional characters in The Gallerist (along with Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega) and I Want Your Sex, the return of Gregg Araki. And yes, Charli XCX has more projects in the works. That’s why she reflected on the happiness that accompanying her mockumentary to Sundance and the Berlinale has brought her: “It’s great to be in a competition that doesn’t shy away from political films, with a genuine social focus, feature films from truly visionary directors with a clear message. As a producer, these are the films that I love, and the ones that I want to defend. In cinema, I feel like I’m just getting started.”