Event Details

Subtitled Screening: The Bling Ring (15)

Selected to open the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes this year, director Sofia Coppola's (Lost in Translation) latest endeavour tells the story of a real-life group of affluent American teens who pillage the residences of A-list celebrities. This film explores the social media generation's addiction to celebrity culture but also acknowledges that this addiction creates a gap which can only be filled by stuff.

Marc (Israel Boussard) and Rebecca (Katie Chang) bond over a number of petty thefts and a burglary to quell their perceived need for designer goods.When there are no apparent repercussions, they begin to stalk the movements of celebrities via the internet in order to loot their homes. A fetish-induced frenzy ensues, seeing the group's numbers swell to include Nicki (Emma Watson) amongst their ranks. Along with their newly commandeered attire, the teens busy themselves with living the 'lifestyle⿝ but it's not long before surveillance videos, 24 hour news and the police come knocking.

With a carefully directed aesthetic, this film appears to be as utterly superficial and materialistic as its characters, but this allows Coppola to make a number of caustically humorous and visual observations about the frivolity of youth. When showing the characters' vain attempts at a self-reflective stance after the event, Coppola expertly lays bare the painfully vapid and formulaic appeals to the camera that all celebrities make. Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Kirsten Dunst all willingly make brief cameos as themselves, hinting at a wonderfully insidious irony embedded within the film.

Date	Time
Tue 23rd Jul 2013	18:00