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Fame 1980 film review


Fame 1980 film review

Fame (1980, United States)

Genres
Running time
134 minutes
Language
English
Categories
Locations
the story takes place in New York CityNew YorkUnited States
Our rating
★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8 / 10

Another academic year begins in the High School for the Performing Arts in New York City and people dreaming of becoming professional dancers, actors or musicians are coming from all the parts of the city for the auditions. For them it is the first step to fame, but as they soon find out it only a first step to a lot of hard work. Through eyes of several of the students we see the auditions, the classes, the exams and their life choices. They are from different parts of New York, they have different talents and different backgrounds, but inside the walls of the school they express their real souls. Their lives outside the school are not so beautiful.

Classic musical by Alan Parker, which showed a different approach to the genre - since most of the scenes take place in the School for the Performing Arts the musical numbers are much more natural elements of the movie than in other productions. Also, despite the fact that the film shows the following years of same group of students, we don’t see the full stories of the students, rather small parts of their lives. And from some of them we can learn something about themselves, but the other are left without full explanation.

Fame is one of the rare examples of musical that on the first glance doesn’t feel like musical, rather like drama or documentary. It show the reality, but also has rather powerful message. Also a great soundtrack that was awarded Oscar.


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Watch Fame


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Creators of Fame


Alan Parker films

Alan Parker

director

Christopher Gore films

Christopher Gore

screenplay



Cast of Fame


Irene Cara films

Irene Cara

as Coco

Lee Curreri films

Lee Curreri

as Bruno

Maureen Teefy films

Maureen Teefy

as Doris

Paul McCrane films

Paul McCrane

as Montgomery

Barry Miller films

Barry Miller

as Ralph

Laura Dean films

Laura Dean

as Lisa

Gene Anthony Ray films

Gene Anthony Ray

as Leroy

Antonia Franceschi films

Antonia Franceschi

as Hilary

Boyd Gaines films

Boyd Gaines

as Michael

Anne Meara films

Anne Meara

as Mrs. Sherwood

Albert Hague films

Albert Hague

as Shorofsky

Tresa Hughes films

Tresa Hughes

as Mrs. Finsecker


Fame 1980 add comment
Fame 1980 add comment


Trivia about Fame


Preparations

While preparing for "Fame" director Alan Parker spent several months in the High School for the Performing Arts just watching the students and the teachers during their normal classes trying to make the film as close to reality as possible.


Never made it to the top

Just like in the main message of "Fame" that most of the people dreaming of becoming a star will never make it to the top, most of actors playing the main characters in the movie never made it to the stardom. Only two of them, Irene Cara as singer and Paul McCrane as actor, reached some level of success.