A Star Is Born
Short description
A Star Is Born follows John Norman Howard, a rock star whose career is in sharp decline as his drinking and drug use take over. After a humiliating concert, he drifts into a nightclub where Esther Hoffman is performing with a female trio, and he is struck by her talent. He gives her a break at one of his own shows, an opportunity that leads to a record deal and turns her into a rising star. As Esther's fame grows, John's continues to fade, and the marriage that develops between them is strained by his self-destruction and her efforts to pull him back from it.
Frank Pierson directed this 1976 American production, the first film in his directing credits, working from a screenplay he wrote with Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne; Jon Peters produced. Barbra Streisand plays Esther and Kris Kristofferson plays John, with Gary Busey, Oliver Clark, and singers Venetta Fields and Clydie King among the credited cast of forty. Made for about six million dollars, it took in roughly eighty million worldwide, a strong return.
Rated by audiences at 6.1 on IMDb from around 14,000 votes and 6 on TMDB from a smaller number, the film drew a critics' score of 5.4 from forty-three reviews, a noticeably cooler reception than its commercial performance suggests.
What's left behind the scenes
- The song "Evergreen" was performed live on set and recorded in one take, at the insistence of Barbra Streisand, who detested singing to a backing track. Streisand wanted several close-ups in the scene, which would have been difficult to achieve with lip-syncing. Kris Kristofferson, on the other hand, was not enthusiastic about the idea of performing live in front of the camera, so he had to be persuaded.
- The film shows Barbra Streisand receiving a Grammy Award. Streisand did indeed receive a Grammy and an Oscar for the song "Evergreen" from this film.
- Screenwriters Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne spent three months on tour with Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, and Jethro Tull to get a feel for what it's like to be a rock star.
- While John watches Esther’s first performance on stage, one of the bar patrons approaches him. This man was played by Robert Englund, whose most famous role is as the serial killer Freddy Krueger in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise. Englund’s surname is not listed in the credits.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
