“I’m having a brat summer/Brat summer/Partying like I’m dumber/Brat summer…
Any festival-goers in Berlin who really wanted to party like it was summer 2024 were perhaps a little disappointed. On Saturday, Charli XCX broke bad news to all fans.
“It’s actually up to the world, but brat summer is definitely over for me,” Charli told XCX when she met with the world’s press on Saturday afternoon.
The pop star from Cambridge is in Berlin to launch the mockumentary “The Moment,” which is the final nail in the coffin. It’s a loud and chaotic satire in which she plays a “hell version” of herself. The action takes place in the fall of 2024 as she prepares for her big arena tour and is under pressure from everyone to “capture the moment” and keep the hype alive at all costs – including Rosanna Arquette’s record label executive Kylie Jenner (“Drive Harder”) and Alexander Skarsgård’s hot Pellejön creator, who is hired to produce a concert film and tries to take creative control of Charli XCX’s tour.
– We wanted to think a little about the lifespan of art, about the idea of taking too long on hospitality and not going home in time. “A lot of times in pop music it’s easy because fans are always so impatient for the next thing, the next album, the next version of themselves,” says Charli XCX, wearing all-black clothing that matches her hair.
As you’ve already guessed, chaos, strife and conflict are in store when she’s expected on all sides to give herself away to keep the attention. Just like the style-defining “Spinal Tap,” it is a satire on pop myths, celebrity culture and a greedy music industry.
– Making the film was quite cathartic as I was able to channel a lot of the frustration I felt in real life into the elevated situations we portray in the film. So now it’s really over. And once the end is over, you can’t be afraid anymore, she says and continues:
– In the film, “Charli” decides to free herself from “Brat” and kill “Brat”. And I think we were aware that this film would probably be the end point of the entire album campaign, she says.
Behind it is the direction Scottish feature film debutant Aidan Zamiri, who has previously made music videos for Charli XCX and Billie Eilish. He said “The Moment” would have a visual language that felt spontaneous and random.
– The camera is like its own character in the film. “We wanted a constant pace, energy and nervousness that hopefully permeates the entire film,” says Aidan Zamiri about his feature film debut and continues:
– Photographer Sean Price Williams and I talked about how he could never really predict when someone was going to speak – but rather that he would capture the characters in a random way – or that he would just get distracted by something completely different and drift off. The audience should never know whether the cameraman is being voyeuristic, anxious, or just plain clumsy.
Did I break down in the back seat of a Mercedes-Benz Viano while smoking a lot of cigarettes? Yes.
The film was hyped ahead of its world premiere at Sundance, but reception was mixed. One critic called it a “masturbation disaster” while others said it was “messy, stylish and self-conscious.” Any way you look at it, Charli XCX has a natural presence.
“I’ve been training for this role my whole life, so to speak – I’ve been very ‘Method’ since birth,” she joked, continuing:
– And I definitely reacted the same way I did in the movie. Did I break down in the back seat of a Mercedes-Benz Viano while smoking a lot of cigarettes? Yes. “So I was really able to get a lot of inspiration,” said Charli XCX, who also took the opportunity to pay tribute to the Berlin Film Festival:
– We feel very honored to have been invited to a festival that is known for not shying away from political films, films with a clear social aspect and directors who are truly visionary and have something to say.
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