Richard Phillips's intimate filmed portrait of Lindsay Lohan shows how the medium is artistically superior to the photograph
Lohan is seen as an almost mythical beauty, a pop goddess framed against the sparkling sea, contemplating her own outsized image. The image is bigger than she is: the real Lindsay Lohan is dwarfed by the colossus of her fame – but this art film is not rejecting the myths of celebrity, it is fascinated and enraptured by those myths. Phillips gleefully lingers in the same amoral realm as his often provocative paintings.
His camera worships Lohan. She becomes a modern Venus by the sea, and her appearances in court and the media seem irrelevant beside the persona he portrays. It is a love letter.
Lohan will not be in Venice for the premiere, as she is currently under house arrest. But this filmed portrait does a good job in her defence. It is a passionate hymn to someone the artist sees as a true star.
Lohan is seen as an almost mythical beauty, a pop goddess framed against the sparkling sea, contemplating her own outsized image. The image is bigger than she is: the real Lindsay Lohan is dwarfed by the colossus of her fame – but this art film is not rejecting the myths of celebrity, it is fascinated and enraptured by those myths. Phillips gleefully lingers in the same amoral realm as his often provocative paintings.
His camera worships Lohan. She becomes a modern Venus by the sea, and her appearances in court and the media seem irrelevant beside the persona he portrays. It is a love letter.
Lohan will not be in Venice for the premiere, as she is currently under house arrest. But this filmed portrait does a good job in her defence. It is a passionate hymn to someone the artist sees as a true star.
