The Melania Documentary Is a Disgrace by Sophie Gilbert

Описание: Throughout the new documentary “Melania,” the camera seems desperate to find action—and although there is little, Sophie Gilbert argues, the film’s existence does reveal something about the entertainment industry.
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The film received a $40 million bid from Amazon, which was reported to include a roughly $28 million personal fee for Melania Trump, a further $35 million marketing budget, and an aggressive rollout across more than 3,300 theaters. It “bears underlining here that first ladies prior to Melania have typically declined—out of a sense of propriety rather than specific ethical constraints—to profit directly from their role while in office,” Gilbert writes.

“Melania” contains little substance, Gilbert argues, and in the documentary, the director Brett Ratner mostly “captures his subject walking from liminal place to liminal place in five-inch heels, the camera trailing her like a lap dog.” The first lady, Gilbert continues, “looks immediately uncomfortable being filmed, an effect that never quite goes away.”

“‘Melania’ the movie isn’t a documentary; it’s a protection racket,” Gilbert argues. “It’s a reminder that the richest people in the world are investing in entertainment brands not because they care about art but because the public does, and because all of these vanity projects and capitulations are a way to consolidate their own power and fortune.”

“Melania Trump really doesn’t seem to care about the optics of launching her $75 million show reel while the country is in such profound crisis—that much she has always made clear,” Gilbert argues. “But most Americans do. And the particular details of the past week—the demonstrations and the tear gas in Minneapolis, the ‘Melania’ ads covering the Sphere, the themed macarons at the White House, the scurrying-away of many who were professionally involved with this documentary—should be remembered long after the film itself is forgotten.”

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🎨: Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Sources: Chip Somodevilla / Getty; Spencer Platt / Getty.