15:23 PDT 16/03/2021
by
Inkoo Kang
Rachel Fleit directs a portrait of the actor’s struggle with multiple sclerosis and her pursuit of a long and severe treatment for it.
Actor Selma Blair appears for the first time in the new documentary about her struggle with multiple sclerosis (MS), dressed as Norma Desmond, the withdrawn, washed-up silent film star who stars Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. In a sparkling turban, a floor-length leopard dress and her cane by her side, Blair displays a funny self-awareness about her public image, especially since announcing her diagnosis in October 2018. “I probably had this incurable disease for at least 15 years,” she wrote in an Instagram post. ‘And I’m relieved to at least know that. And share. ”
She’s actually extraordinarily open in Rachel Fleit’s Launch, Selma Blair. According to its (grammatically incorrect) title, the film is a reintroduction of sorts to the Cruel intentions and Legal blonde co-star (Blair has always been keenly aware of her place in Hollywood as a supporting actress, she says). Debuting on SXSW this year and streaming on Discovery + later this year, Introduction is a strikingly moving portrait of a 40-year-old woman who is forced to reevaluate her relationships and her sense of self in the face of a chronic illness that sometimes does not enable her to speak or control her movements . When Blair was first diagnosed, she shook uncontrollably. She still struggles to pull out the trash and regularly crawls with her stairs on the stairs to her bedroom to help her balance. Outside her home, with so many more stimuli in the area, her symptoms become worse and more unpredictable.
Fleit boasts two tremendous assets for her debut: Blair’s witty charm and purposeful lack of self-awareness. (She maintains a relative vanity about her appearance, although it’s unclear to what extent it’s genuine to the camera.) During her lighter moments, the actor is a funny pleasure to be around, like the kind of friend who does not have to trying very hard to make you laugh. In her darker, more philosophical moments, Blair is no less fascinating, as when she discusses her dying, never-seen-before mother. “My mother attached a darkness to me,” says the actor, and her desire for a different kind of mother-daughter relationship is haunting.
MS suffers its sufferers by turning their immune system against their brain and spinal cord. (Its symptoms vary from person to person, and its causes are unknown.) Introduction chronicles about Blair’s stem cell transplant – a week-long procedure that in her case involves harvesting his stem cells, temporarily destroying the patient’s immune response through chemotherapy, and reintroducing the cells in hopes of building a healthier immune system word. The treatment is not without risk of death, and is reportedly extremely painful. Blair has an outward experience halfway through.
The seemingly self-absorbed footage of the actress crying on her hospital bed is hard to watch, and it’s somehow more heartbreaking as she reflects on how her young son, Arthur, may fare after her death. It’s impossible not to get the idea that Blair may have agreed to the documentary, so that her only child may one day be able to see a version of his mother before her MS progresses even further, especially since a case as serious as she is, can leave her behind. brain damage.
After her transplant, a doctor tells Blair that “work can be therapeutic” in the recovery process. A look at her filmography indicates a steady drop of work, but she also says of the industry: ‘I do not know who would believe in me. ‘Perhaps the most surprising recognition is that, despite her ambitions, she could never have been the best actress, relying on the relative ease of supporting roles (as she saw it) to build a decade-long career. This is not to say that she is not proud of her work – how different about the Cruel intentions T-shirt she wears in the hospital?
Blair is so transparent and eloquent in describing her illness and the way it changes the way she sees herself – especially the shame she feels for symptoms she can not help – that it’s sometimes frustrating that Fleit is not just a little will not reach further. Given the often isolating effects of disability, it would be helpful to get an idea of Blair’s social circles since her withdrawal from the public eye.
And given the very unequal medical care that patients receive in America due to their wealth (or lack thereof), it might have been informative to get an idea of the accessibility (or not) of a treatment like the treatment that makes up about half of the film. The consequences are not as dramatic or as immediate as Blair had hoped, but the doctor’s heart lies in the glimpse of her daily existence, whether it is crackling or not. Gray Gardens making jokes or giving less and less a fuck about whether the neck massager she bought for her cramps is really a vibrator. Now she simply has more urgent things to think about.
Production Company: Liddell Entertainment
Distributor: Discovery +
Director: Rachel Fleit
Producers: Mickey Liddell, Pete Shilaimon, Troy Nankin
Executive Manufacturer: Cass Bird
Director of Photography: Shane Sigler
Editor: Sloane Klevin
Composer: Raphaelle Thibaut
Venue: South by Southwest Film Festival (competition for documentary features)
90 minutes