15:23 PDT 3/16/2021
in
Inkoo Kang
Rachel Fleit directs a medical portrait of the actor’s fight against multiple sclerosis and his search for a long and arduous treatment for her.
Actress Selma Blair appears for the first time in the new documentary about her fight against multiple sclerosis (EM) dressed as Norma Desmond, the reclusive and exhausted silent movie star played by Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. With a shiny turban, a leopard print dress down to the floor and her cane next to her, Blair shows a playful self-awareness about her public image, especially since she announced her diagnosis in October 2018. minimum, ”she wrote in an Instagram post. “And I’m relieved to at least know. And share. “
She is, in fact, exceptionally open at Rachel Fleit’s house Introducing, Selma Blair. By its title (grammatically incorrect), the film is a kind of reintroduction to the Cruel intentions and Legally Blonde co-star (Blair has always been fully aware of her place in Hollywood as a supporting actress, she says). Debuting on this year’s SXSW and broadcasting later this year on Discovery +, Introducing it is a moving portrait of a 40-something woman forced to reevaluate her relationships and her sense of identity in the face of a chronic illness that makes her sometimes unable to speak or control her movements. When she was first diagnosed, Blair recalls, she was shaking uncontrollably. She still has trouble taking out the trash and often crawls up the stairs to her room with one hand on each step to help her balance. Outside the home, with much more stimuli around, your symptoms tend to become more serious and unpredictable.
Fleit has two tremendous qualities for her debut film: Blair’s witty charm and lack of purposeful self-awareness. (She maintains an identifiable vanity about her appearance, although it is unclear how genuine she is versus an appearance for the camera.) During his lighter moments, the actor is a mischievous pleasure to be around, like the kind of friend who doesn’t have to try too hard to make you laugh. In his darkest and most philosophical moments, Blair is no less fascinating, as when he talks about his dying and unseen mother. “My mother tied a darkness to me,” says the actor, his desire for a different kind of mother-daughter relationship that is frighteningly present.
Multiple sclerosis affects its carriers, turning their immune system against the brain and spinal cord. (Its symptoms vary from person to person, and its causes are unknown.) Introducing chronicles Blair’s stem cell transplant – a weeks-long procedure that involves, in her case, harvesting stem cells, temporarily annihilating the patient’s immune response through chemotherapy, and then reinserting the cells in the hope that a healthier immune system to be rebuilt. The treatment is not without risk of death and, according to the information, it is extremely painful. Blair has an out-of-body experience halfway.
The seemingly self-recorded footage of the actor crying in his hospital bed is difficult to watch, and somehow even more moving when she considers how her son, Arthur, can do after his death. It is impossible not to have the feeling that Blair may have agreed to the documentary so that her only child can one day see a version of her mother before her MS progresses further, especially as a case as serious as hers can leave her. with brain damage.
After the transplant, a doctor tells Blair that “work can be therapeutic” in the recovery process. A look at her filmography suggests a steady flow of jobs, but she also says about the industry: “I don’t know who would believe me.” Perhaps the most surprising admission is that, despite her ambitions, she never cared to be the best actress she could be, relying on the relative ease of supporting roles (as she saw them) to build a career spanning decades. Which is not to say that she is not proud of her work – how else to explain the Cruel intentions T-shirt does she wear at the hospital?
Blair is so transparent and eloquent in describing her illness and the ways in which she finds herself transformed – especially the shame she feels for symptoms she cannot avoid – that it is sometimes frustrating that Fleit will not go any further. Given the generally isolated effects of disability, it would have been useful to have an idea of how Blair’s social circles have changed since she stepped out of the public eye.
And considering the extremely unequal medical care that patients in America receive based on their wealth (or lack thereof), it may have been informative to have a sense of the affordability (or not) of a treatment like that which represents approximately half of the film. Its effects are not as dramatic or instantaneous as Blair expected, but the doctor’s heart resides in glimpses of her everyday existence anyway, be it fragile Gray gardens jokes or less and less caring if the neck massager she bought for her cramped muscles is really a vibrator. Now, she simply has more urgent things to think about.
Developer: Liddell Entertainment
Distributor: Discovery +
Director: Rachel Fleit
Producers: Mickey Liddell, Pete Shilaimon, Troy Nankin
Executive producer: Cass Bird
Director of photography: Shane Sigler
Editors: Sloane Klevin
Composer: Raphaelle Thibaut
Location: South by Southwest Film Festival (documentary feature film competition)
90 minutes