Doc Corner: Reality Bites in 'Kate Plays Christine'
Tuesday, August 23, 2016 at 12:00PM Glenn here. Each Tuesday bringing you reviews of documentaries from theatres, festivals and on demand.
There is so much to unpack within Robert Greene’s Kate Plays Christine, not least of which is whether the film ought to be considered a documentary in the first place. Greene pushes the concept of documentary as a malleable construct that audiences should question the authenticity of much further than his previous 'non-fiction' work, Actress. This time by altogether abandoning reality, he calls into question everything we see in a documentary. By making the audience ask what is and is not real in Kate Plays Christine, Greene is essentially making us question what is real in any documentary and consider the motivations and mechanics behind them.
Audiences have no doubt asked these questions before in famously are-they-or-aren’t-they works of documentary like Catfish, Exit Through the Gift Shop, and even this year’s Tickled.
But those films, traditional narratives regardless of their factuality, are nothing on Kate Plays Christine. An altogether hypnotic film in which actress Kate Lyn Sheil sets about studying the life of Christine Chubbuck for a strange, absurdly amateur feature film about the seemingly forgotten Floridian newscaster who shot herself live on air in 1974 seemingly in an act of desperation and contempt for how far television news had succumbed to the mantra of “if it bleeds it leads”...
Sheil travels to Sarasota and is watched by Greene’s camera as she tries on wigs, gets a Florida suntan, interviews Chubbuck’s former co-workers, visits where Christine may have purchased her gun (both in and out of costume), and struggles with the enormity of portraying a woman on screen who felt so suffocated by depression and jealousy that she shot herself on TV.
Kate Plays Christine reveals its hand far earlier than, say, Stories We Tell. It quickly becomes obvious that the movie that Sheil is making is not real. It doesn’t exist. It is even vague about the particulars of the idea of the movie within the movie. Is Robert Greene making both? Who is and isn’t aware of what is happening? If the rest is real, how does the gun salesman not notice Kate Lyn has simply thrown a wig on and is also being followed by a camera? Kate Plays Christine’s director makes no real effort whatsoever to disguise that he is essentially bullshitting the audience for nearly two hours. And yet, does it matter?
Without the façade of traditional storytelling of documentary – or narrative cinema for that matter like, by pure coincidence, Antonio Campos’ Christine, a far less involving and sketchier telling of Chubbuck’s story that pales in the shadow of Kate Plays Christine not only in scope, but in ingenuity and dramatic resourcefulness – Greene’s film is able to highlight the complexities that go into the art of performance, the ethics of filmmakers (like news producers) using tragedy for cheap thrills, identity, the futility of representing mental turmoil on screen, and much more. It is a significant work that questions the processes and the mechanics of documentary filmmaking, a recurring theme lately between Jafar Panahi’s Tehran Taxi (which Kate most resembles, strangely enough) and Kristen Johnson’s upcoming Cameraperson. It is a technique that goes back decades although it’s never been utilized quite like this.
Are the interview subjects and performers that the film claims to feature the real deal or just playing for the camera? Or are they actors playing actors? Like Actress, maybe they're somewhere in between. To be honest, I hadn’t a clue as I sat watching it. Who are we to know for certain whether any obscure talking heads in film are real? Don’t we all just assume that documentarians – at least those out of the D’Souza/Moore realm – are honest people and take the filmmaker at their word? There is a fog over every frame that demands we question everything we see. And how we perceive Chubbuck, too. Ultimately, it gets at the idea of Chubbuck, a thoroughly unknowable woman, in a surprisingly more potent way by being as confounding as her. Everyone thought she was somewhat affected and shy, but we know that wasn’t the case. She was a mystery, and the film reflects that liminal mystery in its bold structure, helped by harsh digitally-captured sunshine of Sean Price Williams’ cinematography and Greene’s own editing.
Do we need a documentary telling us Chubbuck’s story? Much like the video of her death, the answer is not especially. But by using it as a canvas to ask bigger questions, Greene has made something altogether special and unique. No, I don’t think Kate Plays Christine is a documentary. At least not in the traditional sense. But the emotions on screen, especially from Sheil, are genuine and real and startling. In marketing itself as one, however, it can cause us to question everything we thought we knew about what a documentary can and should be. It's one of the year's greatest achievements.
Release: Opens in NY this weekend and will slowly expand. Veeeerry sloooowly, apparently.
Oscar Chances: I'll be more curious to see whether it's even submitted.
Reader Comments (9)
Documentaries to me are suppose to relay information. So this film uses the documentary frame to tell a true story through stylized dramatization. Cool.
Though i dont generally rush to docs in theaters this sounds so interesting. Perhaps I shall venture into documentary land this weekend.
Wow i love the sound of this!
Nathaniel, you should really check this one out.
One of my favourites from Berlinale, and definitely a very worthy follow-up to "Actress".
It left me shaking. A near-masterpiece, beautifully, imaginative crafted, and, next to Toni Erdmann, the best thing I've seen this year
This was well-attended and well-received at IFF Boston. I was working the event so missed the screening but looking forward to seeing it soon. One of the beauties of streaming services is the ability to get to see some of these amazing docs at all because they come and go so quickly in the theater.
I've been enjoying your posts on this genre, Glenn. Thanks.
What about that Rebecca Hall vehicle also about Christine?
Craver, I mention CHRISTINE in the review. I did not care for it.
Pam, thank you for the kind words! It can be hard writing about documentaries, but it's always good to know people are enjoying the coverage.