“Models: the film that demystifies the modeling industry!” At the dawn of the 2000s, in 1999, a German independent film directed by Ulrich Seidl, an Austrian filmmaker, comes to question the myth surrounding top models, who seemed to have an era entirely devoted to them. In 2000, before the internet reevaluated beauty standards, models represented a myth, a sparkle, a luxury of their own.
The film follows the private lives of four models, with a particular focus on the secret life of one of them. The models are portrayed by Viviane Bartsch, Tanja Petrovsky, Lisa Grossmann, and Elvyra Geyer. The camera consistently takes on the role of a mirror in all circumstances throughout the film. The universe depicted by Ulrich Seidl is far from the usual glamour that surrounds the very idea of modeling.
Hard drug abuse, getting lost in incomprehensible parties, superficiality in social relationships, and an extremely corrupted environment accompany these four models in their portrayal of an era. Indeed, the film, much like the abundant literature of that time and the feature films released between the 90s and the 2000s, depicts a pivotal period marked by various forms of abuse and a freedom that was once believed to be absolute. The 2000s put an end to this absolute freedom and made it conditional. Today, conservatism seems to prevail across Europe.
If some observers have tried to reduce this feature film to the “superficiality of the model’s life”, they are mistaken. There is no judgment from Ulrich Seidl. He portrays the reality of a profession that suffers from a paradigmatic paradox between the luxury and glamour it reflects and the dark and pathetic realities it contains. Released in the 2000s, this film illustrates what society has become today with social media and our personal showcases on Instagram.
