It’s difficult to say what’s harder to accept: the fact that the American Dream disappeared once with the era evoked in Fitzgerald’s novels or that the American Dream still exists, but it is it, in fact, a pact with the devil. The short film ‘Big Break‘ talks about such a pact, but not addressing the classic formula of the Faustian story. The devil depicted by Dicle Ozcer is, however, just as tempting and destructive: the celebrity of American spotlights, in exchange for giving up your own artistic ideals. In other words, this project, built on the structure of a social critique, presents a micro-radiography of contemporaneity that replaced the veritable catharsis provided by great art with the recipe of the entertainment. Hence, the director opposes the sensitivity of a young actress who wants to conquer the big screen with the demands of an audience and of those behind the camera for whom it is not the artistic emotion that is important, but the easy success that responds to the “bread and circus” principle. The incisiveness of the director’s perspective is doubled by a comic interface, presenting a series of alert interactions to capture, sometimes with painful sarcasm, the social jungle of those who make the law in the area of film and entertainment today.
Deena is absolutely convinced that the part she received in the most recent film of an acclaimed actor will ensure her the popularity she wants. However, the director’s cut is ruthless, and Deena is fully confronted with the real face of the “great creators” of the moment. However, the chance offered by one of the famous producers could give her the fame she is looking for, as long as she gives up her illusory ambitions.
The short film is an intelligent contextualization of what Mario Vargas Llosa called the “civilization of the spectacle”, as a representative emblem of modern times, in which consumerism coincided with a decline in value hierarchies. Dicle Ozcer tackles one of the many scenarios of artistic “prostitution” specific to the mechanism of contemporary showbiz, condensing in a few minutes the decline and the pseudo-celebrity of a young woman who realizes that success can only be achieved through a loss of total self-sincerity. Likewise, the project addresses the false relationship between popularity and quality, illustrating with sharp irony the fragility of the moral and artistic integrity of those who accept the compromises of the spotlight. ‘Big Break’ is a smart, extremely well-crafted project that offers us not only a dynamic dramedy, but also a sore and pertinent social critique of the truth behind the screens we watch.
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