Liberace emblem of illusory success

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2013)

Stephen Soderbergh's putative swan song, Behind the Candelabra, is like an Old Testament prophet's rage against the vanity, corruption and futility of his smug, affluent society. As he's dying of AIDS, Liberace (Michael Douglas) seems like a memento mori. His skull seems too small for his body, as if shrinking away from it. As Soderbergh retells the memoir of Liberace's young lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) his recurring theme is the human failure behind the star's sparkling success.
That's the point of the title. Liberace's signature candelabra denotes wealth, brilliance, flash, glamour, romance. The film exposes the darkness that pretence can't dispel. Liberace is an artist who no longer plays for pleasure but for professional performance. He is cashing in on his undoubtable -- but trivialized -- skills. What emotions he pretends to are similarly turned into routines, like the loneliness and pathos by which he seduces his continuing diet of young studs. This appetite proves fatal. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com,