Popular Culture Review Volume 30, Number 2, Summer 2019 | Page 201

Popular Culture Review 30.2
theses of stereotypes of life and love . They embody one single passion : the passion for images [ ... ] They are not something to dream about , they are the dream ” ( America 56 ). In his disconcerting analysis of the hegemonic function of the star system , Baudrillard explains that celebrities symbolize a dream that millions of people around the planet strive to emulate . Additionally , Baudrillard discusses how the meaningless clichés “ of life and love ” or prepackaged caricatures of romance that stars quite literally sell to the general populace have affected our ability to discern between reality and its representation . In Amérique , Baudrillard suggests that the trite vision of the ideal lover that accosts us from all sides in magazines , newspapers , billboards , and television has taken on a life of its own , thereby replacing genuine romance , because of the force of Hollywood archetypes .
In the 1950s and 1960s , Morin and Baudrillard formulated bold hypotheses for this time period related to “ the impact of imaginary and subjective projections on reality ” in the context of these cinematic conceptions of romance in mainstream Western culture ( Margulies 68 ). Decades before , it was commonplace to identify an actor or actress as a “ provender of dreams ,” Morin affirms that the star “ assists in the worldwide diffusion of a concept of love , a whole culture of love , very particular to Western society ” ( 136 ; 145 ). Theorizing that the utopian image of perfect love epitomized by movie stars has been arbitrarily fabricated by the system in order to unload a surplus of goods in a post-Marxist atmosphere , Morin maintains , “ Love thus manufactured is evidently created in the image of love in the movies themselves ” ( 53 ). Explicitly linking cinematic depictions of romance to the aforementioned post-Marxist dilemma , the philosopher reveals why lovers in many Hollywood films and advertisements feel compelled to smoke a cigarette after engaging in
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