Clothes, shoes and jewellery were stolen from Hollywood celebrities in 2008-2009 when the so called Hollywood Hills Burglars broke into their houses. The victims included names like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom and Audrina Patridge. The burglary wave shook the media and spread to international news.
After Lindsay Lohan published her security tape the authorities were given multiple tips. The police arrested 6 young people for the Hollywood Hills Burglaries in the autumn 2009. They were convicted from 2 to 6 years of prison. The group had stolen about 3 million dollars worth of goods.
The kids were never caught for all the burglaries. There were over 50 reports of possible burglaries that had occurred. Each convict eventually pleaded for not guilty.
Sofia Coppola's movie
The Bling Ring, based on the actual events, draws a lot from
The Suspects Wore Loubotins, a Vanity Fair article written by a reporter Nancy Jo Sales. The movie's got some of the dialogue lines straight from the ringers themselves.
Coppola presents Hollywood glamour, night clubs where the celebrities and fame hungry teens hang out together and the amount of stuff the celebrities own. Closets full of design clothes and whole shelves filled with Louboutins get the audience to drool.
The purpose still isn't to mystify the actual Bling Ring. The stills and slow downs show the ringers for what they truly are. Nothing matters when you're high in the Hollywood night clubs. The characters shake their bodies with the music, surrounded by emptiness.
Of
The Bling Ring cast, only Emma Watson (Nicky) is familiar. Her character is just one of the ringers where as the ring leader Rebecca (Katie Chang) is a fresh face. Rebecca doesn't stick to what looks the same as on a Hollywood celeb. She wants the exact piece. The burglaries are referred to as "shopping". There is no way the celebs in the middle of all that stuff can miss a few pieces going missing - or even notice it.
Ironically, the statement is partly true. The Bling Ring broke into the house of Paris Hilton six times before she even reported it to the authorities. The kids found a key under Paris Hilton's doormat on their first break in. The door, however, wasn't even locked and a new key appeared under the very same doormat after the burglary.
Sofia Coppola was given a permission to film for the movie in the actual Paris Hilton's house. During two weeks, the repeats of the burglaries were shot in the very place where they had happened.
Seeing the movie was tough for Paris. "I was really emotional watching it. During some parts of it, I literally had tears in my eyes and I wanted to cry. I knew what happened with the burglaries, but I had never actually seen it – so watching it happen, I was like, 'Oh my God, this really happened to me. These kids were really in my house and did that to me'".
The Bling Ring brings forth the dark side of the media - its abuse. The Hollywood Hills youths searched the locations of the celebrities' houses on Google Maps and tracked their comings and goings using Twitter and Facebook.
Coppola leaves the ring members flat. But the depthless characters are exactly what they are - shallow, obsessed youths that don't think about the consequences of their actions. Nicky's (Emma Watson) character is so close to a caricature with her world reformer speeches that you wonder if she got it all confused to being in the Miss USA contest. Pretty thick.
Googling the real life Nicky, Alexis Neiers, one comes to realize it's all true. She was just starting her career as a real tv star when she was arrested for taking part in the Hollywood Hills Burglaries. Now long out of jail and trying to save her career, Neiers is exactly the pretentious little faker Coppola portrays her to be.
Coppola might sound like having a real harsh approach. But something resembling sympathy from Coppola's part can be seen in the movie as well. The way she places Marc (Israel Broussard), the second man and the telltale of the Bling Ring, in the centre of the story is provocative in a different way. While Rebecca keeps repeating "It's fine, it's fine" on task Mark's nerves are about to break. The movie pictures Marc as an ex loser following his best friend around, trying hard to be something. (And who just happens to tell Miu Mius apart from other shoes.)
Does Coppola still fall into the same celebrity worshiping that she's criticizing?
I would have personally liked to see more depth in
The Bling Ring - more depth and less sensation-hungry fishing for popularity among teens. On the other hand, what else could a movie about the Bling Ring even be?
I'm personally interested in the inner world of the ringers and their personal motivations, but can you actually find anything in a cup that's already empty?
The Bling Ring - or the Hollywood Hills Burglars - are children of our age, soiled and permeated by it. Maybe fame-worshiping and materialism are not only all that the Bling Ring members seem to suggest but also
are all that can be seen in them. When criticizing the current world and its celebrity culture what really matters is their story, not who they were. Notable is what they did. And that they did it because they could.
