In 1974, a 29-year-old Florida TV news journalist called Christine Chubbuck killed herself with a gun to the head, live on air; she was suffering from severe depression about her love life and the way macho-sensational news values were crowding out the stories she wanted to do. The video footage was confined to the company vault and has still never been seen.
She was said to have inspired the 1976 movie Network, although screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky denied it, and in fact this eerie and disturbing case has been largely forgotten until now, when two movies have come along. One is Antonio Campos’s forthcoming drama Christine, with Rebecca Hall in the title role. There is also this odd, atmospheric, if gimmicky drama-doc approach.
Actor Kate Lyn Sheil prepares to play Christine in a cinematic restaging, with lengthy scenes of her preparation, immersing herself in the creepiness and sadness, trying on wigs and costumes, running through scenes and snapping Christine-ishly at everyone, talking to other actors about their feelings. Only after an hour and a half of this does Sheil talk to people who knew Chubbuck and we see some of her archive footage.
Then we come to the crunch. There is one sharp contribution from veteran news anchor John Hill, who thinks the whole thing is prurient: “It was a total waste of time … a total waste of the people who continue to talk about it, because it accomplished nothing, it didn’t help reset anything with women in this business.”
