Celeste survives a school shooting as a teenager and becomes a pop star after singing at the memorial. Seventeen years later she is a volatile, famous woman on tour. Watch how Corbet uses a dry narrator and a divided structure to ask what fame does to a person.
Vox Lux is a 2018 drama and music film directed by Brady Corbet. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 editing, 2 sound and 1 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Sunset Boulevard uses several of the same techniques.
Dividing the film into named chapters with title cards on screen. Each title tells you what the next section will focus on and shapes how you read it.
How this film uses it
The film is split into titled parts, a prelude, two acts and a finale. The titles make the story feel like a legend with a huge gap in the middle. They also tell you how to read each part before it starts.
Where to see it
The prelude. A boy opens fire at a Staten Island school, and Celeste, 13, survives after talking with him.
Using a narrator's voice to guide the story, either as flat documentary report or as a voice that gets interrupted. The narration shapes how much you trust the telling.
How this film uses it
Willem Dafoe narrates in a dry, all-knowing voice. He tells you facts about Celeste, her sister and her era as if reading a file. The distance makes the story feel both mythic and cold.
Where to see it
The narration across the film. Dafoe's dry voice comments on Celeste and her world as if reading from a record.
Making a film that criticizes the film industry from the inside. It shows the cruelty under the glamour of stardom and how easily talent gets thrown away.
How this film uses it
The film shows what pop fame costs. Celeste's career begins in tragedy, and the people around her profit from it. Years later she is a star surrounded by drugs, managers and a damaged daughter. Behind the glamour is a person who was never allowed to heal.
Where to see it
The 2017 tour. Celeste, now 31, spirals through drink and drugs while strained with her daughter Albertine and her sister Eleanor.
Writing songs for the film that carry story, feeling or payoff. Characters burst into music or a theme song resolves the plot.
How this film uses it
Sia wrote the pop songs, and the songs track Celeste's story. Her first hit starts as something she writes with her sister and ends as an engine of fame. The song that began as grief becomes a product.
Where to see it
The writing of "Wrapped Up." Celeste and her sister Eleanor write the song that becomes a hit and sets her career in motion.
Questions
Vox Lux: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Vox Lux use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Vox Lux (2018): Chapter Title Cards, Voiceover Narration Device, Hollywood Self-Indictment and Original Songs as Narrative.
Who directed Vox Lux?
Brady Corbet directed Vox Lux, released in 2018. CineCode also covers The Brutalist (2024).
What films are similar to Vox Lux?
Films that share techniques with Vox Lux include Sunset Boulevard (1950), Your Name (2016), Toy Story (1995), Good Will Hunting (1997).
