If you were alive during the early nineties, you remember the infamous rise and shocking fall of the pop band Milli Vanilli. For many, many years they were synonymous with really bad pop music. Their crash and burn on stage with a malfunctioning machine that revealed their lip synching to a massive crowd also amounted to their ultimate downfall. Although what many didn’t know over the last twenty five years is that while Milli Vanilli were perceived as con artists, they were sadly pawns in a massive scheme to artificially build pop super stars.
“Milli Vanilli” is the story of Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, who became fast friends during their youth in Germany. With Rob coming from a broken home and Fabrice having left an abusive household, they shared a similar upbringing, as well as a future goal: to become famous superstars. In a few short years, their dreams came true. Rob and Fab, better known as Milli Vanilli, became the world’s most popular pop duo in 1990 and won the GRAMMY for Best New Artist. However, their ascension to success came with a devastating price that ultimately led to their infamous undoing.
Director Luke Korem’s “Milli Vanilli” is a shockingly very sad, and awfully upsetting chronicle of the construction of megastars. Although much of the final half of the movie is framed as a tale of ultimate adversity, the tale of “Milli Vanilli” is such a tragic example of the worst that the music industry is absolutely capable of. From the secret meetings, to the confidential recording sessions, to operating a lot of the schemes behind the backs of both Rob and Fab, it’s amazing how much these pair of brothers were just plotted against from minute one.
There’s so much that we get to learn and understand about the mind set behind Rob and Fab, and how their whole act was based a lot more around empty promises of glory and fame, all for them to become the ultimate scapegoats, exploited horribly, in the end. Luke Korem could very well have played this whole scenario with a tongue planted firmly in cheek, but much of Rob and Fab’s tale is not remotely funny. When placed in to the mind set of the aspiring artist, it’s an awful nightmare, one that ultimately resulted in a death.
What’s even more sickening is that not many of the masterminds behind Milli Vanilli ever really took the blame or at least copped to the scheme. This might serve as the ultimate slap in the face, especially as the whole series of incidents are described as “victimless crimes.” Luke Korem’s documentary is a great and alarming tale about the exploitative nature of the music industry, and how it can make and break so many people.