DistantNews
Support us
🇸🇪 Sweden /Culture & Society

Robert Pattinson: “TV Star Chris Hansen Is as Irresistible to Imitate as to Portray”

From Dagens Nyheter · () Swedish

Translated from Swedish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • “Primetime,” starring Robert Pattinson as television host Chris Hansen, drew record-long lines at the Venice Film Festival.
  • Director Lance Oppenheim’s feature debut examines the ethical boundaries between journalism, crime and entertainment through a fictionalized account of Hansen’s television persona.
  • Oppenheim says parodies of Hansen and the reality series “To Catch a Predator” helped inspire the project, which he calls a “docufantasy.”

In Venice, the queues for “Primetime” stretched farther than those for any other film at the festival so far. The media satire, steeped in thriller darkness, puts Robert Pattinson at its center as Chris Hansen, the television host known for confronting alleged child predators on camera.

I saw “To Catch a Predator” through various parodies, such as episodes of “South Park” and the humor site Ebaum’s World. When I eventually watched the series, I was deeply struck by how theatrical Hansen was, like reality television’s Tony Montana in “Scarface.”

· Lance OppenheimThe director explains how he discovered Chris Hansen and what attracted him to the television host’s persona.

The film reaches back to “To Catch a Predator,” the NBC program broadcast within “Dateline” from 2004 to 2007. The show mixed reality and fiction in an unrestrained way, turning attempts by men to contact children into televised confrontations staged with police involvement behind the scenes.

Lance Oppenheim, making his feature debut, says he did not watch the program when it originally aired. He encountered it through parodies, including “South Park” and the humor site Ebaum’s World. When he eventually watched the series, he was struck by Hansen’s theatrical style, which he compared to reality television’s version of Tony Montana from “Scarface.”

There was something about this story that fascinated me so much, especially perhaps how Chris Hansen created a mythology around himself.

· Lance OppenheimOppenheim describes the central appeal of Hansen’s public persona and the film’s subject.

Oppenheim describes “Primetime” as a “docufantasy” and likens it to “a fever dream.” He says the story fascinated him because Hansen had created a mythology around himself. The director, already known for unconventional documentaries such as “Some Kind of Heaven” and “Spermworld,” also cites Abbas Kiarostami’s “Close-Up” as an important early film experience. Yet he says “To Catch a Predator” was what seriously made him want to become a filmmaker.

a docufantasy

· Lance OppenheimThe director’s description of “Primetime,” which blends documentary-inspired material with fiction.

The film combines an exaggerated reality-TV aesthetic with thriller elements and asks where journalism, criminality and entertainment meet. Pattinson’s performance leads a festival drama that is in contention for the Golden Lion.

a fever dream

· Lance OppenheimOppenheim’s comparison for the film’s heightened style and atmosphere.
About this summary

Originally published by Dagens Nyheter in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog