David Squires delves into… the maddening Melania Trump documentary
The new documentary, Melania, cost a whopping $106million (£82m) to make. On its opening day in the UK, the film recouped a meagre £32,974 from 155 cinemas, in what Donald Trump is describing as a triumph of his international popularity.
No expense was spared to push the riveting story of the First Lady to the masses. As the director, Brett Ratner, told the press at the premiere, “I can tell you right now, if we were audited and they said, ‘How much was spent on this movie?’ This movie is one of the most expensive movies – documentaries – in the genre ever made.” The word ‘if’ proving to be a very interesting turn of phrase.
He continued, “It wasn’t about getting rich. I mean, I think the Trumps are wealthy and successful enough. This is about giving me the ability to hire the best crew in the world, to not only score the film with the best composer … I mean, when you see the movie, you’ll go, ‘Oh, we see where the money went now.’ This wasn’t about corruption.”
There aren’t many movies with such a billing. In fact, the closest tagline in cinema history is perhaps Citizen Kane’s premise that ‘this is about corruption’. Needless to say, this maddening motion picture provided plenty of fodder for our in-house cartoonist, David Squires, to ponder, as he pictorially reveals the most peculiar documentary of all time.
