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Love me, love my bruised ego: what the narcissist-artist film tells us about the fear of ageing

Bitter Christmas, Late Fame and The Christophers all depict geniuses aware of their waning acclaim and terrified it will end Entertainment culture is so preoccupied with nowness that last month we were inundated with speculation about how directors under 30 topping the box office would change the industry . The flipside of a youth obsession is the conviction that age will increase irrelevance, and this is something that a new crop of films about ageing artists is zeroing in on. Specifically, Bitter Christmas , Late Fame and The Christophers are films in which artists – all male – indulge in selfishness, vanity and spite, and egotistical behaviour and a loss of creative (and masculine) virility are part of the same phenomenon. None of them is dislikable – they might be catty, pathetic or abrasive, but they’re always entertaining – but they all bend to the ego whispering in their ear, beli

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Bitter Christmas, Late Fame and The Christophers all depict geniuses aware of their waning acclaim and terrified it will end Entertainment culture is so preoccupied with nowness that last month we were inundated with speculation about how directors under 30 topping the box office would change the industry . The flipside of a youth obsession is the conviction that age will increase irrelevance, and this is something that a new crop of films about ageing artists is zeroing in on. Specifically, Bitter Christmas , Late Fame and The Christophers are films in which artists – all male – indulge in selfishness, vanity and spite, and egotistical behaviour and a loss of creative (and masculine) virility are part of the same phenomenon. None of them is dislikable – they might be catty, pathetic or abrasive, but they’re always entertaining – but they all bend to the ego whispering in their ear, beli

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What happened

According to The Guardian’s linked report, Love me, love my bruised ego: what the narcissist-artist film tells us about the fear of ageing, Bitter Christmas, Late Fame and The Christophers all depict geniuses aware of their waning acclaim and terrified it will end Entertainment culture is so preoccupied with nowness that last month we were inundated with speculation about how directors under 30 topping the box office would change the industry . The flipside of a youth obsession is the conviction that age will increase irrelevance, and this is something that a new crop of films about ageing artists is zeroing in on. Specifically, Bitter Christmas , Late Fame and The Christophers are films in which artists – all male – indulge in selfishness, vanity and spite, and egotistical behaviour and a loss of creative (and masculine) virility are part of the same phenomenon. None of them is dislikable – they might be catty, pathetic or abrasive, but they’re always entertaining – but they all bend to the ego whispering in their ear, beli

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Culture coverage for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The linked report is dated 2026-08-11T05:00:04+00:00.

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Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

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Primary source: Love me, love my bruised ego: what the narcissist-artist film tells us about the fear of ageing via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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