biography
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Been Rich All My Life
In my continuing quest to catch up with American Cultural Icons that never featured anywhere in my Brit upbringing, I discovered this wee gem of a documentary from 2006 about 5 octogenarian ex-chorus dancing girls from Harlem who are still dancing professional. The Silver Belles may be falling apart physically and ‘can’t remember shit’, but…
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Absolute Wilson
As part of my continuing process of brushing up on American Cultural Icons I viewed Katherina Otto-Bernstein’s 2006 documentary on ROBERT WILSON, who is arguably the pre-eminent avant-garde theater director/artist in the world. I shouldn’t have been quite so ignorant of Mr. Wilson as although he is American, most of his work has been in…
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L'AMOUR FOU
The best part of this disappointing mish-mash of a film is the opening sequence which is footage of Yves St Laurent announcing to the world that he is about to retire. In a highly dramatic speech that he stumbles through in which, amongst other things, he confesses to the demons (drink and drugs) he has…
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PUBLIC SPEAKING
Martin Scorcese’s profile on Fran Lebowitz is no ordinary documentary. After 90 minutes of essentially listening to this quick-witted brilliant observationist with her razor sharp tongue spend forth on some of her favorite bugbears, we actually learn very little about the woman behind all these rapidly fired opinions. By filming her in conversation in her…