Public Speaking (2011), rated NR, movie showing on February 23, 2011 in theaters wide. Public Speaking is a Documentary film. Public Speaking movie stars are James Baldwin, William F. Buckley, Truman Capote, Pablo Casals, Candy Darling, Serge Gainsbourg, Fran Lebowitz, Oscar Levant, Thelonious Monk, Toni Morrison, Conan O'Brien, Eugene O'Neill, Jack Paar, Dorothy Parker and S.J. Perelman and directed by Martin Scorsese. Martin Scorsese's Public Speaking, the director's acclaimed new portrait of author, social critic, and acerbic wit Fran Lebowitz, will have its American theatrical premiere at Film Forum, beginning Wednesday, February 23, for a limited engagement. Showtimes daily are 1:30, 3:30, 5:40, 7:30 & 9:20. Made in the energetic style of Scorsese's early documentaries Italian American and American Boy, Public Speaking captures Lebowitz in conversation at New York's Waverly Inn, in an onstage discussion with longtime pal Toni Morrison, and on the streets of New York, with the author offering insights on social issues including gender, race, and gay rights, as well pet peeves like celebrity culture, smoking bans, tourists and strollers. Gender, she says, is "a very big piece of luck... Any white gentile straight male who is not President of the United States failed." Reflecting on Barack Obama's election, she calls racism a "fantasy of superiority." Of aging, she says, "At a certain point, the worst picture taken of you when you were 25 is better than the best picture taken of you when you're 45." Expelled from her high school in Morristown, New Jersey, Fran first hit the NYC literary scene in the early 1970s, when Andy Warhol hired her to write a column for his Interview magazine. "New York was not better then because there was more crime," she says. "It was better because it was cheaper." Despite a decades-long bout of writer's block, which she calls a "writer's blockade," Lebowitz's eclectic career has included stints writing for Interview and Mademoiselle magazines and serving as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair. She is also the author of two bestselling collections of essays, Metropolitan Life (1978) and Social Studies (1981), and the children's book Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas (1994). The film is distributed by Rialto Pictures. Public Speaking (2011) movie.
Categories:
Documentary