The Fran Lebowitz Series in Scorsese’s “Pretend It’s a City” and “Public Speaking”

Authors

  • Victoria Surliuga Texas Tech University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-454X/14527

Keywords:

Fran Lebowitz, Martin Scorsese, Pretend It’s a City , Public Speaking, Public persona

Abstract

Writer, humorist, and style icon Fran Lebowitz, author of Social Studies (1981) and Metropolitan Life (1978), then merged in The Fran Lebowitz Reader (1994 and 2021), has been the subject of Martin Scorsese’s Pretend It’s a City (2021) and Public Speaking (2010). Both introduce Lebowitz as a storyteller, social commentator, and public intellectual who narrates her life in the style of documentary performers (Waugh) without neglecting the techniques of the cinéma vérité.

Scorsese’s two works on Fran Lebowitz do not conform to the usual biopic yet can be understood as a selective biography. In introducing Fran Lebowitz to a contemporary large audience, the combination of biographical perspective and quasi-vérité style addresses the opposition between private and public (Arendt and Habermas). Altogether, the two productions can be considered as a series with an opening (Public Speaking) and seven episodes (Pretend It’s a City) that create Martin Scorsese’s series on Fran Lebowitz. The biographical traits, paired with Lebowitz’s status as public speaker, create a double portrait, almost a doppelgänger, as a split between the Lebowitz’s performance and her representation.

References

Alhadeff, Gini (2011). “Walking with Fran Lebowitz: Guardian of the City of New York.” Acne Paper (14): 36-41.

Alessandro, Brian (2022). “He Invented Something: An Interview with Fran Lebowitz.” In. Fever Spores: The Queer Reclamation of William S. Burroughs, edited by Brian Alessandro and Tom Cardamone 50-61. New Orleans: Rebel Satori Press.

Alessandro, Brian (2021, January). “‘I’m Not an Assassin!’: Fran Lebowitz on Not Sleeping, Not Writing, and Not Naming Names.” Interview. https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/fran-lebowitz-pretend-its-a-city

Araujo, Denize and Cynthia Schneider (2019). “Martin Scorsese Biopics: Visual Memory for the Future.” DOC online - Revista Digital de Cinema Documentario (25): 102–123.

Arendt, Hannah (2000). “The Public and the Private Realm.” In The Portable Hannah Arendt, edited by Peter Baehr,182–230. New York-London: Penguin.

Balet, Marc (1994, October). “Fran Lebowitz.” Interview: 30–36.

Balet, Marc (1991, August). “Talking Summer.” Vogue: 168-172.

Balet, Marc (1981, September). Interview with Fran Lebowitz in the column “I Cover the Waterfront.” Interview: 54.

Balet, Marc (1980, May). “Fran Lebowitz on Fashion.” Interview: 70– 75.

Balet, Marc (1979, November). “Interview with Fran Lebowitz.” Interview: 86.

Bandirali, Luca and Enrico Terrone (2021). Concept TV: An Aesthetics of Television Series. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Bellafante, Ginia (2010, November 22). “Opinions You Won’t Find on Twitter: Fran Lebowitz Talks.” The New York Times, section C: 1.

Berman, Judy (2021, January 1). “In Pretend It's a City, Martin Scorsese Shares the Pleasure of Fran Lebowitz's Company.” Time. https://www.yahoo.com/video/pretend-city-martin-scorsese-shares-120035475.html

Broe, Dennis (2019). Birth of the Binge: Serial TV and the End of Leisure. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Brylla, Catalin and Mette Kramer (Eds.) (2018). Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Clemente, Francesco (2016, March). “The Voice: Fran Lebowitz.” Interview: 231-236, 254-255.

Dick, Kirby (2005). “Resting on the Edge of an Impossible Confidence.” In Derrida: Screenplay and Essays on the Film, edited by Amy Ziering Kofman and Kirby Dick, 36-50. New York: Routledge.

Franklin, Nancy (November 11, 2010). “Talking Points.” The New Yorker (86:37): 21.

Grist, Leighton (2000). The Films of Martin Scorsese, 1963-77. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Habermas, Jürgen (1992). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Interview 50 Years (2019). New York: Assouline Publishing.

Itzkoff, David (2021, January 8). “Fran Lebowitz and Martin Scorsese Seek a Missing New York in Pretend It’s a City.” The New York Times, Section C: 1.

Ivens, Joris (1940). “Collaboration in Documentary.” Films (1:2) 30-42.

Kaiser, Charles (1989, November). “Quick Wit.” Interview: 128-31, 216-218.

Lebowitz, Fran (2004). Fran Lebowitz: I Cover the Waterfront. In Andy Warhol’s Interview: Volume 1: Best of the First Decade 1969-1979, edited by Sara J. Brant and Ingrid Sischy, vol. 7, Paris: Edition 7L.

Lebowitz, Fran (2021). The Fran Lebowitz Reader. London: Virago.

Lebowitz, Fran (2019). “Fran Lebowitz.” Interview 50 Years (2019): 138.

Lebowitz, Fran (1994). The Fran Lebowitz Reader. New York: Vintage Books.

Lebowitz, Fran (1982, July). “Lisa Robinson.” Interview: 54-55.

Lebowitz, Fran (1981). Social Studies. New York: Random House.

Lebowitz, Fran (1978). Metropolitan Life. New York: E. P. Dutton.

Linville, James and George Plimpton (1993). “Fran Lebowitz: A Humorist at Work.” The Paris Review (127): 160-188.

Lotz, Amanda D (2013). “House: Narrative Complexity.” How to Watch TV, edited by Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell. New York: New York University Press: 22-29.

Mangan, Lucy (2011, February 1). “Cable Girl: ‘Public Speaking.’” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/01/public-speaking-fran-lebowitz-scorsese

Marquis, Elizabeth (2013). “Performance, Persona & the Construction of Documentary Identity.” Post Script 33(1): 16-32.

Marshall, P. David (2015). “Intercommunication and Persona: The Intercommunicative Public Self.” The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Communication 10: 23–31.

Marshall, P. David (2014). “Seriality and Persona.” M/C Journal (17). https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/802

Marshall, P. David (2010). “The Specular Economy.” Society 47: 498–502.

Martin, Annie (2020, December 28). “Pretend It's a City trailer: Martin Scorsese directs Fran Lebowitz docuseries.” UPI. https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/TV/2020/12/28/Pretend-Its-a-City-trailer-Martin-Scorsese-directs-Fran-Lebowitz-docuseries/2161609175658

Panzer, Sophie (2021, February 3). “New Fran Lebowitz Series Elevates Art of Complaining.” Washington Jewish Week. https://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/new-fran-lebowitz-series-elevates-art-of-complaining/

Patterson, Troy (2010). “Free-Range Performance Artist.” https://slate.com/culture/2010/11/the-new-fran-lebowitz-documentary-is-an-outstanding-waste-of-time.html

Pearson, Roberta (2007). “Anatomising Gilbert Grissom: The Structure and Function of the Televisual Character.” In CSI: Crime TV Under the Microscope, edited by Allen, Michael. London: I.B. Tauris.

“Power of Women” (2021, May 5). Variety: 58.

Raymond, Marc (2013). Hollywood’s New Yorker: The Making of Martin Scorsese. Albany: State University of New York.

Renov, Michael (1993). “Towards a Poetics of Documentary.” In Theorizing Documentary, edited by Michael Renov, 12-36. New York: Routledge.

Ribera, Robert (Ed.) (2017). Martin Scorsese: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi.

Schickel, Richard (2011). Conversations with Scorsese. New York: Knopf.

Scott, Laurence (2011). “Notes on Fran: The Ethical Camp and Mute Elegiac of Fran Lebowitz.” Performing Ethos (2:2): 121–135.

Soller, Kurt (2018, August 5). “Following the Moneyed.” The New York Times, Section BU: 1.

Shawn, Wallace (2010). “Word Champion.” Vanity Fair (December): 235.

Stiegler, Bernard (2008). La télécratie contre la democratie. Paris: Flammarion.

Talley, André Leon (2010). “Becoming Fran.” Vogue (200:12): 176.

Vardoulakis, Dimitris (2010). The Doppelgänger. New York: Fordham University Press.

Waugh, Thomas (2011). “Acting to Play Oneself: Performance in Documentary.” In The Right to Play Oneself: Looking Back on Documentary Film, edited by Thomas Waugh, 71–92. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

TV Shows

Pretend It’s a City (2021)

Law and Order (2001-2007)

Documentaries and Films

Wojnarowicz (2020)

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019)

The Booksellers (2019)

Toni Morrison: The Pieces that I am (2019)

The Gospel According to André (2017)

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Public Speaking (2010)

New York: A Documentary Film (2000)

Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990)

American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1978)

Italianamerican (1974)

It’s Not Just You, Murray (1974)

The Big Shave (1967)

What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963)

The Boy with the Green Hair (1948)

Downloads

Published

2022-08-01

How to Cite

Surliuga, V. (2022). The Fran Lebowitz Series in Scorsese’s “Pretend It’s a City” and “Public Speaking”. Series - International Journal of TV Serial Narratives, 8(1), 33–44. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-454X/14527

Issue

Section

Narratives / Aesthetics / Criticism