Gossip Central

Tigerland on Discovery Channel: “Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright”

When filmmaker Ross Kauffman pitched the idea for Tigerland, his latest documentary film to air on the Discovery Channel, he proclaimed to producers, including Fisher Stevens, that he did not want to make another The Cove, fine as it was, another doc about the poaching of animals in the wild. Oops, Stevens had produced the Oscar-winning film about the endangered dolphins. Kauffman got the job anyway. Tigerland does address the diminution of the world’s tiger population, now only about 3400 in the wild, but as is this documentarian’s special skill, he gives the story a human face, focusing on the individuals, one in India, another in Russia, key figures who do the work of keeping the tiger species alive.

Beetlejuice: The Musical on Broadway, At Last

If you tell Alex Brightman, the star of Beetlejuice on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theater that he was born to play this exuberant, over-the-top part, he says, Oh sure! I was born to play this dead, Jewish, crazed, demon from the Netherworld! As if to say mockingly, that’s no compliment! When, in fact, it is! Brightman brings the fast-talking giddy mania that he played so well in School of Rock, as if it had been a dress rehearsal for Beetlejuice, adding of course the black & white Escher-like optics. For the opening preview this week, fans of all ages mobbed B-way and 50^th street, dressing up for the occasion. The composer of the historic “Day-O,” Irving Burgie, wouldn’t miss it. At 94, he exuded, “The song always turns them out.”

Sunset: An Interview with Director Laszlo Nemes

Director/ writer Laszlo Nemes won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for his 2015 debut, Son of Saul, a daring fiction feature set in Auschwitz. I met him as he was making the rounds during the award season. On one memorable night, he faced a most anxious moment, meeting Elie Wiesel, the novelist who wrote about his experience in Auschwitz, including watching his father die. Of the dwindling generation of survivors, Wiesel (87 at the time) was a Holocaust elder statesman, an eloquent witness and not one to suffer fools gladly. He found the film a powerful representation of his experience of the place, a murder factory, and important. Before his death in 2017, he was dedicated to keeping the memories of genocide alive as a deterrent to future atrocities. That night, I asked Nemes what he was planning next: a film set in Budapest at the dawn of World War I, from the point of view of a woman. In Sunset, Irisz Leiter, an orphaned woman, tries to get a job at a hat emporium that used to belong to her family. From there, Nemes sets her plight against the larger historic moment, again, as in Son of Saul, in allegory. I had a chance to speak to Laszlo Nemes about Sunset on the phone from his home in Budapest.

Mary Wilson Reigns Supreme at the Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations Opening Night

Of course the story of the Temptations, the R&B group topping the charts with hits like “My Girl,” and yes, “Ain’t Too Proud,” would have to acknowledge the girl groups of the era. As the Temps rose to fame, so too did The Supremes, and in the glorious musical Ain’t Too Proud at Broadway's Imperial Theater, they do get their cameo singing a medley of their hits. Rivals and perhaps romantic interests, the Supremes had their own dramatic story, limned by the hit musical Dreamgirls, but here they round out the men’s tale of collaboration, friendship, beautiful sound, and the business of making music for black men in America. As part of Dominique’s book, Mary Wilson gets a bit more than a shout out, and there she was in the audience on opening night, not minding a bit that the history is tweaked. On that, Mary Wilson “ain’t too proud.”

Tierney Sutton’s Homage to Alan and Marilyn Bergman at the Café Carlyle

Photo: David Andrako

From the very first jazzy note, you can tell she loves them. Tierney Sutton’s residency at the Café Carlyle is a tribute to the songwriting couple, Marilyn and Alan Bergman is an awe-fest to their music, and to them as a couple. Sutton goes through their romance and collaboration: to this day, after 61 years of marriage, they mostly occupy the same room, and when they call, they both call, speaking on extensions, inviting her to dinner or to test out a new tune. And as Sutton goes through this history, through their work with composers Michel Legrand, Dave Grusin, Marvin Hamlisch, John Williams and more, you realize, they’ve written the lyrics to songs you know and love, such as “Nice and Easy,” for Frank Sinatra, his first album’s title track, and “The Way We Were,” with Marvin Hamlisch, best known for the movie with Barbra Streisand.

Real Estate Mogul/ Film Industry Impresario Charles S. Cohen Honored at the French Consulat

This week Charles S. Cohen was presented with the insignia of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor at the Payne Whitney mansion, home of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. Gerard Araud, Ambassador of France, conferred the honors, proclaiming, “I’m an ambassador so I’m not supposed to be funny.” Yet, he was. Following a speech by Mayor Bill De Blasio celebrating Cohen as a great New Yorker, Araud explained his levity, this was his last such ceremony as he was leaving office. Filmmaker Agnes Varda sent salutations via video, and Isabelle Huppert, currently in The Mother, an off-Broadway play, mingled with a delegation of French filmmakers and Unifrance, dedicated to promoting French culture on these shores. Unifrance partnered with the Film Society of Lincoln Center this week for the annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. The best thing about Charles S. Cohen vis a vis film: he has good taste.

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Opens with Pierre Salvadori’s The Trouble with You

The annual fete de films, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, a collaboration between Unifrance and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, opened this week with a comedy, The Trouble with You. Director Pierre Salvadori introduced the film noting that most filmmakers in France are French New Wave influenced, but he is more inspired by Hollywood. “It’s more about my love of stories, of fiction, of Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder,” he explained. “My film is funny and sad. Feel free to laugh and cry.”

And so when the Trouble with You opens with a violent police action, the movie seems a startling homage, until the realization hits: a police procedural is appropriated for farce as only the French can do. Salvadori brought with him his leading man, Pio Marmai, with whom he has worked in the past. In fact, the last time he came to New York to promote a Salvadori film, he—in a drunken state— got a tattoo, the word for fighter misspelled.