Celebrity
USA 1998
Reviewed by Leslie Felperin
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Manhattan. Lee is an unsuccessful novelist and travel journalist who's now doing well as a celebrity-profile writer; his ex-wife Robin is an English teacher, adrift in life now that her marriage has ended. Lee gets a blow-job from Nicole Oliver, a famous movie star, chats up a waitress/actress named Nola, and later picks up a supermodel, even though he is in a serious relationship with Bonnie, a book editor. While visiting a plastic surgeon for a consultation, Robin meets handsome television producer Tony. On their first date at a film premiere they run into Lee and Bonnie. Robin gets drunk and hurls abuse at Lee. Nonetheless, Tony is smitten with her, and offers her a job at his production company where she eventually flourishes despite her initial lack of experience.
Encouraged by Bonnie, Lee works on a novel for a year. But he meets Nola again at a restaurant and becomes infatuated with her. On the day Bonnie is to move in with him, Lee splits up with her, so she chucks the only copy of his novel in the Hudson river.
Time passes. Lee is in a fractious relationship that seems poised to fail with the flighty Nola. Robin has become the presenter of a society-focused news report produced by Tony's company. Jittery and apprehensive, she leaves Tony standing at the altar on their wedding day, but they eventually marry. At the premiere of Nicole's film, a happy Robin and Tony arrive together and warmly greet Lee, now lonely and adrift.
Review
The first 'Woodyless' Woody Allen film since Bullets over Broadway, Celebrity tempts you to think that Allen may suddenly have wised up to the fact that audiences find it increasingly hard to swallow the notion of him as a lady-killer alluring enough to pull the comely likes of Elisabeth Shue (Deconstructing Harry), Julia Roberts (Everyone Says I Love You) or Juliette Lewis (Husbands and Wives). So for Celebrity Allen has brought in sexier, younger Kenneth Branagh as his representative on screen. Always a better actor than he is a director, especially at comedy, Branagh clearly enjoys his jaunt in Woody-drag, hugging his corduroy jacket around him like a protective girdle and mimicking the nasal stutter, but it's more a top-grade impersonation than a performance.
Giving the persona a facelift by casting someone a generation younger still leaves a few ugly scars that mar this comedy of manners. The fit is just not quite right. For a start Branagh looks too goyische, so the New York-Jewish locutions of the dialogue make him seem even more the ventriloquist's dummy. He's completely out of place in a flashback to a high-school reunion populated by the kind of middle-aged, lower-to-middle-class grotesques Allen so often contextualises himself against, and among whom the director himself looks exactly of a piece. And sure, guys Lee's age can be just as sexist and groin-fixated as their fathers, but they're usually a bit smoother about disguising the fact and generally more cautious, crabbed and calculating. So it makes practically no sense that an ambitious lad like Branagh's Lee would throw over successful, well-connected and frankly stunning Bonnie for dippy Nola unless he was afflicted by a certain 50s-to-60s-vintage romanticism that prizes selfish spontaneity, the love-at-first-sight myth and Twiggy-shaped, quasi-pubescent girls. It's a mind-set straight out of Doris Day movies, but with a hard-on.
The analysis of celebrity itself, ostensibly the meat of the movie, is similarly that of a much older man. A whiny despair that the talentless usually rise to the top and that people become famous for the flimsiest of reasons seems to be the main thesis of the film. It's a worn complaint, and EdTV and The Truman Show have had fresher thoughts to contribute on the matter recently. At one point, Judy Davis' Robin (a magnificent performance of spite, wounded pride and touching resilience), having become a reporter-courtier to the rich and famous, casually mentions that everyone's a celebrity now - she just profiled Sunny von Bulow "and she just lies there." (Sunny is the now-comatose high-society wife whom Claus von Bulow allegedly tried to kill.)
Allen's darts at fatuous publishers and film critics fly with more accuracy than his barbs at fashion folk, modern Catholicism or the hedonism of Hollywood types (incarnated by a hilarious, self-immolating cameo by Leonardo DiCaprio). Celebrity lacks the misanthropic gusto of Deconstructing Harry as well as that film's flashy formal control and feels like Allen on autopilot.
Credits
- Producer
- Jean Doumanian
- Screenplay
- Woody Allen
- Director of Photography
- Sven Nykvist
- Editor
- Susan E. Morse
- Production Designer
- Santo Loquasto
- ©Magnolia Productions Inc and Sweetland Films BV
- Production Company
- A Jean Doumanian production
- Executive Producer
- J.E. Beaucaire
- Co-Executive Producers
- Jack Rollins
- Charles H. Joffe
- Letty Aronson
- Co-producer
- Richard Brick
- Production Supervisor
- Papadakis Film Crew:
- Justin Pollock
- Production Co-ordinator
- Shell Hecht
- Unit Production Manager
- Charles Darby
- Location Manager
- Drew Dillard
- Location Supervisor
- Papadakis Film Crew:
- Diane Howells
- 2nd Unit Director
- Papadakis Film Crew:
- Peter Lauer
- Assistant Directors
- Richard Patrick
- Lisa M. Rowe
- Jamie Miller
- Papadakis Film Crew: Richard Rosser
- Script Supervisors
- Kay Chapin
- Papadakis Film Crew:
- Lynn Lewis
- Casting
- Juliet Taylor
- Laura Rosenthal
- Associate:
- Patricia Kerrigan
- Additional Photography
- Papadakis Film Crew:
- Peter Reniers
- Aerial Photogaphy
- Al Cerullo
- Camera Operator
- Michael Green
- Special Visual Effects
- Industrial Light & Magic
- Visual Effects Supervisor:
- Ellen Poon
- Visual Effects Producer:
- Camille Pirolo Geier
- Skywriting Development:
- Dennis Turner
- Digital Effects Artists:
- Natasha Devaud
- Mary Beth Haggerty
- Film Scanning Supervisor:
- Joshua Pines
- Timing Supervisor:
- Bruce Vecchitto
- Visual Effects Editor:
- Michael Gleason
- Rotoscope Artist:
- Matthew Wallin
- Matchmove Artist:
- Keith Johnson
- Special Effects Co-ordinator
- Russell Berg
- Art Director
- Tom Warren
- Set Decorator
- Susan Kaufman
- Skywriting
- Mort Arken
- Skytypers
- Master Scenic Artist
- James Sorice
- Costume Designer
- Suzy Benzinger
- Wardrobe Supervisors
- Barrett Hong
- Suzanne Pettit
- Make-up
- Rosemarie Zurlo
- Helen M. Gallagher
- Hair
- Wayne Herndon
- Romaine Greene
- Roy Bryson
- Titles
- REI Media Group, NY
- Music Performed by
- Michael Moon Band
- Vocals/Guitar:
- Michael Moon
- Guitar/Vocals:
- Peter Dark
- Drums/Vocals:
- Murphy Occhino
- Bass/Vocals:
- Randy Jordan
- Music Performed by
- The High School Reunion Band
- Piano:
- Richard Iacona
- Bass:
- Tom Kirchmer
- Sax:
- Stanley Persky
- Drums:
- Tony Tedesco
- Trumpet:
- Mike Ponella
- Guitar:
- Ron Affif
- Musicians Co-ordinator
- Carmel Malin
- Soundtrack
- "You Oughta Be in Pictures" by Dana Suesse, Edward Heyman, performed by Little Jack Little; "Tangerine" by Johnny Mercer, Victor Schertzinger, performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet; "Did I Remember (to Tell You I Adore You)" by Harold Adamson, Walter Donaldson, performed by Billie Holiday; "Truckin'" by Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Robert Hunter, performed by the High School Reunion Band; "American Pie" by Don McLean, performed by the High School Reunion Band; "I Got Rhythm" by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, performed by Teddy Wilson; "Symphony No 5 in C Minor" by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; "Kumbayah" performed by Janet Marlow; "Chanel No 5" by Michael Franano, performed by the Michael Moon Band; "Fascination" by Fermo Marchetti, performed by Liberace; "The Impossible Dream" by Mitch Leigh, Joe Darion, performed by Robert Cuccioli; "All Hail to You, Glenwood High" by Eddy R. Davis, performed by the High School Reunion Band; "That Old Feeling" by Lew Brown, Sammy Fain, performed by Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan; "Will You Still Be Mine?" by Matt Dennis, Tom Adair, performed by Erroll Garner; "On a Slow Boat to China" by Frank Loesser, performed by Jackie Gleason and His Orchestra; "Soon" by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, performed by Ray Cohen; "For All We Know" by J. Fred Coots, Sam M. Lewis, performed by Ray Cohen; "Lullaby of Birdland" by George Shearing, George David Weiss, performed by Erroll Garner; "Cocktails for Two" by Sam Coslow, Arthur Johnston, performed by Carmen Cavallaro; "The Bridal Chorus" by Richard Wagner, performed by Ray Cohen
- Production Sound Mixer
- Les Lazarowitz
- Sound Mixer
- Papadakis Film Crew:
- John Hirst
- Re-recording Mixers
- Lee Dichter
- Sound One Corporation
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Robert Hein
- Sound Editor
- Marlena Grzaslewicz
- Dialogue Editor
- Sylvia Menno
- Foley
- Supervisor:
- Kam Chan
- Artist:
- Marko Costanzo
- Recording Engineer:
- Bruce Pross
- Editor:
- Ben Cheah
- Cast
- Hank Azaria
- David
- Kenneth Branagh
- Lee Simon
- Judy Davis
- Robin Simon
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Brandon Darrow
- Melanie Griffith
- Nicole Oliver
- Famke Janssen
- Bonnie
- Michael Lerner
- Dr Lupus
- Joe Mantegna
- Tony Gardella
- Bebe Neuwirth
- hooker
- Winona Ryder
- Nola
- Charlize Theron
- supermodel
- Greg Mottola
- director
- Jeff Mazzola
- assistant director
- Dick Mingalone
- camera operator
- Vladimir Bibic
- director of photography
- Francisco Quijada
- Erno Delucca
- Aleksa Palladino
- production assistant
- Dan Moran
- jackhammer operator
- Pete Castellotti
- sound recordist
- A. Lee Morris
- second assistant cameraperson
- Douglas McGrath
- Bill Gaines
- Maurice Sonnenberg
- Dalton Freed
- Craig Ulmschneider
- Daniel, production assistant
- Mina Bern
- elderly homeowner
- Janet Marlow
- singing nun
- Tommie Baxter
- second nun
- Kathleen Doyle
- Arthur Berwick
- Jodi Long
- Father Gladden's fans
- John Carter
- Father Gladden
- Monique Fowler
- Jan, Robin's friend
Marylouise Burke- Peter Boyden
- Peter McRobbie
- Maureen Mcnamara
- Father Gladden's fans on porch
- Mary Catherine Wright
- pious diner
- J.K. Simmons
- souvenir hawker
- Dylan Baker
- priest at Catholic retreat
- Melinda Eng
- fashion designer
- Isaac Mizrahi
- Bruce Bishop
- Alma Cuervo
- Eve Salvail
- Bruce Bishop's admirers
- Polly Adams
- Brian McConnachie
- exercise tape fans
- Irina Pantaeva
- Mark Vanderloo
- Frederique Van Der Wal
- supermodel's friends
- Michael Moon Band
- El Flamingo Band
- Anthony Mason
- himself
- Daisy Prince
- waiting room nurse
- Tina Sloan
- Dayle Haddon
- Bill Gerber
- waiting room patients
- Julie Halston
- patient with jowls
- Renee Lippin
- second examining room patient
- Kate Burton
- Cheryl, Robin's friend
- Reuben Jackson
- cameraman at Lupus office
- Debra Messing
- tv reporter at Lupus office
- Carmen Dell Orefice
- Pinky Virdon
- André Gregory
- John Papadakis
- Skip Rose
- Alicia Meer
- couple on beach
- Glenwood High alumni
- Becky Ann Baker
- Doris
- Michael Kell
- Nat
- Steve Mellor
- Eddie
- Gerry Becker
- Jay Tepper
- Ileen Getz
- reunion announcer
- Robert Cuccioli
- Monroe Gordon
- Larry Pine
- Philip Datloff
- Surinder Khosla
- V.J. Rajnipal
- Marian Seldes
- Datloff party guest
- Frederick Rolf
- book reviewer
- David Margulies
- Counsellor Adelman
- Ramsey Faragallah
- TV programme director
- William Addy
- Patrick McCarthy
- Klansmen
- Bernard Addison
- Minister Polynice
- Mary Schmidtberger
- Sarah Buff
- TV production assistants
- Heather Marni
- teenage obese acrobat
- Bruno Gioiello
- Sean Daloise
- Matthew Sweeney
- skinheads
- Kyle Kulish
- overweight achiever
- Tony Sirico
- Lou DeMarco
- Kenneth Edelson
- Rabbi Kaufman
- Sam Gray
- Tony's father
- Marilyn Raphael
- Tony's mother
Antonette Schwartzberg- Tony's grandma
- Patti D'Arbanville
- Iris
- Frank Pellegrino
- Frankie
- Gabriel Millman
- Ricky
- Adam Sietz
- Vince
- Gretchen Mol
- Vicky
- Michael Crecco
- Neal Arluck
- Timothy Jerome
- Joseph Tudisco
- hotel clerks
- Jim Moody
- Robert Torres
- security guards
- Steven Randazzo
- John Costelloe
- cops at hotel
- Mary Jo Buttafuoco
- Joey Buttafuoco
- themselves
- Adrian Grenier
- Sam Rockwell
- John Doumanian
- Darrow entourage
- Lorri Bagley
- Chekhov-style writer
- Richard Mawe
- Ted Neustadt
- Bruce Jay Friedman
- Erica Jong
- Ned Eisenberg
- Clebert Ford
- Elaine's book party guests
- Ralph Pope
- comic's agent
- Rick Mowat
- comic
- Tony Darrow
- Victor Colicchio
- Robert Cividanes
- moving men in loft
- Donegal Fitzgerald
- moving man on street
Leslie Shenkel- 'Manhattan Moods' assistant director
- Donna Hanover
- 'Manhattan Moods' anchor woman
- Allison Janney
- Evelyn Isaacs
- Howard Erskine
- Senator Paley
- Celia Weston
- Dee Bartholomew
- Donald Trump
- himself
- Wood Harris
- Al Swayze
- Ray Cohen
- pianist at wedding
- Angel Caban
- limo driver
- Aida Turturro
- psychic
- Ingrid Rogers
- Off-Off Broadway actress
- Jeffrey Wright
- Off-Off Broadway director
- Karen Duffy
- TV reporter at première
- Brian McCormack
- Phil
- GiGi Williams
- fan of Robin Simon
- Certificate
- 18
- Distributor
- Buena Vista International (UK)
- 10,209 feet
- 113 minutes 26 seconds
- Dolby SR/DTS Stereo
- Colour by
- DuArt Film Laboratories
- Prints by
- Technicolor
- Release print in monochrome