Martin Scorsese, David Johansen and more discuss ‘Personality Crisis: One Night Only’ at Showtime FYC event: ‘It was shockingly good’

Denton Davidson
·4 min read
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Tuesday, April 25, Showtime hosted the FYC event for the documentary “Personality Crisis: One Night Only.” The screening, panel and reception were held at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Los Angeles. Panel participants from the film included: Director and Producer Martin Scorsese, Director and Editor David Tedeschi, the one and only David Johansen, Producer Margaret Bodde, Executive Producer Mara Hennessey, and film interviewer Leah Hennessey. The conversation was moderated by Cynthia Littleton, Variety Editor-in-Chief.

“It was shockingly good,” Johansen said of the film about him. “I especially liked the fact that I didn’t die at the end. A lot of people, when they do documentaries about music, they ask me to be in them and I normally refuse because it’s the most horrible thing to have an opinion one day and then two years later see it in a film. Because, evolution and transcendence and all that jazz, you don’t want to be like, ‘Who is that guy?’ So, this is a version of me that I can live with. It was good.”

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Scorcese explained his knowledge of Johansen goes back to The New York Dolls and the “Personality Crisis” lead track from their debut album. “It kept me going through 1973,” he revealed. “Including the making of ‘Mean Streets.’ So over the years I kept becoming aware of him and his different incarnations, or changes, or shifting from one person to another. I really became more aware of his taste in music. When we were doing ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ Randy Poster and Vince Giordano would have David there and David would be doing covers for the songs in the period, set in the Prohibition era of the 1920s. Around that same time I became aware of his radio show called ‘Mansion of Fun.’ This went on for years, the music slipping and sliding from genre to genre. His knowledge, and the musicologist that he is, is something that has inspired me for the last 25-30 years.”

The director continued, “I was at the Hotel Carlyle. I was going to get a fitting for some clothes. In the elevator it said ‘The Cafe Caryle presents David Johansen.’ So I said, ‘Oh my God, we have to go see it!’ So myself and David Tedeschi, my wife Helen, we went that night. We experienced this very beautiful and moving act. The lyrics. His presence was something. After it was all over we just looked at each other and I said, ‘What do you want to do?’ And [Tedeschi] said, ‘Let’s shoot it.'”

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Continuing his vibrant and invaluable documentaries about iconic American artists and musicians such as “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan,” and the Fran Lebowitz portrait “Public Speaking,” Scorsese turns his camera on another beloved New York institution: the singular David Johansen. Equally celebrated as the lead singer-songwriter of the androgynous ’70s glam punk groundbreakers The New York Dolls and for his complete reinvention as hepcat Buster Poindexter in the ’80s, the chameleonic Johansen has created an entire genre unto himself, combining swing, blues, and rock for something at once mischievous and deeply personal.

In “Personality Crisis: One Night Only,” Scorsese and co-director David Tedeschi (“The 50 Year Argument”), with the help of cinematographer Ellen Kuras (“American Utopia”), luminously capture the entertainer’s January 2020 Cafe Carlyle set, where he performs as Poindexter singing the Johansen songbook, bringing downtown irreverence to this storied uptown joint. Presented alongside new and archival interviews, the concert is marvelously intimate and a testament to both a lost New York and a performer who remains as fresh and exciting as ever.

The film is produced for Showtime by Imagine Documentaries and Sikelia Productions. Scorsese also serves as a producer alongside Bodde, Justin Wilkes and Sara Bernstein. Executive producers are Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Mara Hennessey, Rick Yorn and Vinnie Malhotra.

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