Character Crisis: One Night Only Dazzle audiences in its world premiere at the 2022 New York Film Festival. Now Showtime audiences can dive into the illuminating portrait of cherished New York institution: David Johansen.
The engaging and often personal documentary spotlights Johansen, the pioneering singer-songwriter of The New York Dolls, that charming androgynous punk group of the ’70s. She embodies a true artist – down to the bone. Pop culture and music fans also know that Johansen was a bit of a chameleon. His stunning reinvention as the 1980s hepcat Buster Poindexter, for example, proves that the artist created his own genre, marrying swing and blues with rock to showcase something unique, deep, and exciting.
Character Crisis: One Night Only comes from Academy Award winning Martin Scorsese and co-director David Tedeschi (The fifty-year argument). Scorsese draws from his previous directorial triumphs in documentaries about noteworthy spirits who have influenced culture. He watches George Harrison: Living in the Material World And pretend to be a city, That lit up the wonderful Fran Liebowitz, and you realize Scorsese has both an eye and a heart for such personal endeavors. for every irish, The director also managed to take the time to create something like recent movie stars, Where Scorsese delved into the relationship between Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Co-Director David Tedeschi and Producer Margaret Boddy Share more about Character Crisis: One Night Only In an exclusive interview with MovieWeb.
Capture a cultural icon
to Character Crisis: One Night OnlyKahn, Scorsese, Tedeschi, and Buddy are in good hands with cinematographer Ellen Koras (American Utopia). The result exquisitely captures Johansen’s January 2020 Café Carlyle set, performing as Poindexter singing Johansen’s songbook. Ponder on that for a second. It’s a great creative move.
“I think David is ultimately a very humble person, so he wasn’t pushing for it. I think when Marty and David talked to him about it, and Mara Hennessy, his wife and executive producer on the movie, approached him, it was clear there were a lot of people who loved him.” who thought it was a good idea.” Produced by Margaret Boddy. David thought it was a great idea. And David Johansen was kind of like, ‘Okay, let’s see where this goes.'”
Presented alongside new and archival interviews, the concert leans toward intimacy as it showcases a New York that has been lost and a performer whose soul has never been.
“No one really knows what to expect,” co-director David Tedeschi says of what it felt like to go into the project. “I don’t think David knew what to expect. He knew we wanted to shoot the show, and then we did our thing. We took the show, but we also incorporated other material, whether it was from his radio show or other fun archive material from The New York Dolls .
He added, “There are a lot of different moments in the doc, either by David Johansen, or the time period.” But I don’t think David knew what to expect. I think he saw Marty’s work, and he wondered, “What could they do?”
What we do not know about David Johansen
Most artists, especially those who swam in the creative currents of 1970s and 1980s New York, tend to be multifaceted supernovae. In general, they have tremendous passion and risky feelings. It is appropriate, then, to ask, given the breadth of Johansen’s work, what most people may not realize about this iconic artist.
“The thing most people don’t realize about David Johansen is that he’s the most famous unknown quantity,” Tedeschi said. “He’s been the lead singer of the New York Dolls, he’s had a career as David Johansen, he’s worked in Buster Poindexter. He’s a fantastic performer—both in rock and roll, and in what I would call the American Songbook.”
Bode says Johansen’s humor stands out. “He’s a rock on tour. His timing is perfect, both musically and in his storytelling. What comes through in this movie are the songs that tell their own story, and the stories in between that tell another’s. And what people may not realize is that this guy is funny.” He’s an extrovert. He’s a very intellectual and philosophical guy, but he’s also like a guy from the street that you can just have a conversation with.”
She added that Johansen is a very welcoming person. “He’s not quite like an open book, but he’s a very personable person, he has a lot of friends, he has a lot of history, and just inside of him, it stretches out like decades of New York City history. What struck me most were the many things he exploited as a 17-year-old in New York City and how open he is to everything. For a guy growing up on Staten Island, he’s embraced all kinds of weird and wonderful.”
Character Crisis: One Night Only It premieres on Showtime Friday, April 14, and is available for streaming and on-demand to subscribers.
