She has been described as a modern day Dorothy Parker and certainly the way Fran Lebowitz comes across in Martin Scorsese’s series about New York’s most waspish wit, the one-liners fly. A Jewish Dorothy Parker might be a more helpful description.
In one of many Q &A sessions hosted by such fellow cultural titans as Spike Lee, Alec Baldwin or Scorsese himself, Lebowitz appears to have an inexhaustible supply of pithy retorts and replies. Asked by a member of the audience how she would describe her lifestyle, she answers “Well, I wouldn’t use the term ‘lifestyle.’”
In this seven part series, the author and humorist is often filmed by Scorsese walking the streets of New York, a theme about which she has much to say. Being in public spaces — or rather her dislike of being in public spaces — is an endless source of material. So as Scorsese’s subject walks along the city’s pavements, down its escalators and through hotel lobbies, her progress is accompanied by an air of irritation.
The slightest brush by the arm of a stranger moving in the opposite direction elicits a barely suppressed flinch.
