''Public Speaking'' is a 2010

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed and produced by

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...

, about the American author Fran Lebowitz. The film was broadcast on HBO on November 22, 2010, prior to a limited release on February 23, 2011, by Rialto Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics. The film was nominated for Best Documentary in the Gotham Independent Film Awards 2010.

Synopsis

The film follows writer Fran Lebowitz known for her unique takes on modern life, with clips from speaking engagements.

Production

Graydon Carter Edward Graydon Carter, CM (born July 14, 1949) is a Canadian journalist who served as the editor of '' Vanity Fair'' from 1992 until 2017. He also co-founded, with Kurt Andersen and Tom Phillips, the satirical monthly magazine '' Spy'' in 1986 ...

initially pitched the idea to Lebowitz, with

Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. They often contain themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Cited by ...

attached for three years to direct the film. Due to a scheduling conflict,

replaced Anderson.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

took place at The Waverly Inn in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Release

The film was broadcast on HBO on November 22, 2010. In January 2011, Rialto Pictures acquired U.S. theatrical distribution rights to the film, and set it for a February 23, 2011, limited release.

Critical reception

''Public Speaking'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 92% approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 12 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 7.90/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a rating of 75 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* 2010 films 2010 documentary films American documentary films Films directed by Martin Scorsese Documentary films about women writers Films produced by Martin Scorsese Films produced by Graydon Carter HBO documentary films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films {{bio-documentary-film-stub