Description:
Sparing no sensibilities, the "bold, inventive and incisively funny" (Rolling Stone) performance artist Sandra Bernhard draws blood in this "heartrending, merciless assault on the phoniness ofentertainment rhetoric" (Roger Ebert). Both "ingenious and unsettling" (The New York Times),her quirky material makes for a wonderfully outrageous and revelatory experience. It is the cabaret act of a nightmare: you sing, dance and tell stories to an utterly apathetic audience. ButSandra Bernhard doesn't know fear, and she tears into a viewer's discomfort with vigor and relish. Stripping herself, body and soul
Sparing no sensibilities, the "bold, inventive and incisively funny" (Rolling Stone) performance artist Sandra Bernhard draws blood in this "heartrending, merciless assault on the phoniness ofentertainment rhetoric" (Roger Ebert). Both "ingenious and unsettling" (The New York Times),her quirky material makes for a wonderfully outrageous and revelatory experience. It is the cabaret act of a nightmare: you sing, dance and tell stories to an utterly apathetic audience. ButSandra Bernhard doesn't know fear, and she tears into a viewer's discomfort with vigor and relish. Stripping herself, body and soul, down to bare essentials, she delivers no less than "an astonishingperformance in this bizarre, funny and prickly satire of pop culture" (The Wall Street Journal).
"You know," she says at the outset, looking straight into the camera," I have one of those hard to believe faces." Whether she's playing herself or any number of other outspoken characters in the film version of her Off-Broadway show, Sandra Bernhard's hard to believe face remains the one constant. First, she's a jazz vocalist, then a stand-up comedian, then a soul singer. Yet she is always Sandra--even if the MC repeatedly introduces her as Sarah--and the stories she tells come mostly from her own life. Other riffs concern such image-obsessed celebrities as Barbra Streisand and Andy Warhol. The musical performances and monologues take place in front of a black nightclub audience that feigns boredom the entire time. Songs include "Me and Mrs. Jones," "Little Red Corvette," and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" with John Doe in full-on "Rhinestone Cowboy" regalia. The stage bits are intercut with commentary about Bernhard from her manager (Lu Leonard) and actor Steve Antin (The Accused). Then there are the scenes of an attractive black woman walking around LA and the dance numbers featuring Madonna look-alike "Shoshanna." What does it all mean? Well, as Bernhard quips, "My father's a proctologist, my mother's an abstract artist. That's how I view the world." The R-rated Without You I'm Nothing was produced by Nicolas Roeg (who directed Bernhard in Track 29), features an original score by Patrice Rushen, and is (naturally) recommended for mature audiences. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release date: 23 August 2005
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 9780792867906 UPC: 027616927545
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