The Last Impresario

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Audience Member Entertaining, great graphics. But, wished that they explained more of how he got to begin his career, etc. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Fascinating character that is Michael White. No shortage of friends for their testimonial. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member I had literally no idea what The Last Impresario was about and somehow found myself accidentally in a cinema watching it after confusing it with another film. I was glad to have accidentally ended up there, because The Last Impresario was an interesting film. It was a documentary about one of the most famous men that nobody has ever heard of, as he bears the title of a producer. The story focuses on the legacy of Michael White, the impact he has had on people and the development of unconventional theatre and who he is as a person all at once. The film has a lot of ground to cover, and although at times it may not grasp its full potential, it is a very entertaining documentary. The Last Impresario was a great film with its only real flaw being the fact that at the end it gets rather repetitive in what it covers and it slows down in terms of entertainment value. But the rest of the film makes up for that because it manages to constantly find good things about Michael White to be covering. A lot of documentaries tend to cover limited ground on subject matter, but The Last Impresario makes an effort to actually be consistently interesting in its narrative. It has the same basic issues as most documentaries in that occasionally it tends to drag on a bit, but the fact is that the person in The Last Impresario at the heart of the film is thoroughly interesting. Michael White is an interesting person because of the way that he puts faith in people and refuses to tamper with them, but The Last Impresario touches upon that while keeping its predominant focus more so on the way that he influence unconventional theatrical plays and changed the history of stage for the better. Director Gracie Otto remembers to touch upon the life of Michael White with insight and intelligence through revealing his opinion on many things, his lifestyle and the harsh experiences he would later have in life as a result of his declining health, but it constantly characterises him as a strong person whose influence on the entertainment industry is unforgettable. The main focus of The Last Impresario goes back to where it all started with plays such as Oh! Calcutta! which was a breakthrough play for its depiction of raw sexuality through performance art, and it later moves on to his involvement in producing The Rocky Horror Show, using interviews with the director of the play Jim Sharman as well as writer and actor Richard O'Brien. They talk closely about how he helped them out by funding their play, and later how he would assist in the production of the cultural phenomenon film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As that is my all time favourite musical film I was deeply interested in the scenes that chronicled how he assisted in the development of the play and the film adaptation, and the way that the music from the film was cleverly placed throughout its running time was a nice touch because it gave The Last Impresario a sense of nostalgia. The detail of his involvement was great, and as it progresses into his foray into cinema and how he helped Monty Python off the ground by producing the comedy masterpiece Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Last Impresario reveals that Michael White has made numerous contributions to entertainment history and has walked away from it proud even at the expense of name recognition or loads of money. Michael White is a man who was famous amongst the Hollywood crowd but not with the rest of the world, and The Last Impresario serves as the appropriate medium to offer him that kind of recognition as one of the final acts for his legacy in his life. You can see the kind of impact that Michael White has made through the way that many celebrities talk passionately about him and how they all want to be involved with him due to his dedicated nature and the way that he enjoyed versatile projects. You get to see footage from many of his creations on the screen and it is easy to see why they had such an impact. The film really makes viewers consider just how important a producer is. It talks about how producing is essentially gambling because while one does get something created by producing it, there is no guarantee they will end up getting their money back. It is fairly likely they will actually lose it. But that never really seemed to faze Michael White. He did it because he was passionate about theatre and he had a true spirit, and the fact that he earned several Laurence Olivier awards for it is just perfect. As a person who is not that familiar with theatre or all that fond of it, The Last Impresario had me more interested in exploring it by seeing the alternative side to theatre which did not follow the same conventional stories and styles that every play I have ever seen did. It encouraged me to give theatre a second chance, and so The Last Impresario is a good film for having changed my way of thinking. The Last Impresario was a film which was able to educate me, and it did so with entertaining subject matter and concepts that aren't usually touched upon so much. It focuses on a lot of things, and most of the time when it comes across a particular topic it stays on it. So the genuine structure of The Last Impresario is great, and the way it is handled by director Gracie Otto is terrific. So although The Last Impresario is repetitive in parts, as a whole it breathes depth into the life of a theatrical producer and highlights the way that Michael White changed theatre history simply as a producer, and it pays him the tribute he deserves while entertaining and educating viewers in the process. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Last Impresario

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