Rotten Tomatoes

Movies / TV

    Celebrity

      No Results Found

       View All       Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

      The Last Impresario

      2013 1h 25m Biography List
      94% 16 Reviews Tomatometer 44% 100+ Ratings Audience Score London-based theater impresario Michael White has produced more than 300 shows and movies in the city. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (3) audience reviews
      Audience Member Entertaining, great graphics. But, wished that they explained more of how he got to begin his career, etc. 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 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 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Show Less Cast & Crew Show More Cast & Crew

      More Like This

      View All Best Movies to Stream at Home
      100% % Al Purdy Was Here 92% 71% The First Film 94% 81% Endless Poetry TRAILER for Endless Poetry 92% 84% Requiem for the American Dream 79% 64% Goltzius and the Pelican Company Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

      Photos

      View All The Last Impresario photos

      The Last Impresario

      The Last Impresario (2013) The Last Impresario (2013) The Last Impresario (2013) View more photos

      Critics Reviews

      View All (16) Critics Reviews
      Nathalie Atkinson Globe and Mail The Last Impresario explores how White may sadly be one of the last in the true definition of the term. Nov 28, 2014 Full Review Leslie Felperin Guardian White makes for a glittering prism through which to view a certain generation of bohemian excess and creativity. Rated: 3/5 Sep 25, 2014 Full Review David Jenkins Little White Lies White now is in pretty bad shape and doesn't really possess the mental or physical capacity to engage in long conversations about his life and times. Rated: 2/5 Sep 25, 2014 Full Review D.W. Mault CineVue There's a certain suspicion about hieroglyphic documentary portraits of individuals of a generational span, but The Last Impresario constantly surprises both by what it is and what it's not. Rated: 4/5 Apr 3, 2019 Full Review Chris Barsanti PopMatters The Last Impresario is a highlight reel of highly talented and famous people (John Cleese, Wallace Shawn, Anna Wintour) saying very nice things. This is not a bad thing on its face, but there are limits to how far it can go. Nov 30, 2014 Full Review Simon Kinnear Total Film Granted full access, Otto secures face time with dozens of famouses who clearly love him. Yet such praise exposes the film's limitations, with little analysis of White's taboo-busting achievements. Rated: 3/5 Sep 28, 2014 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis London-based theater impresario Michael White has produced more than 300 shows and movies in the city.
      Director
      Gracie Otto
      Producer
      Thomas Mai, Julia Overton, Craig Deeker, Mel Flanagan
      Screenwriter
      Gracie Otto
      Genre
      Biography
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Nov 5, 2015
      Runtime
      1h 25m