Meet the playboy entrepreneur behind Monty Python, Rocky Horror and Dame Edna
THE Last Impresario: Parties, drugs and stellar celebrity pals all but defined one of the most connected individuals in showbiz history — and all but destroyed him as well.
Leigh Paatsch
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THIS is a fascinating documentary that may only be focusing on one subject, but has many stories to tell.
As The Last Impresario begins, it looks as if it will be content to merely chronicle an extraordinary career in show business.
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At the height of his powers, British producer Michael White was undoubtedly one of the most connected individuals in showbiz history.
If you had a wild creative idea and nobody in their right mind wanted a bar of it, White would hear you out. And if that idea had merit, he’d find you the finance and get the show on the road.
The man’s credits are too deep, wide and long to list here. However, it is safe to say that without White, there would have been no breakout success for the likes of Monty Python, The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Dame Edna Everage.
However, while White made quite a name for himself as a prolific, risk-taking entrepreneur, his never-ending pursuit of fast women and good times remained the highest priority of all.
The parties, the drugs and the stellar celebrity acquaintances all but defined Michael White, and all but destroyed him as well.
Once first-time filmmaker Gracie Otto zeroes in on White’s extra-curricular movements across the past five decades — much of them photographed at the time by the man himself — a rather sobering, saddening portrait takes shape.
Though White is still very much with us, a series of strokes and bad business decisions have left him a shell of his former self.
He does participate in the doco, albeit most reluctantly at times. Some lines of questioning followed by Otto lead to mystifying dead ends.
Even those who profess to know White quite well (including a long string of wives and lovers) can only offer guesswork when it comes to truly describing this strange and solitary figure.
A haunting study of a man who was always in the right place at the right time, but was never really there.
The Last Impresario
Director: Gracie Otto (documentary debut)
Starring: Michael White, Kate Moss, Naomi Watts, Barry Humphries
Verdict: Four stars. The loneliness of the long-living playboy
Originally published as Meet the playboy entrepreneur behind Monty Python, Rocky Horror and Dame Edna
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