New Delhi
Martin Scorsese is back on Netflix, this time with a docu-series featuring writer and essayist Fran Lebowitz. The duo reunites for 'Pretend It’s a City', ten years after HBO series 'Public Speaking'.
Netflix unveiled a trailer for its upcoming docuseries which is set to premiere on Jan. 8. Directed by Scorsese, the series centers around critic and essayist Fran Lebowitz to give insight into her past while also exploring her thorough commentary on the New York way of life. She addresses tourism, transportation, real estate, and more throughout the episodes. Scorsese, Lebowitz, David Tedeschi, Ted Griffin, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Joshua Porter, and Margaret Bodde executive produce the project.
Per Netflix, the documentary film’s synopsis reads:
Fran Lebowitz knows what she likes — and what she doesn’t like. And she won’t wait for an invitation to tell you. For decades, the critic and essayist has been expressing her opinions, sometimes grouchily, always riotously. A New Yorker to the core, Lebowitz has raised straight talk to an art form, packaging her no-nonsense observations about the city and its denizens into a punchy running commentary, one that spares nobody. Shaping Lebowitz’s thoughts into the furiously funny guidebook every New Yorker has at one point wished for, “Pretend It’s a City” checks in with a classic urban voice on subjects ranging from tourists, money, subways, and the arts to the not-so-simple act of walking in Times Square. (There is a right way to do it.) Along the way, Lebowitz’s own past comes into focus: a life marked by constant curiosity and invigorating independence
'Pretend It’s a City' marks the second major Scorsese-Lebowitz collaboration. Scorsese previously directed the 2010 HBO documentary film 'Public Speaking,' which included a variety of clips of Lebowitz’s interviews and speaking engagements. Lebowitz, a longtime friend of Scorsese and an American social critic who published bestselling books such as 'Metropolitan Life' and 'Social Studies,' had a cameo in the director’s 2013 'The Wolf of Wall Street.'
Scorsese’s last film, 'The Irishman,' premiered on Netflix in 2019. 'Pretend It’s a City' marks the filmmaker’s second film for the streaming service. The director’s next major feature, 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, is slated to premiere on Apple TV+.