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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
In their HBO movie "Monica in Black and White," documentarians Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey riff on Lewinsky, celebrity and the tough questions.
Mar 1, 2002 | For all we know about Monica Lewinsky from Page Six, the Starr Report and her teary chat with Barbara Walters, she still remains a cipher. Was she vamp or victim? Stalker or sweetheart? Innocent or instigator?
What is she really like? That's what everyone who knew Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey wanted to know when the documentary team began making "Monica in Black and White." By interspersing archival press footage with a Q&A session conducted by Monica Lewinsky at New York's Cooper Union College, the two managed to get us closer to that answer than anything we've seen before.
The absorbing and well-crafted documentary chronicles Lewinsky's ascendance from lowly White House intern to entrepreneurial gadabout. The film has a conspiratorial, "All the President's Men" feel, but probably the most shocking aspect of the documentary is the utter obliviousness and insouciance with which Lewinsky characterizes her dalliance with the ex-president. "I think I just thought it would be a fun fling," she says at one point. "I judged him in the sense of thinking, 'Well ... oh OK ... whatever. You know, I'm young ... it's the president ... he's cute. It's kinda cool. Irresponsible ... but cool.'"
While "Monica in Black and White" may not change any opinions about Lewinsky, it does succeed in showing a side of her that we haven't seen before -- that of charming, engaging raconteur. Bathed in a flattering spotlight, her brunet locks freshly coifed, Lewinsky sits cross-legged at the foot of the stage. It's a conscious effort to establish some pseudo-intimate rapport with her interrogators, of course, and the stagy setup reeks of sheer narcissism. But the thing is that she delivers such an undeniable charisma and screen presence that she actually comes out smelling like a rose.
The bulk of the audience treats her with an almost solemn reverence. When, for example, one boorish spectator derisively inquires, "How does it feel to be America's premier blow-job queen?" the appalled crowd responds with a collective chorus of groans and gasps.
I recently spoke over the phone with filmmakers Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, the men behind such provocative and acclaimed documentaries as "101 Rent Boys," "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" and "Party Monster." "Monica in Black and White" kicks off HBO's second season of "America Undercover Sundays" and airs March 3 at 10 p.m. Eastern time.
When HBO first approached you with this project, what was your first reaction? Were you confident you could take this subject matter and turn it into a worthwhile documentary?
Randy Barbato: We were definitely intrigued and interested. Most of the projects that pique our interest have to do with media stories and stuff we think we know everything about. That's what really intrigued us about doing a film about Monica Lewinsky. It was something where we had certainly formed several opinions and then said, "Well, maybe we don't know the whole story."
Fenton Bailey: Experience has really shown us that when there is a hugely exposed story in the media, the chances are that only a little of that story is really being reported -- even if the coverage is ad nauseam. In fact, huge amounts of the story remain simply untold in spite of the 24/7 news coverage. It's amazing how mainstream media can make such a little go such a long way.
When the Clinton scandal first broke, what was your initial assessment of Monica Lewinsky?
Barbato: I think when the story first broke, my assessment was very much taking the cue from what I was reading and seeing.
Bailey: I gradually got this kind of negative view of her.
Barbato: The interesting thing about Monica Lewinsky, which we learned during the process of making this film, is that there's a public persona that was authored by all these people with different agendas: by Democrats, by Republicans, by the media. They all had an agenda. One was to protect the president, the other one was to destroy the president, and the media were pursuing a sexy, salacious story. And at the center of all these people shaping her persona was Monica, who was forced to be silent. She spent several years having other people with dubious intentions tell us who she was.
Artistically speaking, what did you feel you could bring to this project that would differentiate it from all the other coverage of Monica Lewinsky's life?
Bailey: Well, I suppose we thought that if she could just tell her story from her own point of view in this essentially neutral environment that it would be a great device to get her to tell her story in a rather unbiased way. It would essentially be just her perspective. 'Cause the thing is, when a professional reporter like Barbara Walters sits down, the questions have been very carefully thought out and the whole experience is very mediated. The thinking here was to try to get Monica to tell her story in an unmediated way. Obviously, that's to some extent a contrivance, because a documentary by definition is a mediated work.
On a technical level, how did you decide how you would film Monica's appearance?
Barbato: Well, we definitely wanted to be in a space that felt intimate. It's funny, because when we decided to film it at Cooper Union, we went there a few times and thought, OK, where are we going to put her on the stage? What kind of set are we going to design? We had every intention of sort of building a space on the stage and then it became clear to us: We just want this to feel like a conversation. We don't even need a set. Let's just plop her on the edge of the stage and have her as close to the audience as possible. That became a very organic decision; it's almost like the format of the film dictated that. And then in terms of filming it, we wanted many shots with Monica in relation to the audience. We really wanted that kind of intimacy and closeness.
