“Love, Gilda”– Movie Review

This week at the opening night of The Tribeca Film Festival, I attended the World Premiere of the new documentary, “Love, Gilda”. 

Synopsis

A documentary that covers the life, loves, influences and premature death of a beloved comedy actress from the original cast of “Saturday Night Live”.

Story

Detroit in the 1950’s was a special place to grow up.  It was among the best and biggest cities in America – known as The Motor City because it was the home to automobile manufacturing.  This is where Gilda Radner grew up.  Born into a family of means – her father was successful in real estate – she was a child who came late to her parents, born when they were around 50 years old.  It was therefore a traumatic event when her father passed away when she was only 14; she believed that because he died before she became a woman, she subconsciously wanted to remain a child forever after. 

During her childhood, Gilda was a bit on the chubby side, which caused her to be the focus of much ridicule from her classmates.  She would use her sense of humor to turn this into a defense mechanism to combat her bullies.  When she went off to college, she joined a theater group and fell in love with being on the stage and acting.  Realizing early on that comedy was where she was best suited, she joined a comedy group where she could perform sketches and perfect creating her own characters.  Later, she would get her first major job in the musical“Godspell”, which led to her joining Toronto’s Second City comedy troupe. 

Her big break came when she passed an audition in 1975 for a new television show called “Saturday Night Live”; becoming a cast member, it was not long before she was recognized as one of the show’s stand-out performers.  Leaving the show a few years later, she embarked on a career in the movies; one of those introduced her to Gene Wilder, whom she would later marry.  Their short-lived union seemed doomed when Gilda was diagnosed with ovarian cancer; after initially going into remission, the cancer eventually resurfaced and she died in 1989 at the age of 43. 

Review

For fans of either Gilda Radner or of the original Saturday Night Live, “Love, Gilda” will be something of an emotional roller coaster; as much of a joy as it is to see Radner’s appearances on old video clips, it’s painful to see her getting sick towards the end, especially when we know the outcome.  Likewise, learning about the emotional pain in her personal life is equally difficult -- although it did help to shape much of her later work and some of the characters she subsequently developed on the television show. Nevertheless, the eating disorders she suffered from even after attaining professional success show that her fame didn’t really bring her the happiness she sought.

Among the delights of this documentary is the fact that there are a great many home movies that are included -- not only from Radner’s childhood, but also later in life, including when she became ill.  One of the most notable omissions is among the interviews of people who knew her; Wilder, of course, passed away a couple of years ago, but her first husband, guitarist G.E. Smith, was absent as well. Was he difficult to get in touch with or have his scars never healed?  Also, some former SNL cast members were missing in action. Paul Shaffer and Chevy Chase appeared in the film, but Dan Aykroyd (one of her former boyfriends) were nowhere to be found.

One observation -- which is not necessarily a criticism, but something worth noting -- is that the style of this documentary will seem very familiar if you’ve already seen Judd Apatow’s documentary on HBO, “The Zen Diaries Of Garry Shandling”.  The reason is because “Love, Gilda” -- like Apatow’s film -- incorporates the actual diary entries of its subject. In both documentaries, some are just seen on screen and others are read aloud (in the case of “Love, Gilda”, they are read by former SNL cast members who succeeded Radner’s era).  Oddly coincidental as well is the fact that the documentary also includes Radner’s return to television after cancer treatment: an appearance on the late Garry Shandling’s Showtime sit-com.