Judd Apatow can’t verify anything Mel Brooks said to him while making it Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man! This is correct. Early in the two-part documentary, Brooks reveals that many of the tales he told on talk shows and in comedy routines were exaggerated, or fundamentally untrue, which also calls into question everything he revealed during the 10 hours Apatow interviewed him.
“The implication seems to be that some of these stories have been perforated,” Apatow says. “We’ll never know exactly what happened. But I don’t think he was dishonest about his life. As we got older, he became more relaxed, and every once in a while he would really surprise us and tell us something we weren’t even looking for.”
“We” includes directors Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, both of whom were approached by HBO about focusing a film on Brooks. The result is a three-and-a-half-hour testimony to one of the boldest and most influential comedic voices of the last century. Ultimately, Brooks’ previous obfuscations gave Apatow and Bonfiglio their hook: How do we pull back the curtain on someone who has kept so much of it drawn?
“We make films where we want to introduce you to this person whose work you may or may not know, and then we try to dig deeper into understanding these people and what motivates them,” Bonfiglio says.
During his life, Brooks turned the hardships he faced as an insignificant Jewish child and the horrors he witnessed while serving in World War II into lyrical material about Hitler.Producers), a Western satire on racism (Flaming saddles(And a farce about corporate power)Silent movie). until Young Frankenstein and World History, Part One They have great thinking underneath their silly masks.
“There’s a lot of social message, but it’s buried underneath the comedy,” Apatow says of Brooks’ work. “I feel like he finds it distasteful that you act like you have some high morals. So if you say, ‘Why did you make fun of Hitler?’ He’ll say, ‘Because it was funny.’ And he wasn’t just laughing, he was laughing at falling out of his chair and peeing his underwear.
The film includes a loving portrait of Brooks’ 40-year marriage to Anne Bancroft, who died in 2005, and a catalog of the many artists who inspired his work. As Apatow sees it, The Simpsons And Bill Murray’s entire career owes something to Brooks, as does Albert Brooks (no relation), Ben Stiller and every movie based on a funny story. Saturday Night Live a personality.
What is most impressive about Brooks is the way he has maintained what seems like a healthy home life and a contemplative worldview while striving to achieve a certain level of privacy.
“I live a similar life to Mel in some ways as someone who looks at life through a comedic lens and tries to make work that brings joy to people but also includes satire, self-exploration and politics,” Apatow says. “And also [figuring out]How do you raise a family and be a normal person in this Hollywood environment and show business and do right by the people in your life?
This story first appeared in the June standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To obtain the magazine, click here to subscribe.
