An Interview with Fran Lebowitz: Reflections on Film, Warhol's Legacy, Public Persona, and American Culture

Abstract

Fran Lebowitz gave an interview for The Journal of American Culture on a variety of topics covering American culture, film, the legacy of Andy Warhol, and the concept of public persona. Since the early 1970s, when she moved to New York, Fran Lebowitz has established herself as an influential public intellectual and speaker. Her international tour (https://franlebowitz.com/tour) has made her ideas familiar to an international audience with talks in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Her success did not come as a surprise; if anything, it has continued through the success of Pretend It's a City (PIC), Martin Scorsese's 2021 Netflix series about her, which on paper seemed to be of interest only to New Yorkers and instead turned out to be an unexpected overnight success in America as much as in Europe. It was preceded by Public Speaking (PS), a 2010 documentary broadcast by HBO. Both directed and produced by Martin Scorsese, the two productions are entirely dedicated to Fran Lebowitz, writer, humorist, great opinion