Search - Sandra Bernhard: "I'm Still Here...Damn It!" on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Adult Humor, Profanity Movie Release: 2000 DVD Release: 02/22/2000 Format: DVD SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 30 mins Studio: Lions Gate Members Wishing: 1 Genres: Comedy, Music, Concerts, Vocal Music, Performance Art, Standup Comedy

Actress/comedian Sandra Bernhard is known to millions as a frequent guest star on TV series such as Roseanne and Ally McBeal, but I'm Still Here Dammit! provides a document of her most enduring work: her one-woman shows. Although the piece originally ran on Broadway and was the basis of a comedy CD, the version here was recorded live at the San Francisco club Slim's for an HBO broadcast and bolstered by an additional 30 minutes of footage on video. Clad in a diaphanous peach frock that reveals both her underwear and her very visibly pregnant belly, Bernhard practices her wit on topics such as cell phones and the Internet, faux spirituality, the Lilith Fair, America's obsession with anti-bacterial products, her Latino house-painter and her lone, unpleasant experience taking hashish at an Amsterdam bar. Although the show features fewer songs than her previous outings, Bernhard is backed by longtime collaborator Mitch Kaplan on such tunes as "On the Runway," a mock-tribute to slain fashion designer Gianni Versace, which Berhnard imagines as a collaboration between Sting, Elton John, and Naomi Campbell, with proceeds to benefit "fashion victims everywhere." Other celebrity monologues chart Fleetwood Mac singer Christine McVie's fantastical transformation into a greasy-spoon waitress and Bernhard's possibly imaginary friendship with grunge diva-turned-actress Courtney Love. I'm Still Here Dammit was directed by Pee-Wee Herman Show vet Marty Callner. Award-winning Hollywood cinematographer Haskell Wexler also participated. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Sandra Bernhard
Denise Fraser
Mitch Kaplan
Soumaya Akaaboun

The picture quality on the Sandra Bernhard: I'm Still Here...Damn It! DVD, which was shot for television, is very good. Director of photography Haskell Wexler (In the Heat of the Night, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) captures the right elements of Sandra Bernhard and the stage. There is a light glow that stands out and makes her the focus. A big plus for this disc is the inclusion of an extra 30 minutes of her show that was not aired on HBO. It consists of 12 additional segments and it's a shame many of these weren't included in the original broadcast. Some are very funny -- much more so than the performance most were able to see. A highlight is the opener, "A Diva's Moment," where Bernhard goes off, stating what a star she is. One would almost think it was part of the show, part of her script, but it seems too far off the cuff and unrehearsed. Here is where she's at her best, making fun of the industry that she's been a part of for so long, but often from the outside. Fans of Bernhard will not be disappointed with this performance or this disc. ~ Trent Fordham, All Movie Guide