An exclusive peek at After the Party, a documentary that hasn't found a distributor yet—but should.
Dominick Dunne is not everyone’s idea of a great writer—much less a reliable journalist—but he’s terrific company, and he sure does have a story to tell. The new 85-minute documentary After the Party leaves out vast chewy chunks of that story, and the lacunae really show—but no matter. This is an improbably riveting, improbably touching movie, and even if you’ve never read the compulsively readable Dunne—or, alternatively, never read him without a giant dollop of skepticism—you will come away cherishing him.
Who else has lived the life he’s lived? Who else could be so charmingly frank in the telling of it? Shambling along in oversized suits, his eyes penetrating behind owlish specs, Dunne is now 82. But his own foibles still stagger him, quite endearingly, just as they stagger the illustrious friends who are here gathered to dissect him: his sister-in-law, Joan Didion, who generously compares him to Trollope(!); his editor at Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, visibly straining for diplomacy; the producer Robert Evans, luxuriating in the hit-man timbre of his voice; The Daily Beast’s editor-in-chief, Tina Brown, who discovered Dunne and made him a fixture at Vanity Fair when she was its editor; and Dunne’s actor/writer/director son, Griffin, who is shockingly candid about how “flawed” his father was and whose accounts of his painfully artificial “royal family” pack a royal wallop. The specter of Dunne’s greatest tragedy—the 1982 murder of his daughter, Dominique, by a deranged boyfriend—lurks in the background, waiting for its entrance about two-thirds of the way through the story. It, too, delivers an appalling punch.
The movie’s writer-director-producers, Kirsty de Garis and Timothy Jolley, are fine, fluent storytellers, and they have dutifully structured their account around Dunne’s coverage, for Vanity Fair, of the Phil Spector murder trial. This is an intelligent way of going about things, yet, apart from Spector’s spectacular creepiness, it isn’t terribly revelatory. Dunne, though, always is. He has given his biographers gold: seemingly unfettered access to his lovingly tended scrapbooks and photos, and, above all, to his own boisterous and rueful recollections. He is a born raconteur and a hauntingly wounded soul, part vindictive attack dog and part pussy cat, clawing away tirelessly at old scars until they bleed anew for our delectation. Here is his childhood in a big family whose regal father derided him as a sissy; here are his war years, during which he became an unlikely hero; his marriage to Lenny, an heiress and a beauty whom he always deemed too good for him; his nearly inexplicable Hollywood rise, first as a TV stage manager and then as a movie producer, but mostly as a party host to the boldest of boldface names: Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Billy Wilder, David Niven, Rock Hudson—the list winds absurdly on and on.
Tracy Quan's latest novel is Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, set in Provence and praised in The Nation as a "deft account of occupational rigors and anxieties before the crash." Tracy's debut, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and the sequel, Diary of a Married Call Girl, are international bestsellers. A regular columnist for The Guardian, she has written for many publications including Cosmopolitan, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.
Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
Gerald Posner is the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism (www.posner.com). Posner lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Renata Espinosa is the New York editor of Fashion Wire Daily. She is also the co-founder of impressionistic fashion and art blog TheNuNu and a sometimes backup dancer for "The Anna Copa Cabanna Show."
Amanda Fortini has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Elle, and New York, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
I think Dominque Dunne definately deserves the time. I would like to see a full fledged movie made in Hollywood's finest style... his story would definately stand up well beside the material that is presently out there.
I saw this film at the Hamptons Film Festival a couple of weeks back and it's awesome - I think it's an independent film but it is quality. Check out www.dominickdunne.net
He is an interesting figure.
This is simply brilliant - an awesomely honest profile of one of the most talented writers we have. Dominick Dunne is a modern master of fiction and, as a journalist, a courageous teller of truths, even about himself.
I have been a fan of Dominique Dunne since 1982, when I was 14 and saw 'Poltergeist' for the first time. I was watching the news the night her death was reported and I've never forgotten her. As a result, I also became a fan of her father and brother. Her father is amazing man who used his tragedy for the good of others. I would love to see a film made about Dominique's murder. She definitely would have been a big star today, had she lived.
Dear Nikki,
Would you kindly remind your readers, and fans of Dominick Dunne, that they can leave their best wishes for him at www.DominicksDiary.com?
His latest operation, (had two, almost in a row), was a beaut.
Dominick Dunne's column in Vanity Fair was always my main reason for buying it. His first-hand observations were often astute, and dared to go where no one else would. Even when he reported rumour and speculation, he made it clear that those allegations were unproven, and portrayed a clearer picture of the environment of his story, enhancing the reader's understanding of the substantiated facts. He's right: a lot of rich people get away with a lot of crimes. By making that so clear, he advocated for the poor people who suffer injustice. Dominick, you Dunne good.
Thank you.
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