The Story Archive

Lenny

Bob Fosse · 1974 CE · Film · Modern / American · Contemporary

A Catskills comic marries a stripper, drops his prepared act and starts working from whatever is in front of him, until the obscenity arrests begin and the courtroom transcripts become his material. Interviews with his wife, his mother and his agent are cut between the club sets. Fosse shot in black and white, and Hoffman worked from tapes of the late performances where legal papers had replaced routines.

Open Lenny in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Attributes

Genre
TragedyHistorical
Theme
Individual vs SocietyFame & GloryArt & Creation
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Rebel / OutlawTricksterTragic Hero
Plot structure
Frame NarrativeRise and Fall
Symbol / motif
The StageThe Trial
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
TragicSatirical
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues