Swan Song | Little White Lies

Swan Song

10 Jun 2022 / Released: 10 Jun 2022

Words by Emily Maskell

Directed by Todd Stephens

Starring Jennifer Coolidge, Linda Evans, and Udo Kier

Elderly person wearing elaborate headdress and costume with large decorative chandelier behind them.
Elderly person wearing elaborate headdress and costume with large decorative chandelier behind them.
4

Anticipation.

Udo Kier finally gets the leading man role he’s always deserved.

4

Enjoyment.

With its warmth and humour, this is Todd Stephens most mature film to date.

4

In Retrospect.

A poised Kier masters his turn as an older gay man facing up to his past.

Udo Kier plays a world-weary styl­ist who returns to his home­town for a lucra­tive job in Todd Stephens’ touch­ing comedy-drama.

Udo Kier steps into the spot­light of an emp­ty the­atre in the open­ing moments of Swan Song, his all-white out­fit and chunk rings glis­ten­ing as he pro­fess­es: I’m back.” The sen­ti­ment is cer­tain­ly true for the 77-year old cult actor who is placed cen­tre stage in Todd Stephens’ bit­ter­sweet com­e­dy-dra­ma. This is a long-await­ed lead­ing role for Kier, whose appear­ances in the likes of My Own Pri­vate Ida­ho, Blood For Drac­u­la and the 1977 Sus­piria have bran­dished the well-versed actor as a screen icon.

Swan Song relies heav­i­ly on Kier’s trans­fix­ing pres­ence. He plays Pat Pit­sen­barg­er, a retired styl­ist of socialites who is wast­ing away in a drea­ry nurs­ing home that is dulling his shine. He spends his days fold­ing hand­ker­chiefs with inter­mit­tent cig­a­rette breaks to tame his wan­der­ing mind. This peace is inter­rupt­ed when a lawyer arrives with the request to style a client one last time: a final funer­al farewell hair­do. Ini­tial­ly spit­ting bury her with bad hair,” the $25,000 pay­cheque has him com­ing around to the idea, and Pat sets off on a cross coun­try trip to source beau­ty sup­plies. In this sen­ti­men­tal sto­ry of reflec­tion and glossy odyssey, he con­fronts his anguish and lays the ghosts of his past to rest.

Pat struts through the small town he once knew but no longer recog­nis­es. Many res­i­dents, how­ev­er, remem­ber him, from locals who still fond­ly recall when he styled their hair to hair­dressers who work in the shad­ow of his revered career. In his hunt for styling prod­ucts long dis­count­ed, Pat resorts to for­mer stu­dent turned beau­ty com­peti­tor, Dee Dee Dale’s (Jen­nifer Coolidge) Ohio salon. A cat­fight between the pair breaks out which proves Coolidge and Kier a superbly bal­anced pair. The two pros spar in a bat­tle of who can throw the sassi­est insults, dra­mat­ics explod­ing like home­made fireworks.

Pat’s great­est hits tour also includes vis­it­ing his late hus­band David’s (Eric Eisen­brey) grave – who appears in wist­ful flash­backs that Pat walks through. Also, a trip to the soon-to-shut local gay bar reflects on being queer in a small town and how time great­ly alters that lived expe­ri­ence. When Stephens’ script occa­sion­al­ly trips up on these entan­gled nar­ra­tive threads, Kier’s immac­u­late­ly pol­ished per­for­mance tight­ens the reigns as his expres­sion expert­ly flits between haunt­ed melan­choly and sto­ic brava­do to cap­ture Pat’s regret and poten­tial forgiveness.

The most mem­o­rable sequence is a toss-up between Pat in drag ener­get­i­cal­ly lip-sync­ing to Robyn’s melan­cholic anthem Danc­ing on My Own’ while wear­ing a chan­de­lier head­piece like a crown and Pat in a pas­tel mint green wide-leg pantsuit hold­ing up traf­fic as he dri­ves his mobil­i­ty scoot­er in the mid­dle of a road. Both moments project per­sona with no need for dia­logue. Pay­ing homage to a true home­town pio­neer, Stephens’ por­trait of a gen­tle­man who knows how to be noth­ing but entire­ly him­self is a com­pas­sion­ate and colour­ful char­ac­ter study.

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