Plato's redux
‘American Swing’ serves as a time capsule of the underground social history of 1970s
By Patricia Cunliffe 04/02/2009
I love documentaries. Not so much the state-the-obvious type, but the ones that educate me further about what I do know, broaden my perspective about what I thought I knew, or take me into a world that I do not know. “American Swing” does exactly that. It immerses you in the raging New York City nightlife of 1977, when sex and drugs were everywhere — Studio 54, CBGB and, finally, in the basement of the prestigious Ansonia building (formerly the site of a gay bathhouse) on the upscale Upper West Side, there was Plato’s Retreat.
Plato’s Retreat was a swinger’s club for heterosexual couples, belonging to Larry Levenson, formerly a “married with children” wholesale meat purveyor, and his girlfriend Mary. Following a New York Magazine cover story featuring Plato’s Retreat, Levenson suddenly became a high-profile “authority” on the redeeming social merits of group sex. Despite claiming on national television that Plato’s was a nonprofit organization, he eventually went to prison for tax evasion in 1981. Plato’s Retreat was closed by the city of New York on New Year’s Eve 1985 following the arrest of four patrons for prostitution. Larry Levenson ended up driving a New York City taxi until his death in 1999. Mary wound up in an asylum and died in 2004.
“American Swing” is about the rise, the fall and the demise of a man described by Al Goldstein, founder of Screw magazine, as “someone whose entire world was centered around his genitalia, a man who had never read a book.”
Produced and directed by Mathew Kaufman and Jon Hart, the film was inspired by a profile on Levenson, written by Hart for The Village Voice, in 1998. Hart originally met Levenson four years earlier while writing a piece about NYC cabdrivers. “Frankly, I was overwhelmed by his story,” recalls Hart, “Immediately, though, I knew that it deserved a larger venue than the printed page.” For Hart, this film was 11 years in the making.
Kaufman is an accomplished documentary filmmaker, with a track record producing for PBS and ABC News’ “Nightline.” The trailer that Hart and Kaufman produced got the attention of executive producers Jason Kliot and Joana Vicente, who co-founded HDNet Films with Mark Cuban and Tom Wagner and were nominated for an Oscar for their documentary, “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.”
“A close friend, Janon Fisher, introduced me to Jon and soon after he showed up at my office with a bunch of dusty tapes and some scrap books.” Kaufman tells the Pasadena Weekly, “After reviewing the material, I knew the story of Larry Levenson and the rise and fall of Plato’s Retreat would be a fabulously entertaining documentary.”
Not everyone approached was willing to talk to the filmmakers, but the ones who did —family, club patrons, journalists and sex therapists — each had their own story to tell: about the pool, the mattress room and the hygienically questionable dinner buffet.
The New York City of the 1970s provides a great backdrop to begin with; an equally great selection of period hits provides the sound track, and the visuals attest to hundreds of research hours stitched together with perfect pacing. The montages of explicit archival footage are tastefully done, neither too little nor too much, but just “enough.” Another nice touch is the segment of tape-recorded audio over the more recent photos of Levenson.
“This is a very personal project for me,” says Hart, “I spent years with the main subject and he became a close friend. He was sweet, kind and generous. I am happy about the film but saddened that he is not here to see it.”
American Swing is pathetic at times; at others it’s hilarious. It’s an amazingly honest journey into the era of excess. Larry would have been pleased.
American Swing, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, opens Friday at the Laemmle Sunset 5.
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