Filmmaker Lisa Hurwitz had to come up with some way to make the rest of the world care about her documentary, The Automat, since it was mainly about nostalgia for a long-gone restaurant institution known for decades in Philadelphia and Manhattan.
For instance, I only knew of the Automat from old movies, songs, and television shows. Why should I care to watch this documentary?
Why would she even make such a documentary in the first place?
Lisa’s solution was to not just tell the cold, historical facts but to bring in some celebrities with great memories of the Automat.
These big-name talking heads include, of all people, the late Colin Powell and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg! You’ll also find, among others, Elliott Gould, Carl Reiner, and Mel Brooks.
In fact, Mel Brooks is in this picture so much it really does need to be considered a Mel Brooks movie.
Along with passionately nostalgic interview snippets throughout, Mel wrote and sings, on camera with a small orchestra, the closing theme song, “At the Automat.” In the beginning, on a hot mic, Mel can be heard giving Lisa advice on how to direct. Toward the end, we hear him tell her, presumably with tongue-in-cheek, “Use everything I’ve said. I’m popular, I’m famous. Make ME the spearhead of selling this meshugana documentary.”
Ms. Hurwitz obviously took him up on his generous offer as it’s a young Mel on the movie’s poster, having a cup of coffee at the Automat.
In an unusual and slightly cringeworthy choice, some of the other talking heads are also seen on camera when they didn’t realize they were “on.” For the most part, though, this is a breezy, well-edited history of Horn and Hardart’s Automat, with interviews with historians, family members, and even a number of aged but loyal hangers-on, all of whom tout what a wonderful company Horn and Hardart was every step of the way.
One of the latter gentlemen even had a key to a warehouse where the remaining equipment from the New York Automat had sat gathering dust for decades. It’s these pieces of the past that open and close the documentary.
We see and hear very little from Lisa herself as to what even interested her in exploring such a specific topic in the first place. Between the deft editing, the vaguely 1930s musical store, and the black and white film and photos that always show the name of Horn and Hardart’s Automat lit up like a beacon of light in the dark days of the Depression and World War II, the viewer is drawn in even if they’ve never been to an Automat. By the middle of the picture, you find yourself feeling hungry for a piece of pie and wondering what that hot coffee (with milk) that came out of brass dolphin heads really tasted like.
Inevitably, progress rears its controversial little head and the Automat struggles to survive, eventually becoming no longer an institution but a vanished legend. One of my favorite interviews comes toward the end when one of the folks behind Starbuck’s extolls the Automat’s influence on him and the creation of that currently ubiquitous coffee shop.
When all is said and done, what starts out as a simple history of the rise and fall of a once-successful business turns into a sad, sweet look at something that obviously ended up meaning a lot more to those who experienced it than its founders could have ever imagined. The Automat deserves to have its legend preserved…and Lisa Hurwitz has indeed preserved it nicely.
Booksteve recommends.
* * * * *
Produced by Lisa Hurwitz, Alec Shuldiner, Russell Greene
Written by Michael Levine
Directed by Lisa Hurwitz
Featuring Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Colin Powell,
Carl Reiner, Elliott Gould, Wilson Goode, Howard Schultz
For more details, visit AutomatMovie.com
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