What do we really know about Robin Williams’ career?

Produced for HBO in 2018 by the great documentarian Alex Gibney (Oscar winner for A taxi to hell in 2007), this film returns to HBOMax this Sunday, January 26, a little more than ten years after the death of the brilliant American actor and humorist, born in Chicago in 1951. Diminished by the onset of dementia (wrongly diagnosed as a disease of Parkinson), Robin Williams committed suicide on July 21, 1951, at the age of 63.

Rich testimonies

If his Hollywood roles are remembered on this side of the Atlantic, what do we really know about Robin Williams’ career? Director of Roman Polanski : Wanted and Desired (documentary dedicated to the famous case of sexual abuse of a 13-year-old minor in 1977 presented at Cannes in 2008), Marina Zenovich immersed herself in the actor’s life, to make us relive it almost from the inside.

“Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired”: an enlightening documentary on Polanski’s flight to the United States

Very documented, the film can count on numerous first-hand testimonies, from members of Williams’ family (his half-brother, his first wife, etc.), but also from those close to him, such as David Letherman, Eric Idle, his great friend Billy Cristal, Steve Martin (with whom he played Waiting for Godot on Broadway) or Whoopi Goldberg. All testify to the generosity and energy of this tireless clown and improviser, trained in comedy at the Juilliard School in New York in the 1970s and for whom the one-man show remained the preferred mode of expression. Where, rather than telling jokes, he slipped into the shoes of various characters.

It’s thanks to his crazy performance as a spaceman in an episode of the hit series Happy Days that his career was launched. With, from the outset, a spin-off sitcom centered on his character: Mork and Mindy. Broadcast from 1978 to 1982, it made him a star of the small screen. Enough to attract the attention of Robert Altman who, in 1980, offered him his first role on the big screen, that of Popeye. Even if Williams had to wait Good Morning, Vietnam to become a star in Hollywood.

Inside the head of Robin Williams

Between private life (absent father, addiction to alcohol and cocaine in the 1980s – he was present the evening when James Belushi died of an overdose -, health problems, etc.) and career (on stage, at the small and on the big screen), Marina Zenovich finds the right balance. Avoiding any form of voyeurism, but without falling into hagiography. Above all, by using the voice of Robin Williams who, on stage and in interviews, has spoken a lot about himself, the filmmaker takes us into the head of one of the comic geniuses (and not only that) of our time. In the head of a touching man, whose exuberances we understand hid flaws and weaknesses…

Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind/Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind Documentary Of Marina Zenovich Photography Nick Higgins, Jenna Rosher, Thorsten Thielow and Wolfgang Held Musique Adam Dorney Montage Greg Finton and Poppy Das With Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, David Letterman, Billy Crystal… Duration 1h56