Carrie is dead. So is Debbie. The mother-daughter duo died just 24 hours apart. What better why for HBO to cash in than by airing the documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds? It debuts Saturday, January 7 at 8 p.m. (ET/PT).
HBO calls Bright Lights “an intimate portrait of Hollywood royalty, in all its eccentricity.” Carrie and her mother, Debbi, lived in the same Beverly Hills compound. The 83-year-old grand dame still has a Las Vegas act, but performing was taking its toll.
Carrie’s response is both hilarious and heart-rending. “Mother and I live next door to each other, separated by one daunting hill,” Carrie explains. “I usually come to her. I always come to her.” Featuring vintage family films that bring iconic old-world Hollywood to life, as well as extensive vérité footage, the film has been directed by Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens.
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds has already received audience and critical acclaim at many prestigious film festivals, including the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. The documentary holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes; The Hollywood Reporter called it “warmly engaging” and a “tender tribute to two iconic women”, and compared it favorably to the Maysles Bros classic 1975 mother-daughter portrait, Grey Gardens.
The film was reportedly Fisher’s idea, who wanted to document Reynolds’ final live performances in Las Vegas two years ago, aged 82.
Not enough?
HBO’s 2010 special Wishful Drinking will receive an encore presentation on January 1 at 9 (ET/PT). This feature-length adaptation of Fisher’s hit autobiographical stage production tells the intoxicating tale of her life, combining her raucous one-woman stage performance, interviews with family and friends, and archival footage.