Nov

13

With Client 9, director Alex Gibney explores the shadowy corners of a seemingly familiar story.

There is a striking shot of a snow leopard toward the end of this remarkable documentary. The leopard, taken in the middle of a snowy scene midwinter in NYC or some vast landed zoo, stalks the forest or tree line. He is elegant, feral, dangerous … yet beautiful. There is a clear parallel in the Spitzer shown in this rare documentary that gives viewers close-up and personal access to so many pooh-bahs and mastodons of the financial world. Client 9 tells the story of a sensational trial with unprecedented access to prosecutors, defense attorneys, Market panjandrums, Fed types, usually inaccessible moguls, victims and, from behind bars, Mr. Spitzer, himself.

Some viewers were annoyed at having to sit through this well-photographed, well-paced, well-written doc, because they knew it to be Step One in the rehabilitation of the Man That Was Eliot Spitzer.

Since the film wrapped, he has inaugurated a (now failing) talk show on CNN, and he will be speaking around town in the near future (18 November, Fordham, for one).

The fascinating aspect of this 'kiss'-and-tell are the female distaffers of his escort service who speak on camera—some using surrogate actresses to mouth their speeches!—as Spitzer seems for all the world like a thinner, smarter, faster-talking Al Gore sitting at his ease, discussing the vagaries of Lehman or BoA mishandlings, arrests and such. Nerveless and shameless. There is only one point in the entire length of the piece where Spitzer's eyes dart to the side in a well-understood feint of embarrassment and guilt. But it lasts an eye-blink.

I see this as of a piece, in a sense, with THE SOCIAL CONTRACT, about the formation of FaceBook, and WALL STREET 2: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS. They form a triumvirate of fast-thinking, chicanery-ridden, entrepreneurial and high-energy brain friction that motivates and energizes so much of the picture we 'admire' so often about the canyons of Wall Street.

One looks at the title and wonders if it is prologue or prophecy. This was a man who had inexhaustible jet propulsion, almost. It remains to be seen if he can propel himself back into the graces of society again.

One kind of hopes he will, because he has the appeal of a cunningly patterned and talented snake. Always interesting to see how and where such mesmerizing creatures go, no?


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