Sandra Bernhard Confessions of a Pretty Lady

Bernhard an actresscomedienne whose brassy humor attracts a cultlike following here offers a semiconfessional view of her lifes landscape Childhood memories of her father a doctor and her mother an artist are warmly rendered in scenes of the Jewish family amiably accommodating itself to the Christmas season and of the obligatory communal vacations joined by colorful relatives The abrupt transition to a flamboyant denizen of downtowns Los Angeles or New York to an existence as a character in the lives of marginal people is evoked in sharply satirical terms in a melange of humorous fact and fiction monologues akin to those that make Bernhard an icon of pop culture