It’s not every week that one gets invited to a decently posh party at the Sundance Film Festival, but somehow we lucked out and made our way Saturday night (January 20) onto the third floor of the Hotel Park City, a beautiful lodge right off of Park Avenue, to mingle amongst people significantly richer than us. It was a party celebrating Independent Film, sponsored by The Black List and Autograph Hotels (which the Hotel Park City is a part of), who have partnered up for what they call the “Indie Film Project.”
The hostess of the night was Maggie Gyllenhaal, here to celebrate the release of her new film The Kindergarten Teacher, which we’ve heard is great but haven’t seen yet, and the entertainment was provided by Martha Wainwright.
Wainwright’s set wasn’t very long, but she did get to most of her hits, including “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole,” which she advertised as a “mean and angry song,” and the audience ate it up.
Yet, near the end of the set, Gyllenhaal came out and announced that she was going to be doing a duet with Wainwright (who looks a hell of a lot like Maggie G. as it is), and they launched into a cover of, yes, “Papa Was a Rodeo” by The Magnetic Fields, straight off of their seminal classic 69 Love Songs. Wainwright and Gyllenhaal alternated verses and suffered through a series of technical difficulties, but we managed to capture roughly a minute of the performance here for your enjoyment.
We don’t know if any cover can come close to the heights of the original song, but Gyllenhaal and Wainwright, buffeted by the energy of the room, came somewhat close.
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Martha Wainwright cover The Magnetic Fields' “Papa Was a Rodeo” at #Sundance. Video by @onlysaysficus. pic.twitter.com/xKuTaVmz3r
— Vanyaland (@Vanyaland617) January 22, 2018