Isn't She Great: Movies about Writing

This isn’t the best movie, but it stars Bette Middler and Nathan Lane, therefore I’m in.

Middler plays Jacqueline Susann, a woman desperate for fame and constantly failing at it. She works in Broadway, radio, and even wrote her own play, but every attempt was a flop. Then she meets Irving Mansfield (Lane), an agent with a crush on her. In the movie they meet later in life, but in reality they married in the lat 1930s. He used his job to get her spots on television and help her write a series of humorous anecdotes about their dog. However, when their son is diagnosed as autistic, Jackie falls into depression after they are forced to put him in an institution (don’t judge people from the that time -there was no Americans with Disabilities Act yet).

Looking to give her a new opportunity for fame, Irving suggests Jackie write a novel. She and her friend, Flo (Stockard Channing as an amalgam of friends in Susann’s life) start listing all of their scandalous experiences and gossip. At first, no publishing house will touch what they consider to be a nearly “pornographic” and crude book. In case you are unaware, the Valley of the Dolls is about three women dealing with fame, love affairs, and drugs in the 1940s and 50s. It finally falls into the laps of a publishing house needing a big break, run by John Cleese, Amanda Peet, and David Hyde Pierce. Pierce as editor Michael Hastings tries to convince the hyperactive Jackie that her novel needs major rewrites. Instead, she wins him over with her personality and convinces him that the book needs to stay rough to keep the characters realistic. Meanwhile, Irving stars a word-of-mouth campaign to sell the book before it’s even published. All of this takes place while Jackie is secretly battling cancer.

After the book is out, the couple uses their natural talents to shmooze booksellers into carrying Valley of the Dolls on their shelves or even featuring it in windows. Jackie appears on talk shows and signings. She even gets insulted by Truman Capote on public TV. The novel becomes a bestseller (that’s not a spoiler, that’s really what happened) and changes their lives. Oh, also they go to the adaptation of the movie and, like all authors who get a movie, Jackie is not a fan.

I looked it up - pink typewriters were totally available back then!

Feud (part 2): Movies about Writing

“The secret of of immortality, for you, Truman, is to write. Keep writing.”

I feel like they honestly could’ve ended this series at episode four with Truman taking in Kate as a sort of pseudo daughter, Slim retracting her claws a little, and the last moments between Babe and Truman on the street. But that’s not enough drama. Still, the relationship between Kate and Truman was interesting. He gives her writing advice like “eavesdrop” and she tries to keep him on track/off the sauce. CZ continues to be one of the only Swans still friends with him as the 70s continue and she also tries to encourage his writing. Truman says that his career is now just being a personality, not a writer.

Meanwhile, the Swans deal with the changing times and the social stigma with being an aging woman. C.Z. and Babe have an interesting conversation about how much they owe to gay men for being their “walkers” and all I could think of was when I used to go to gay bars on Halloween so I wouldn’t get hit on. When Babe dies, the show does do a good job of showing how grief and loss can effect people in small ways.

Truman starts to hallucinate Babe after her death and remembers when he read Breakfast at Tiffany’s to her before publication. She guessed who Holly Golightly was based on and he promised never to write about her. He wanted to make the end of Answered Prayers just about her. The last few episodes are just about him trying to stay clean despite public scandals and his loneliness as Jack and the last of his friends go on to healthier relationships. Jack, who was a writer in his own right, stated that worried how everyone would bother him to put together the unfinished bits of Answered Prayers if Capote died without finishing it.

In the last year of his life, Feud shows Capote’s downward spiral through attempting to write out an ending to Answered Prayers where he attempts to apologize by giving each Swan a better ending than reality did.

The scene in which he dies in Joanne’s house is made to look like the end of this life revolved around what happened with the Swans, even given Truman some final words about Babe, even though I thought his final words were “It’s me, Buddy” suggesting that he was hallucinating his favorite aunt. Maybe he said both. I don’t know. I wasn’t there.

This is not really about Capote’s full life. There’s really no mention of his aunts who raised him, his friendship with Harper Lee, or, other than the ghost of his mom, his actual time living in New York as a youth. I know this isn’t a biography, but I feel like it’s rather one-dimensional to say he was only the way he was because of his mother. Then again, maybe that was on purpose in order to reflect on how he made his own friends seem one-dimensional in the unfinished Answered Prayers.

Feud (The Secret Inner Lives of Swans): Movies about Writing

Episode five of the second season of Feud, Capote vs. The Swans, is getting it’s own short blog because . . . James Baldwin!

Following the printing of the article that released the first chapters of Answered Prayers and the start of Truman’s falling out with the Swans, fellow author James Baldwin (played by Chris Chalk who does a pretty good version of Baldwin’s voice) comes to talk to him. Did these two men hang out following Truman’s depression over what he had done? No. Baldwin was living in France by then. But I still like the depiction of Baldwin so I’m going to write about it, damn it!

When Truman asks why “Jimmy” has come to his rescue, Baldwin says, “I have noticed that most minorities, Blacks, thank God, Asians, women, Jewish folk, they all have a community to turn to in their time of need. The homo, not so much. Not yet. You, me, Gore, Tenn, we are the only Gay American Men of Letters pretty much. I'm not counting Frank O'Hara and Ginsburg because they are just poets.” Ha! Take that Alan Ginsburg! By the way, I copied and pasted that speech from IMDB.com because it was taking me too long to type out using the subtitles on my TV.

This is the first episode where we see the Swans with a little less indiscretion, explained through many metaphors by two award winning authors. Truman tells Jimmy about affairs the women had, ways they tortured their husbands, and, racism/classism they all try to hide. In return, Jimmy points out how aggressive swans in reality are and tells him to eff them. They discuss how the women’s love of the arts are superficial. That they are horrible mothers who do not understand children as human beings. How they were cruel to Ann Woodward, adding to the poor woman’s social pariah status. What drives them is vanity and small thinking. Baldwin tries to make Capote look at his actions from the artistic point of view and remember that the “worse has already happened”. The pair discuss their lives as writers and criticism, how they can bring each other down in order to educate and make each other better.

The episode concludes with Baldwin scolding Truman. He berates him for wasting himself after “In Cold Blood” and that he needs to continue using his life to be creative. James declares, “Goddamn it, Mr. Capote! Your work isn’t even half done. You have miles to go.” He encourages Truman to finish his book about the Swans since they have already given him up. James Baldwin is telling Truman Capote that losing the women as his friends is blessing in disguise. It’s a great speech about exposing the 1% as only writers like them can. The fictional vignette ends with Capote eating a swan without alcohol. No alcohol until he finishes the book.

Feud (part 1): Movies about Writing

“Never let a writer have the last word”. This line sums up the entire season of Feud: Capote vs The Swans. It is instantly made clear from just the opening credits (which are lovely by the way), that Capote is in the wrong.

Despite this being 8 episodes long, I’m going to keep this and following blog fairly short. The first four episodes of this season on Feud are about the falling out between Truman (Tom Hollander) and his Fifth Avenue Swans, the women who were his cattiest and closest friends (after Harper Lee who he rarely spoke to after she won accolades for To Kill a Mockingbird). The series also deals with Truman’s on-again off-again romance with Jack (Joe Mantello) abusive relationship with John O’Shea (Russell Tovey), his illness from alcoholism, and being haunted by his want-to-be socialite mother played by Jessica Lange.

Let’s talk about the Swans themselves (because this is a fantastic cast):

Naomi Watts plays Babe Paley, a strong woman whose TV producer husband constantly cheats until she’s diagnosed with cancer and her finally steps up. Treat Williams plays her husband. She and Truman were the closest before the group of women cut him out. She is portrayed as missing him the most.

Diane Lane plays Slim Kieth, a woman with more bite to her than Babe but is very loyal to the people she trusts. She is ruthless when it comes to protecting Babe from Truman.

Chloe Sevigny plays C.Z. Guest, a socialite with a talent for gardening and the most reluctant to cut Truman out of their lives.

Calista Flockhart plays Lee Radziwill, a Jackie Kennedy’s sister who is the epitome of “old money” in her views and reactions.

Molly Ringwald plays Joanne Carson, a model and wife of Johnny Carson who is not effected by Truman’s actions as she lives in California and is no longer part of the core group.

Demi Moore plays Ann Woodward, who was not really a friend of Capote’s but is portrayed as such in the show along with the betrayal she felt as his accusations that she purposely killed her husband.

This teleplay is not so much as a historical record as it is a dramatization of what the writers thought Truman and the Swans could have been thinking or feeling during their feud (they did the same thing with season 1 which about about the filming of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane). There are some cool history events thrown in like the famous documentary about Truman by the Maysles Brothers (which shows Truman in all of his pretentious glory) and the filming of his scenes on Murder by Death. By the way, the documentary is free on youtube and it’s only 30 minutes long. Of course, the version of the documentary in the TV show is nothing like the real documentary.

The first four episodes are about introducing the characters, their relationships, and Truman’s betrayal. He writes about their personal lives in his new book Answered Prayers and several chapters are printed in a magazine as a preview. Despite changing the names, the characters are clearly the Swans, confirming rumors about their lives. The article causes Ann Woodward to take her own life. Slim and Lee declare that they are cutting the two-faced Truman out of their lives. Babe agrees, but almost reluctantly as Truman was her rock every time something went wrong. Also, Jack keeps going to her, begging that she help him get Truman away from the abusive John O’Shea. C.Z. and Joanne are still hanging out with Truman despite Slim’s threats towards them.

The first four episodes really make the Swans the victims. Don’t get me wrong. Capote did a horrible thing writing about them without their permission and doing so in such an obvious way that feels like he was out to hurt them. And his own interactions with other men are not shown on screen as anything loving. Just harsh and slimy. I know homosexuality in this time was illegal, but I feels like the director is using it to make Truman seems like deviant. His relationship with Jack is somewhat loving so they never show the pair having sex which proves that they are only using the sex scenes further Truman in the villain role.

Meanwhile, Slim, Lee, C.Z., and Babe are meant to be seen as witty, pleasant, fashionable, and the rich people everyone should wan to be. Granted, you don’t see them mixing with anyone outside of their social circle besides waiters and servants who they are kind to because that is the way you are supposed to think of them. However, it isn’t until episode four that the audience gets to see how the women are not the loving group of friends they pretend to be. The show uses rumors are personal lives to show the cracks in the united front, which to me feels a little like what Truman did. Still, Ryan Murphy was never a best friend of these women so I guess he can do what he wants?

The other part of the first four episodes is how everyone except Slim attempts to convince her to leave Truman alone. Babe is dying, Joanne and C.Z. are worried about Truman as he tries to get sober, and Lee insists that the drama needs to end when Slim plans on suing the odd little man. I did like how after returning home from rehab and checks his book while sober, calling it “the demon” and groaning at how bad it is. I should probably remind everyone that he never finished this book. He also gets a protege in O’Shea’s daughter Kerry (played by Ella Beatty). She changes her name to Kate Harrington and she really did become a model as well as Capote’s assistant for several years.

Murder by Death: JUST BECAUSE!

This is written by Neil Simon NOT Truman Capote, but I love it and I’m writing about it because it’s my blog. Also, understand this is no where near as fantastic as Clue, but still fun.

Murder by Death is a parody of the popular detective genre of the 1920s. Six sleuths who each make-fun of a popular character are invited to a dinner and death at the house of Lionel Twain (played by Truman Capote). The cast is huge and the jokes are silly. Peter Sellers plays Sidney Wang, a version of Charlie Chan. Peter Falk practices his later Columbo character as Sam Diamond, not Spade. Nick and Nora Charles become Dick and Dora Charleston played by David Niven and Maggie Smith respectively. Milo Perrier takes Hercule Poirot’s place and portrayed by James Coco. Lastly, Ms. Marple . . . I mean, Jessica Marbles is acted out by one of my favorites, Elsa Lanchester. Eileen Brennan, Estelle Winwood, James Cromwell, and Richard Narita play the detectives’ various companions. The cast is rounded out by Alec Guinness and Nancy Walker as Twain’s unusual servants.

Twain promises a substantial sum to the detective who solves the evening’s murder first. I don’t want to give away the mystery or many of the jokes. Here are a few specifics I want to gush about.

1. Diamond’s “doll” creates a dossier on Twain before they arrive. He asks her where she got the information and she said, “I called him up and asked him.”

2. Wang (who is played by a white guy which I think was meant to be a joke at all the white guys who played Charlie Chan . . . But I really wish there had been more jokes about him not actually being Chinese) has an adopted son who he makes do everything including standing in the way of danger.

3. The Charlestons have a dog named Myron and Dora is always carrying a martini glass, even when she’s in a car.

4. Perrier has a chauffeur that appears to be his boyfriend, but he treats him terribly. Every time something happens to the chauffeur, Perrier says to ignore him. “He just wants attention.” There is also a running gag about Perrier’s relationship to food. For example, he spits out wine and the others think it was poisoned. “Bad year,” he explains.

5. Mrs. Marbles pushes around her nurse in a wheelchair and has a long standing friendship with Diamond. It’s funny to think of a world where the very English small town Miss Marple hung out with the quick tempered, fowl mouth Spade.

6. All of the detectives try to out-detect each other.

7. The screaming doorbell was a soundbite of Fay Wray.

8. Twain’s insistence that Wang use proper articles and pronouns. “It. IT is confusing!”

9. Twain’s monologue about mystery books: “You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. When the world learns I've outsmarted you, they'll be selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents.You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. When the world learns I've outsmarted you, they'll be selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents.”

54, Children on their Birthdays, The Innocents, and Beat the Devil: Movies about Writing

These are films that either feature Capote or were written by him. This will be fairly short, despite that it will be about 4 different movies.

54

Remember this movie? Don’t worry about it if you don’t. It’s just okay. I’ve heard that the director’s cut was a better film that gave a more realistic portrayal of the swinging 70s club (apparently Harvey Weinstein demanded the cuts). I regret that I couldn’t find the director’s cut streaming for free as it also has a gross cameo cut out. Ryan Phillippe plays Shane, a bartender with disco fever hired by the club’s owner Steve Rubell (a real person played by Mike Myers). The movie also includes Salma Hayek, Breckin Meyer, Neve Campbell, and a brief scene of Mark Ruffalo as additional young people with celebrity status or trying to obtain celebrity status. The part I want to talk about is in the first ten minutes. Steve stops the music at Studio 54 and calls for Truman Capote (played by Louis Negin in an appropriately ham way). To celebrate Truman’s facelift, Steve has a boy dressed as a golden cupid descend from the ceiling and hand him a mirror. Capote jokingly reaches for the boy and then dances with a man not wearing a shirt. Capote is not the only older person at the disco trying to re-capture their youth through anonymous sexual encounters. The part that made me laugh was Shane confessing he had no clue who Truman was. Of course, Shane doesn’t know any media personalities (not Andy Warhol or Erroll Flynn or half of the people he meets), except Grace Kelly because his mother named his sisters after her.

Real Capote at the real Studio 54

Phillippe at the fake Studio 54

Children on their Birthdays

I’ve read this story by Capote which is yet another one based loosely on childhood experiences. It’s Billy Bob’s 13th Billy Bob (played by Joe Pichler who tragically went missing as an adult, this was his last film). He, his mother (hey, it’s Laura Palmer . . . I mean, Sheryl Lee), and best friend Preacher (look at baby Jesse Plemons) meet a precocious girl named Lily Jane Bobbit (Tania Raymonde). The girls in town hate Lily Jane and the boys all start to compete for her affections. Billy Bob is also upset that his mother is finding love with town mechanic and lawman Speedy (Christopher McDonald) even though his father has been dead for years. He also feels intense shame when he doesn’t stop Preacher from picking on a little Black girl named Rosalba Cat (Brazhal Brewer) and both his mom and Lily Jane see. Unlike the Lily Jane of the story, this Lily Jane comes down from her high horse for the sake of another girl in need of a hero. However, her longing for a life on the stage is the same as in the story. A con man (Tom Arnold) comes to town and convinces Lily Jane that he could make her a star.

I won’t give away the entire plot, but unlike Capote’s other stories of childhood, this one is less about him as a child and more about observations of people through a child’s eyes. However the movie is kinder all around. It makes Lily Jane kinder and more a of child. It makes the interactions between the children and adults more like a coming-of-a-story than a tragedy. And (spoiler alert) it completely changes the ending.

The Innocents

I used to hate this movie as a child because I was literally haunted by the novella The Turn of the Screw. Every time I’d find a Victorian ghost story on TV, it would turn out to be an adaptation of Turn of the Screw. After several years of escaping the story, I finally went back and reread it then re-watched some of those adaptations I was so dogged by. And this is the best version (not counting the Netflix min-series since it does combine a lot of stories). I’m not sure if it was Capote’s idea as the screenwriter or the director’s to make you wonder whether the ghosts were real just like in the original book, but this is the movie where it works the best.

Beat the Devil

This is an odd film that I feel like you need to watch multiple times to get the entire plot. Long story short, Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre star in this story about uranium, land deals, and taking advantage of naive British people (somebody had to). The reason I am including this is not that it’s about writing, but that, despite being based on a book, Capote had to work on the screenplay as they were filming. This probably accounts for plot holes and disjointed scenes. Still, Bogart and Lorre - I’m in. Capote was also all in because he got to hang out with the entire cast.

Infamous: Movie about Writing

I confess this is not as good of a film as Capote, but there are some interesting changes. Where the movie Capote is a more subdued look at Truman Capote’s relationship with Perry Smith, one of the Clutter family killers he writes about within In Cold Blood, Infamous is more a film about Capote himself, publicly, privately, and during his investigation for his “true crime fiction”.

Toby Jones does a fantastic Capote impression which starts with just the sassy, silly nature that made him popular in wealthy circles, then starts to melt into those moments of depression and self-realization. His Swans, a group of wealthy women he adored until he eventually betrayed their secrets and they dumped him, are included and played by Hope Davis, Sigourney Weaver, Juliet Stevenson, and Isabella Rossellini. The movie delves a little into his relationship with these wealthy socialites. You see a large difference between how the Swans react to Capote versus how Nelle “Harper” Lee (Sandra Bullock) and Jack Dunphy (John Benjamin Hickey) behave with him. While the Swans encourage his bad behavior, Nelle and Jack try to make him more likable to the masses or just a better person overall. I especially liked a scene in a diner where Nelle reminds Truman repeatedly to say thank you to a waitress. That having been said, they do not try to change who he is either. The movie does mention both the fame of To Kill a Mockingbird, Nelle attempting to write a second book, and how Jack is struggling with his own novel.

Still, the main plot revolves around Capote writing In Cold Blood. He and Nelle go to the small town in Kansas (where everyone keeps calling him “ma’am”) and instantly get the cold shoulder from Agent Alvin Dewey (Jeff Daniels). However Mrs. Dewey doesn’t like that he and Nelle are alone in town at Christmas, so she invites them to dinner. Nelle brings a fruit cake and Truman responds, “And she doesn’t mean me.” He wins Dewey over by telling stories of his time working in Hollywood on Beat the Devil (it’s an odd film, but I still recommend it). This gives him an in to several other families in town who finally speak to him about the Clutters and give him a start to his book.

The movie points out how Truman doesn’t take notes, instead using a memory technique. Nelle proves to be both a better researcher and a voice of reason to Truman as he starts to work out his idea for a “true crime novel”, pointing out that these were real people and he should stick to the facts. He points out that To Kill a Mockingbird was an embellishment on the truth, which is funny since so many of his short stories do the same thing.

The second act is his meeting the killers, Dick Hickey (Lee Pace! Oh, how I love him) and Perry Smith (is that Daniel Craig with black hair? He didn’t have to be the blonde Bond). Nelle suggests that Truman use the same tactics he uses to get his Swans to dish the dirt. Truman and Perry begin to build a relationship and he sends him a copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Perry states that the stories lack kindness, which I found super interesting, a statement that rattles Truman. Perry is portrayed as more violent towards Truman than in the film Capote where there is more empathy between the two men right away. There is also a scene where the two men make out which would have never happened in a jail where others could have seen them. The film also changes the actions of the murders, claiming that Dick shot the wife and daughter. As far as we know, in reality Perry killed them all.

The third act of the movie is much more about the preparations for publishing the book and Truman’s attempt to make it sound “kinder”. He struggles with the idea that the men being hanged gives his book the correct and satisfying ending, however, it means Perry still swings. Capote lies that Perry apologized before death. After all, that is a kinder ending for his book. The whole movie ends with Nelle stating how writing something meaningful can take a little piece of a writer’s life away, yet all people want to know afterwards is “what’s next?”. The camera pans in on Truman attempting to write Answered Prayers, a novel he would never finish about his Swans.

In Cold Blood: Movies about Writing

This isn’t actually about writing, but I couldn’t do blog about Capote without re-watching the critically acclaimed movie based upon his most famous work. But since this film isn’t actually about being a writer or the process of writing, I’ll keep this short.

Capote called In Cold Blood the first nonfiction novel, which I think was just his way of admitting that he embellished the truth. Technically, that’s just historic fiction, however Capote is dead and difficult to argue with at this time.

If you don’t already know, In Cold Blood was the case of two young men, Dick Hickok and Perry Smith, brutally killing a family of four during a botched robbery attempt. The Clutters are presented as an average farm family with chores, hopes, friends, and a community who had no issues with them. Capote actually interviewed Smith extensively for his book (see blogs about the movies Capote and Infamous). This film pulls no punches as Agent Alvin Dewey (John Forsythe) and a team of cops hunt for the killers who reveal more of their backstories in an attempt to understand why they committed the crimes. Still, Perry even confesses that none of it makes sense. He never knew exactly why he murdered the Clutters.

Grass Harp: Movies about Writing

I read the novella before watching the movie so I could nitpick, but I won’t.

This is yet another Capote tale based upon the aunts/cousins he lived with in the south, however, this time the story is more fictionalized. And the cast is stacked!

Edward Furlong (in a time after Terminator 2, but hopefully before the substance abuse) plays Colin, the nephew and narrator who lives with his older cousins. Aunt Dolly (Piper Laurie) is another version of Capote’s sweet and somewhat eccentric cousin Sook. Dolly makes a herbal remedy popular in their small town. Her sister Verena (Sissy Spacek) has controlled Dolly and Colin’s lives for years. When she brings home a snake oil salesman (holy crap - it’s Jack Lemmon) who wants to buy Dolly’s medical recipe, it drives Dolly, Colin and the servant/friend Catherine (Nell Carter) literally up a tree. They are soon joined by other people done with society - a judge (Walter Mathau), the coolest teen in town (Sean Patrick Flanery- one of my first crushes), and a family of traveling evangelists led by Mary Steenburgen. The people of the town start to take sides on whether they think the tree dwellers have lost their minds or if they deserve a break from the world. By the way, the townspeople include Joe Don Baker, Charles During, Scott Wilson, and FREAKING Roddy McDowell. Did they just send out a casting call for all character actors who weren’t busy that month?

The movie tries to add more backstory, showing Colin’s life before he lives with his Aunt Dolly and Aunt Verena. There is a little more of his talk about daydreaming, stories he’d make up, and Colin’s enjoyment of thinking up adventures he and his Aunt Dolly would never have. No major spoilers here, but I will say that later, Colin leaves for the city in order to get experience as a writer. The Judge gifts him a fancy notebook to get him started and Colin takes the Judge to listen to the “grass harp”, voices “inside his head” and the loudest voice is Dolly’s.

Capote Related Films I Couldn't Find: Movies about Writing

Going back to the Capote them for a few weeks. Before I jump back into full movies, here are two things I couldn’t find anywhere (not streaming or in the used media store . . . at least not without signing up for subscriptions I can’t afford).

Life on Mars (A Simple Secret of the Note in Us All):

Life on Mars was a British crime drama about a 2006 cop who ends up in 1973. If you never saw it, it had an excellent soundtrack. Since it was successful, the U.S. of course had to copy it. Episode 12 was about, “While investigating the murder of a newspaper columnist, Sam crosses paths with a dangerous killer from one of his cases in the future and is convinced that he is guilty of this crime.” according to imdb.com. I don’t know how Truman Capote fits into this, but I can imagine he was thrown into the episode just to make a witty, biting remark.

Other Voices, Other Rooms:

Couldn’t find this movie, but I’ve seen the trailer and read the novella. The trailer was not well edited and I kept getting bored in the 2 minutes and 40 second span. The book is a coming-of-age story loosely based on Capote’s childhood including a strained relationship with an ill father, an older gay relative who influences the young main character’s views, and a tomboy best friend who is obviously based on Harper Lee. The book had things I did not enjoy (the part at the fair), so I probably would not have enjoyed seeing that part played out on screen.

Trilogy:

According to rarefilmm.com, “Three Truman Capote stories are presented in this anthology: In “Miriam,” a heartbroken nanny is told she isn’t needed to care for a new child. In “Among the Paths to Eden,” a lonely old woman visits a cemetery and meets a widower placing flowers on his late wife’s grave. In “A Christmas Memory,” a boy and his aunt prepare for Christmas by making fruitcakes for their family in small-town, pre–World War II Alabama.” Apparently, this has been on TCM, but I’ve never seen it. This suggests they play it very rarely. Of course, now that I say that it’ll probably be on tomorrow.

One Christmas:

This is another story based on Capote’s childhood with his beloved Aunt Sook and his estranged father. Apparently Henry Winkler and Katherine Hepburn are in it. Honestly, I did find it. I didn’t want to pay money for it. And who watches a Christmas movie in June?

Whelp . . .

So I’ve been sick. Like hospitalization, missing mass amounts of work, whiny, hungry, bored levels of sick. So I’m going to take a break from my Truman Capote theme and put up some blogs I already wrote for this year. We’ll get back to Capote a little later this year.

Capote: Movies about Writing

Truman Capote is presented in the Oscar Winning performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in this movie about the writing of In Cold Blood. Catherine Keener plays his oldest friend Harper “Nelle” Lee, Bruce Greenwood as his boyfriend Jack Dunphy Chris Cooper plays Agent Alvin Dewey, and the killers are portrayed by Mark Pellegrino and Clifton Collins Jr.

This is very much a film about being a writer and where the line of morals blurs with telling the best story. When Capote hears about a grizzly murder of a Kansas family, he excitedly tells the presses that he will be covering the case, creating a new kind of true crime genre.

The movie starts with general investigation where Nelle acts as a buffer between the small town residents and Capote. He does manage to win over some witnesses, however he mostly rubs people the wrong way. A part of you can’t blame him for head butting against small mindedness, yet there are times he oversteps. He also strains his relationship with his boyfriend, Jack, by being away so long as well as his closeness to Nelle, who is celebrating To Kill a Mockingbird being bought by a publisher at that time. He does win over the lead agent on the case, Alvin Dewey, which gives him first hand insight.

However, it is when the two murders are apprehended that Capote starts to lose control over his own part in the story. He struggles with a connection he feels to one of the killers. He grows depressed and excited at the same time, withholding information from the killers in hopes of getting the full story out of them. The movie shows how Capote’s attempts to create a whole new genre breaks him.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: Movies about Writing (Copy)

People often forget that Paul, the main character of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, is a published writer.

In case you don’t know the story because you’ve been living under a rock, Paul (George Peppard) has been set up in a new apartment by the wealthy woman who keeps him as her boytoy. There, he meets the eccentric call girl Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) - also a very racist stereotype played by Mickey Rooney, but the less said about that, the better. The pair become friends, at first through his fascination of her personality and her insistence that he looks like her beloved brother Fred. Paul stands by her through parties, love affairs, her rather gross past (really - more people don’t talk about the fact that she was freaking child bride!) trips to Sing Sing, and, of course, visiting Tiffany’s. He falls in love with her despite her repeatedly saying that she could never belong to another human being just like her nameless cat (who lives in her apartment and is dependent on her for nourishment). This is Hollywood, so you know it will all works out okay. Let’s focus on Paul’s job as a writer.

One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Holly finds out what he does and calls him out for not having any ribbon in his typewriter. He says, “I’m a writer, I guess” and her fantastic response is, “You guess? don’t you know?” Let us all learn from that moment. Paul has one book of short stories which were dirty, “angry, sensitive, intensely felt, and that dirtiest of all dirty words - promising. Or so said The Times Book Review, October 1, 1956.”. Holly even convinces him to sign the library’s copy, which the librarian gets terribly bent out of shape about it. Most importantly, Holly gives Paul a typewriter ribbon. Even though his married girlfriend want him working on a great American novel, a project he’s been slogging through for years, Paul instead writes a short story about Holly. He earns his first paycheck for his own work for the first time in years. This and his feelings for Holly give him the liberty to break away from his sugar mama. And even when he no longer has Holly, he continues to write.

Truman Capote isn’t in this, but if you read the original book you can hear him behind the main character, a struggling New York writer who is observing his usual friend with both criticism and amusement. The film is much different, but at least in the story you know that Cat is okay in the end.

The Audrey Hepburn Story: Movies about Writing

Jennifer Love Hewitt and a very young Emmy Rossum play Hepburn at different stages of her life. The movie’s framing device is the filming of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Although the TV movie is based on Audrey Hepburn‘s memoir, it tries to make everything very obvious in what occurred in the creation of her career. The opening scene has her worried she’s going to mess up the part of Holly Golightly while Truman Capote is expressing to everybody that she’s already messing up and that Marilyn Monroe would’ve been a better fit. One of the other people on set points out that Audrey Hepburn is one of the nicest actors they worked with and Capote replies “I don’t write nice”. Therefore, Audrey Hepburn makes a bet with one of the other women on set that she will get a quarter if she can make Truman Capote smile. Michael J. Burg is playing Capote for the first time on the small screen in the Hollywood made-for-TV biopic. He plays the role as petulant, whiny, and pretty much how I image Capote was on set.

The rest of the movie goes into Audrey Hepburn‘s childhood and flashbacks with how she became an actress intermingling things that are happening on the set of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (as well as the way she’s annoyed by Capote‘s dislike of her). She thinks back to her strong relationship with her mother, how they were part of the resistance in World War II, her father’s abandonment of them, and how ballet led to Audrey being a chorus girl. Finally, being a chorus girl led to her starring in her first play Gigi. I like this part because it also features Colette, the author of Gigi, telling Audrey Hepburn how perfect she is for the part. She also mentions that Anita Loos (author of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) who is adapting Gigi is a “difficult woman”. That’s right, Collette, be catty. You earned it.

There is a lot about Hepburn’s own lack of self confidence about her looks as her film career and love life change. They portray fashion icon Givenchy as one of the people to make her feel beautiful. This is opposite of Capote, who makes all of the actors feel like they are doing something wrong. Audrey marches up to Capote at one point with the question about Golightly’s actual purpose as a call girl. He asks her what she thinks and she compares Holly to her her earlier self. Her answer makes his expression change slightly, but he tries not to react. Later, when an animal wrangler asks why Holly puts “cat” out into the rain, Audrey glances at Capote who raises his eyebrows at her with a challenge. She gives the satisfying answer about Holly and cat being the same and he says, “That’s right”. I don’t think this scene ever happened, but in reality, Audrey Hepburn did manage to make Truman Capote smile.

Tru: Movies about Writing

In 1992, a version of this “one man” play was aired on television. And I found this broken up on the internet with some awful audio. Still I’m grateful it was there.

Tru takes place later in Truman Capote’s life when he (as he describes it) is more famous for being famous than his writing. Robert Morse place Capote as someone both untouchable by criticism and self-flagellating. As the fictional Capote talks to the audience and various telephoning friends about his latest work “Answered Prayers” and his life.

He jumps back and forth between topics from his family being more open to him being a dancer versus a writer to his sexuality to researching In Cold Blood to who in the literary circle is NOT an alcoholic (Arthur Miller, by the way). He laughs to himself quite a bit and follows up the saddest stories with the wittiest retort and cleverest jokes.

It’s revealed as the play goes that Tru is talking to an audience at Christmastime as many of his friends are angry he’s written a story that gives away their great secrets in a fictional setting. He feels this story was one of his best and he simply tells his friends that he “forgives them”. He also states that something similar happened when he wrote his first story about his neighbors when he was eight years old.

I rather enjoyed his rambling. It felt like being in a famous writer’s mind. But I was disappointed that he had mention of his childhood with Harper Lee. Then again, maybe Lee requested this. Either way, according to this play, Truman Capote had great taste in music.

A Christmas Memory: Movies about Writing (Copy)

Netflix. You need to learn to think for yourself. But no. You keep canceling some of your best shows in favor of spending money on Hallmark holiday ripoffs. Luckily, there’s still some class on streaming.

I found the 1997 version of A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote on Kanopy. Eric Lloyd (from the Santa Clause) plays young Capote in the form of Buddy who is excited for “fruitcake season” with his best friend/ spinster cousin Sook (Patty Duke). They send the cakes to everyone including F.D.R. For several years, Buddy has lived with the Southern cousins Sook, Callie, Seabone, and Jennie (Piper Laurie) (as well as a dog named Queenie and visits from a Cherokee housekeeper named Anna and a neighbor girl named Rachel - not Harper Lee, or is it, I’m not sure). Other than Sook, the cousins make snide comments make about his mother back in New York and his absentee father. Jennie worries that Buddy is not going up to be “a man” since he spends all of his time with Sook.

Despite the protests from the other three cousins, Jennie is determined to send Buddy away to military school. Still, Buddy and Sook go through their Christmas adventures of tree chopping, gift delivering, kite flying, and visiting bootleggers. In the end, Buddy is still sent away in hopes that the military school will give him a better education. It gives Sook opportunities to stand up to Jennie and both she and Buddy grow up a little. It’s kinda dark for a Christmas story.

I did also watch the 1966 version narrated by Capote himself which includes more of his fantastic descriptions, but depicts the Native bootlegger talks in broken English like a reject from a 1950s western. Buddy doesn’t go to military school on screen in that one either, just in an epilogue.

By the way, I know Truman Capote did go to military school, but I don’t know if the cousins sent him or his mother did. Either way, there is mention of Buddy’s future as a writer. He gives a notebook and pencil to Rachel so she can write down tall tales she tells about her family. And everyone talks about how they’ll miss hearing his “little stories”. And those little stories would someday be about them.

A Thanksgiving Visitor: Movies about Writing (Copy)

Although this is not about writing, it is based on Truman Capote’s happy childhood memories staying with his “spinster cousin”, a woman in her 60s named Miss Sook (Geraldine Page). Young Capote is called Buddy (Michael Kearney) in these childhood tales while adult Capote in all of his lispy glory narrates.

Buddy is being horribly bullied by a classmate named Odd Henderson (I’m not kidding, that his name). Miss Sook is the only person in the household who understands that academic Buddy does not know how to fight back against a bully like the other cousins want him to (yes, everyone else in the house keeps telling him to punch this kid back - oh, the good ole’ days). As a more progressive adult, Miss Sook then invites Odd Henderson to Thanksgiving dinner.

There are other childhood traumas such as one of the cousins trying to force Buddy to kill a turkey and jealousy over attentions of a pretty young female cousin. Hey, Truman Capote could have been curious about pretty girls as a child.

SPOILER ALERT: Of course, a drama occurs when Buddy sees Odd steal Miss Sook’s cameo. Buddy tries to reveal the theft in front of everyone at dinner and Miss Sook tries to cover for Odd because she states that “two wrongs don’t make a right”. Buddy humiliating Odd didn’t help the situation. However, Odd does return the cameo when Miss Sook lies that the cameo was not missing.

Miss Sook is clearly an inspiration for a writer’s voice. The way she talks is very poetic yet simplistic. She is also a woman trapped in a family who does not understand her and dreams of leaving for a new life. But a single woman in Great Depression South is not a person able to escape those with small minds. Of course, the cameo she planned to sell for her freedom was worthless and she never has the heart to tell Buddy.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Movies about Writing

I know, know. Technically, this movie isn’t about writing or Truman Capote - TECHNICALLY - so I’ll keep this short.

If you don’t know, To Kill a Mockingbird is the award winning 1962 film based on the novel by Harper Lee (her only novel published with her consent - you hear me, Go Set a Watchman people)! In case you didn’t have to read the book in high school or watch the movie in film class, it’s a from the point-of-view of Scout. Scout is a lawyer’s daughter living in Great Depression Alabama. She is telling the tale of the big moments of her childhood including when she and her brother Jem tried to make friends their mysterious neighbor and her father defended a Black man wrongly accused of assaulting a white woman.

The book/film is presented like a memoir, with and unseen adult Scout narrating over the top of each change in season or introduction to a crucial moment. Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) is the perfect father in so many eyes, however no more than in his daughter’s. I do get chills throughout this movie at the little moments. Still, you see it differently at different times of your own life, especially when one is viewing racism, the justice system, gender roles, and parental roles. As a screenplay, the adult Scout only gives you snippets of her own feelings, choosing to show instead of tell (as they constantly tell you to do in writing class).

The book is loosely based on author Harper Lee’s own childhood where she witnessed racism and discontent in her own hometown. Scout’s next door neighbor during summer vacations is Dill, a talkative and awkward little boy. Lee’s next door neighbor as a child was Truman Capote, a talkative and awkward little boy. Capote supposedly used to call the pair of them the “apart people”, because other children didn’t always get along with the two bookworms. They had a lifelong friendship that needs to be stated before I can continue these blogs because in talking about Capote, I’m going to be talking about Lee a lot too.

Truman Capote Theme: Movies about Writing

Most of the next few months I will be writing about films about or by Truman Capote (off and on). Why Capote, you may ask? Because I want an excuse to watch Murder by Death. But Murder by Death has nothing to do with Capote as a person or writer, you say. Shut up - I say.

I will probably pause this theme for some other upcoming events/seasons, but you get the idea.

Also, I did watch the new season of Feud, but I planned out these blogs before that - I swear.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: Movies about Writing

People often forget that Paul, the main character of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, is a published writer.

In case you don’t know the story because you’ve been living under a rock, Paul (George Peppard) has been set up in a new apartment by the wealthy woman who keeps him as her boytoy. There, he meets the eccentric call girl Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) - also a very racist stereotype played by Mickey Rooney, but the less said about that, the better. The pair become friends, at first through his fascination of her personality and her insistence that he looks like her beloved brother Fred. Paul stands by her through parties, love affairs, her rather gross past (really - more people don’t talk about the fact that she was freaking child bride!) trips to Sing Sing, and, of course, visiting Tiffany’s. He falls in love with her despite her repeatedly saying that she could never belong to another human being just like her nameless cat (who lives in her apartment and is dependent on her for nourishment). This is Hollywood, so you know it will all works out okay. Let’s focus on Paul’s job as a writer.

One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Holly finds out what he does and calls him out for not having any ribbon in his typewriter. He says, “I’m a writer, I guess” and her fantastic response is, “You guess? don’t you know?” Let us all learn from that moment. Paul has one book of short stories which were dirty, “angry, sensitive, intensely felt, and that dirtiest of all dirty words - promising. Or so said The Times Book Review, October 1, 1956.”. Holly even convinces him to sign the library’s copy, which the librarian gets terribly bent out of shape about it. Most importantly, Holly gives Paul a typewriter ribbon. Even though his married girlfriend want him working on a great American novel, a project he’s been slogging through for years, Paul instead writes a short story about Holly. He earns his first paycheck for his own work for the first time in years. This and his feelings for Holly give him the liberty to break away from his sugar mama. And even when he no longer has Holly, he continues to write.

Truman Capote isn’t in this, but if you read the original book you can hear him behind the main character, a struggling New York writer who is observing his usual friend with both criticism and amusement. The film is much different, but at least in the story you know that Cat is okay in the end.