TRUMAN AND TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Lisa Immordino Vreeland (15, 86 mins)
A fascinating glimpse into the lives of two of America’s greatest writers, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, and the way their tempestuous lives intertwined. Using archive footage, words spoken by Capote and Williams themselves and voiceovers from Jim Parsons (as Capote) and Zachary Quinto (Williams), the film builds an intimate picture of two complicated artists.
They met when Capote was 16, Williams 29: each fed off the other, fast friends that would encourage each other, be jealous of each other and mirror each other in many ways. Both suffered from addiction, both were depressives and both strove to be pure artists. The film follows them through their early works. The heyday of Williams’ breathtaking masterpieces A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, through to the critical drubbing his later works received, runs parallel with Capote’s transformation from the writer of Breakfast At Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood to the waspy gossip of his later years.
Using their own words, director Vreeland illustrates how similar these men were. There was an unresolved frisson between them: a mutual admiration, and maybe something more – lovers of each other’s intellects, who were still unafraid of being hurtful towards each other. Capote thinly lampooned Williams in Esquire articles, biting the glittering society hand that fed him; Williams, likewise, decried Capote’s gossipy descent as his later plays were ignored, but ultimately they were always there for each other, two openly gay Southerners carrying multitudes of baggage.
Their candour in interviews is staggering by today’s standards. Two contrasting encounters with a probing David Frost are funny, moving and tortuous, and are used well in the assembly of the film to illustrate the push and pull of the artistic life – their frustrations, loneliness, their depression, often cynical world view and ultimately their interdependence. A must for anyone interested in these two literary giants, whose shadows continue to leave an indelible mark on world culture, or the perils of the artistic life.
Released via VOD on Fri 30 Apr
words KEIRON SELF