Infamous (2006)

I finally caught up with Infamous and found it one of the most intriguing movies I have seen in years. Toby Jones gave a much more rounded and three-dimensional portrayal of Capote than Hoffman's in Capote. All the performances were excellent and I was totally absorbed from start to finish. Sandra Bullock, as Harper Lee, gives one of the more nuanced performances I have seen from her. In fact, all the characters were portrayed with subtlety, without any grandstanding. Jeff Daniels, as the main lawman in the case of the murders that Capote goes to Kansas to investigate, is a good example of this, as is Daniel Craig. Anyone who has not seen this movie should do so asap.

"INFAMOUS" ~~ THE OTHER BETTER CAPOTE ... Directed by Douglas McGrath who also wrote the screenplay for Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway" (1994) and directed Paltrow in Jane Austen's "Emma", 1996. Starring Toby Jones as Truman Capote -- one of those rare cases where the actor did not "play" the role but completely entered the skin of the real life character in question. Incredibly "Infamous" was on last night on Hungarian TV, Dubbed into Hungarian but I watched it anyway, for the body language and Production values. And the general feeling of the movie. I had forgotten what an important role a deglamourised Sandra Bullock had in this picture as Capote's constant companion throughout. But the fact that this major Hollywood star was content to take a supporting role to an unknown British actor is a real mark of her professionalism. Interestingly, she smokes in just about every scene she's in, which I assume was just for the requirements of the picture. Toby Jones is head and shoulders better than Seymour Hoffman was in the role, Besides the fact that he is a dead ringer for minuscule real life Capote whereas Bulky Seymour wasn't even close. If there were anything resembling integrity In the Hollywood film world, Jones should have been a walkaway for best actor in 2007 and Bullock would have been a very worthy candidate for Best Supporting actress, female -- Come to think of it, they oughta have a special slot for "Best supporting role by a star leading actor/actress willing to take a back seat" in a quality picture.I saw "Infamous" at the 2006 Venice film festival and recognized it then as an unsung masterpiece, far far better than the Hoffman caricature earlier the same year. It opens with an incredible turn by Gwyneth Paltrow in a long white gown as Peggy Lee doing the old standard "This must Be Love" -- but she is so touched by the inherent sadness of the song that she breaks down in the middle and has to stop. What an opener! ~ possibly the best single scene Paltrow has ever done. Which sets the tone for everything to come. A series of interviews follows with celebrity contemporaries of Capote speaking to the camera and identified by name with on screen titles which gives the picture a documentary feel, but the name celebrities are themselves celebrity actors such as Sigourney Weaver and especially, Peter Bogdanovich as Bennet Cerf. I think this is definitely one of the very best pictures of the Decade, 2000- 2010, and one that I would like to own so I could watch it over and over. And don't forget Daniel Craig (later to be Dubble 007!) as death row killer Perry Smith who Capote falls in love with! The prison interviews are filmed in a kind of chiaro-oscuro and the 1959 Period atmosphere is unobtrusively authentic-- without parading collectors vintage cars across the screen in every outdoor scene. "Infamous", 2006, is a true gem in every respect but fell between the cracks because it was overshadowed by the hullabaloo over the distinctly inferior Sony Pictures production -- a classic case of the triumph of publicity over Quality.

"Infamous" is the second film telling the story of Truman Capote and his involvement with the killers of the Clutter family in Kansas. Released in 2006, it stars Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Sigourney Weaver, Lee Pace, Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rosellini, Peter Bogdanovich, and Juliet Stevenson.Comparisons to "Capote" starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman are natural, though the films are based on different books. "Infamous" is based on George Plimpton's book about Capote, and "Capote" is based on Gerald Clarke's.It's the same idea - Capote travels to Kansas to write an article about the Clutter family murders and decides to make it into a book. He argues with his friend and traveling companion, Harper Lee, about the form it will take because. after all, nonfiction isn't a fictional novel. But in order to do any writing, Truman has to gain access to the D.A. Alvin Dewey (Jeff Daniels) and to the killers themselves, Dick and Perry (Lee Pace and Daniel Craig). Dick, a complete psychopath, has no trouble talking to Truman, but Perry is more reticent.It's ambiguous in both films just how much Capote played on Perry's need to be recognized as having the soul of an artist. The relationship started out at least to be based on lies. Here the sexual aspects of the relationship are more explored, and again, was Perry playing him or was he sincere? "Capote" dealt more with Truman's frustrations and guilt over his need to have a solid ending to his book, which couldn't happen until all the mens' appeals were used up. Here it's mentioned, and it's an issue, but the torture Truman suffers in "Capote" is palpable. Here the emphasis is more on the actual final result and the torture he suffered in its aftermath."Capote" was about Truman Capote, and the character of Harper Lee and other people in Capote's life was underused. Here, played by Sandra Bullock, she has much more to do, and we witness the dynamics of this important relationship. Bullock, by the way, does a terrific job as the down-to-earth, challenging woman who grew up with this man and takes the ride with him as long as she can.In "Infamous," we see Truman as the bon vivant, surrounded by friends like Babe Paley (Weaver), Slim Keith (Hope Davis), Bennett Cerf (Bogdanovich), Diana Vreeland (Stevenson) and Marella Agnelli (an impossibly beautiful Rosselini), and learn a bit about his relationship with lover Jack Dunphy (John Benjamin Hickey). The film uses a documentary style to "interview" some of these characters. All his dear friends, of course, would dump him when a segment of "Answered Prayers" was published, leaving Truman with a final, crushing heartbreak.As Truman Capote, Toby Jones looks and sounds just like him so much that it's eerie. His acting is excellent, with emphasis on the more flamboyant aspects of Capote's personality, where Hoffman's was more on the emotional and inner life of the man. It's a question of taste as to whom you like better, because both are marvelous. The surprise for most people will be Daniel Craig as Perry Smith, but it was no surprise for me, having seen him on stage in "A Steady Rain." The man is a chameleon, nothing less, totally wasted as James Bond and an equal to Daniel Day-Lewis or any of our film stars who are more thought of as "actors." The story of Truman Capote and his involvement with the killers of the Clutter family is a tragedy. Delusional Perry, who blamed everyone for his problems, lamenting what he could have been, feels he has so much in common with Capote. Yet he never realizes that despite this, Capote contributed to society while Perry took the lives of innocent people because Dick ordered him to do so.In the end, the guilt-ridden, saddened Capote basically stopped producing, drove away his friends and died an alcoholic drug-user. When they put the noose around Perry's neck, unfortunately, the noose went around Capote's as well. What price art.

Every so often, Hollywood produces two or more movies about the same subject at virtually the same time. Sometimes it seems like happenstance, sometimes it seems like ego and sometimes it's a lesser production trying to piggyback on the buzz and hype of a superior work. If we're lucky, one of them turns out okay. Very rarely do we get more than that. In the two movies made of Truman Capote and the writing of In Cold Blood, we got two very good films, though one is far better than the other.In November of 1959, a well-to-do Kansas farmer, his wife and their son and daughter were brutally murdered in their own home. The crime was so sensational that it even merited a front page story in the New York Times. That's how the horrible deaths of the Clutter family came to the attention of Truman Capote. A novelist and screenwriter of some regard, Capote is more renowned for his presence in the New York City social scene. He was the sort of devilishly irreverent and sharply insightful fellow everyone loved to know or say they knew. Capote first thinks to do a magazine article for the New Yorker about the impact the Clutter murders have on small town Kansas life. But after journeying to Kansas with his best friend and fellow author Nelle Harper Lee, Capote finds something more than a magazine article. Particularly after he meets one of the murderers, the complex and conflicted Perry Smith, Capote seizes on the idea of using fictional storytelling techniques to tell the true story of the Clutter murders and their aftermath. He pours all of his heart and soul into the work, only to be tortured for years as he must wait for the execution of the killers before his has an ending for his masterpiece. But in producing one of the greatest American books of the 20th century, a novel that changed the way non-fiction stories are told, Capote appeared to destroy himself and never wrote another significant thing for the rest of his life.Infamous is a greater effort of filmmaking than Capote and I'm now going to praise the former at the expense of the later, but I want to first mention that Capote is still a fine film and worth seeing. It's just not as good as Infamous.Fundamentally, Infamous is the better written movie and it's not even close. I t has more well drawn and meaningful characters, tells the story in more detail and depth and provides a much clearer picture of what happened and why. Whether it was Capote and Lee's interactions with the Kansas natives, Capote's place in New York's literary circles, Capote's relationship with his lover Jack Dunphy or his affinity for the doomed Perry Smith the other killer, Dick Hickock, Infamous is more informative, engaging and dynamic.That difference in quality extends to the performances, though that's a bit unfair to the folks in Capote. The cast of Infamous is given so much more to work with that it was almost inevitable they'd do a better job. The greatest example is the distinction between the main characters of these films. Toby Jones' Capote is flamboyant, mincing, gentile, driven and both charming and distant at the same time. Philip Seymour Hoffman's version gives a few glimpses of humor and wit, but is mostly quiet, solemn and overtly detached. They have the same odd and Southern-tinged voice, but these performances have very little else in common.That contrast in the level of characterization extends to just about every part. In Infamous, we're presented with an interpersonal dynamic that tries to explain why the effeminate Capote could be in love with the more macho and straight-laced Jack Dunphy. In Capote, they're simply presented as a couple with no real explanation of why these two men would ever be together. In Infamous, Dick Hickock is given a few scenes to show the audience how shallow and uninteresting he is compared to the wounded and violent Perry Smith. In Capote, Hickock is barely in the film at all and therefore doesn't serve as a comparison to Perry or the Perry/Capote relationship.Now, only the actual people involved in this story and those who knew them can testify to which version is more historically accurate and personally fair. But there's a line in Infamous that says In Cold Blood brought a kindness to Capote's writing that hadn't been there before. That sort of kindness is absent from Capote the film. It presents the writer as a fairly nasty piece of work who only summons up some regret and remorse at the moment of crisis. Infamous shows Capote as a basically decent person who, under immense personal and professional stress, behaved in unfortunate ways.What ultimately distinguishes these two movies is that I think Infamous is trying to be entertaining while Capote is trying to be significant. Capote is dominated by quiet scenes of no action or dialog that are clearly intended to be meaningful and moving. And if you're a devotee of New York literary history and already know well the story of Truman Capote, you might be able to make those scenes meaningful and moving in your own mind. But even if you've never read In Cold Blood or heard of Truman Capote, you'd still find Infamous a delightful experience.