At the press screening of Infamous, a letter from the film's director, Douglas McGrath (Nicholas Nickelby) was distributed. In it, he explains why he and Warner Bros. came out with another movie about how Truman Capote came to write In Cold Blood. It's one of those coincidences that give movie directors and producers nightmares. "Who knew that Dan Futterman (who wrote the screenplay for Capote) and I would be in the same predicament as those people who made the competing asteroid-hitting-the-earth movie?" wrote McGrath.
"Futterman had a Truman -- his pal Philip Seymour Hoffman -- and no money," McGrath explained. "And we had no Truman but we had the money." In a couple of years, both productions had what they needed. Toby Jones was cast as Truman Capote in Infamous. He's not a Philip Seymour Hoffman but who is? Infamous' release was delayed as Capote went to the Oscars. But both films are very different. Infamous is based on George Plimpton's book about Truman Capote. In this film, you'll find a different Capote than the one Hoffman portrayed. Jones’ Truman Capote looks older but acts less assured, less arrogant, and less cunning than Hoffman's Capote, who, frankly, wore me out. There are more high society characters to distract us in Infamous. A string of talented actors play the "Swans," Truman's well-heeled Park Avenue power gals. Plimpton recalled that Capote "called them his 'Swans' -- for their beauty, their elegance, their charm, and not unsurprisingly because they all seemed to be endowed with long necks." They also ended up being a bit unforgiving, particularly when Truman betrayed their confidences to him. But that's another story.
And at least one more movie. Sigourney Weaver is a convincing Babe Paley ... Juliet Stevenson as Diana Vreeland ... Hope Davis as Slim Keith ... Isabella Rossellini as Marella Agnelli. Peter Bogdanovich plays Bennett Cerf in a far too dour manner. But Sandra Bullock really shines as Harper Lee, Capote's emissary to the real world, and herself on the cusp of literary fame. She really nails the Alabama accent. Jeff Daniels is terrific as Alvin Dewey, the cop who is reluctant to talk to Capote, who most of Holcomb, Kansas, consider an extraterrestrial -- an outrageously swishy one at that. There is one very funny scene where Truman, out to do some food shopping so he and Harper can have a Christmas dinner by themselves in their hotel, stands dumfounded in the supermarket before a tower of Velveeta boxes. A woman comes by with her shopping cart, and a bewildered Truman says to her, "Do you think this is all the cheese they have?" She replies incredulously, "How much do you need?"
Daniel Craig gives a powerful performance as Perry Smith, one of the pair of the killers of the Clutter family in Kansas. His role supports the gay love angle between Truman and Smith. Craig reminds me of a young Richard Kiley. The movie, of course, turns out quite the same way as Capote did.The two killers hang, Capote finally completes his book, and he becomes the most famous writer in America -- and at what cost?
"Three men died on the gallows that night," observes Bullock's Harper Lee. "Sinatra said that Judy Garland died a little when she sang her songs. The same is true about the writer." But In Cold Blood is one long, sad song for everyone involved. It was fatal for Capote’s talent and his soul – what was left of it.
Infamous is very entertaining, not as ponderous as Capote, not so fixated on the megalomaniacal writer, and there are other people to consider as players in McGrath's treatment of the story behind In Cold Blood.
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It pleases me to say that there's another new movie out about an alcoholic writer, this one is the ramshackle poet of the swampy dive bar, Charles Bukowski. "We call bars like these, these Skid Row dumps, 'leper colonies,'" says John Harris, who has served drinks in the best places -- and other places, too. Bukowski would probably like that term, "leper colonies," because he has so much affection for the denizens within -- social lepers like himself. In Factotum, directed by Bent Hamer, Matt Dillon, as Henry Chinaski (Bukowski's alias), explains why it's important to be different than the ordinary person: If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods. And the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is."
There's some fighting in the movie. There's lots of poetry, too, in Dillon's irrepressible and often funny Chinaski. And drinking. The first scene shows Chinaski on the job, taking a chain saw to a huge block of ice. I can't imagine being required to do such a thing -- even without a hangover. I can imagine doing what happens next: he delivers a bag of ice to a bar, and stays to drink at the bar, only to be tracked down by the boss and fired. There's lots of drinking, of course. And there are women -- and women found Bukowski fascinating.
In turn, Bukowski's women mesmerize us in their degradation. And there's more drinking. And gambling. And drinking. Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei give brave, gutsy, and very indelicate boozy performances. Factotum is funnier than its desperate predecessor, Barfly. Chinaski takes all of the ridiculous turns that his alcohol-drenched life provides with pretty much good humor while showing us how preposterous, and petty the world can be. He holds on to jobs here and there -- the surreal gig at the pickle factory was doomed at the outset -- until the hooch takes over and it all crashes. Dillon plays Chinaski with surprising dignity. The actor says he's been a Bukowski fan since he was in his 20s. Our hero bobs and weaves through an obstacle course of mediocre martinets in the low-rent marketplace of misery.
For all of the alcoholic foibles, his Chinaski is true to his code, and maintains a considerable diligence about his writing, no matter how things spin out of control. Bukowski did write 50 books. It's the one element in his life that keeps him, well, for want of a better word, sane.
The powerful songs on the Factotum soundtrack are written by Norwegian composer Kristin Asbjornsen with lyrics from Bukowski's poetry. Much of the material for the movie was provided by Bukowski's editor at Black Sparrow Press, John Martin, and Linda Lee Bukowski, the writer's widow. "Whatever money she makes from this movie and anything else," someone observed after the screening, "she certainly earned it."
Factotum is an engaging movie -- at times, very funny. Believe it or not, it's quite hopeful. Like a character in a novel by Knut Hamsun, one of Bukowski's literary heroes, the protagonist will not be defeated by a world that's eager to discard him. Even more astonishing, Chinaski will not be defeated by himself.
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I wish the characters -- there are really only two – in Conversations With Other Women would have had more to drink during the movie. They might have turned out to be nicer -- or at least more interesting. A beautiful British woman (Helena Bonham Carter) is a reluctant, painfully bored bridesmaid at a wedding in New York. By chance -- so we think at first – she meets a good-looking fellow. He's played by Aaron Eckhart. Not a chance meeting at all, we discover. If you can stick with the split-screen technique for the whole movie, you'll note that more and more is revealed about this affair that's about to happen. I guess the premise is that first love is a powerful thing but most of us let a sexual reunion remain a fantasy if we have married or attached ourselves to others after all these years. But maybe not.
The other premise is that people really don't change all that much, and all the dishonesty, deceptions, and selfishness stick with us. This is not hopeful. And it's not interesting. But I'm glad this morose, ungracious couple rediscovered each other. Who else would want them? But what about these “conversations with other women”? Oh, yes,. There were two – very brief, but quite significant, if you care to think a bit about them. They bear witness to how the world views this couple. They’re not fooling anyone – just fooling around. I caught a glimpse of an online review of this film that's posted outside the Lumiere Theatre. The tag line reads something like: "This is the perfect movie for those who have ever been in love, and are over thirty. In fact, see it twice."
I have an idea. If you saw it once, wait until you're sixty to see it again. But I sure hope you found something better to do by then. And if you are sixty, just raise a glass for Bukowski, and skip the whole damn thing.
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Bruce Bellingham is the Arts & Entertainment Editor of Northside and the author of Bellingham by the Bay, a collection of stories about San Francisco and some of her memorable characters.
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