Centered: Joan Didion in a still from The Center Will Not Hold, next to her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne. Photograph: Julian Wasser

Interview

Joan Didion director: 'She’s always been painted as this mystic, gloomy figure'

Griffin Dunne talks about his aunt, the subject of a new documentary that charts her rise and the impact her work had on a generation of would-be writers

Jake Nevins
Wednesday 25 Octobre 2017

Perhaps surprisingly, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, which is available on Netflix from 27 October, is the first documentary about a writer whose body of work helped define and record American life, particularly during the restive 60s and 70s. From the Manson murders and the Iran-Contra affair to the Salvadoran civil war and her own bereavement, Didion tackled them all with her signature lyricism and savvy. And for the actor Griffin Dunne, Didion’s nephew, finding a way to render that legacy in film was his tallest task.