Infamous

"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.

When I saw "Capote" I was really impressed by the presentation of the story and the quality of the acting. When I saw "Infamous" today, I was caught up with the story in a way I had not been before. It was closer to the experience when I read the book many,many years ago. "In Cold Blood" is about killing human beings, and I believe that it is no more right for cold blooded murders to do it than for me do do it as a member of society that authorizes the death penalty. I believe that the film as well as the book makes people think about this issue The cast was superb, and I said the same about the earlier rendition, but this time the characters were fully developed and believable under the circumstances. I had been impressed before, but this film is different from the last--it is more emotional, more detailed in rendition of the characters, and more interested in showing not just the destruction of Truman Capote, but in sharing the ideas that he expressed in "In Cold Blood".

When I was growing up (I am 62 now) I recall that I did not like Capote when I saw him on talk shows repeatedly. I really knew nothing of gay culture or what even that meant at the time, so it had nothing to do with the sexual orientation. It had to do with the ego that was constantly expressed and realted to nothing that I really cared about.

But what was incredibly important to me then and now is that we can lose track of the fact that we are all human beings, a point that was stressed in the film. Killers may be killers, but they are us, in a way, filled with some of the same ambitions, hates, emotions that most of us can control. What separates us from them might not be very much, so why do we need to kill them as they jailed their victims? It is easy to kill, but not so easy to try to understand. This film hits an emotional level that the previous film did not. I am pleased that it ultimately was made. I am also pleased that the quality of the performances, the writing and most especially the direction, were so superb. Watch the scene where the farmer speaks only to Harper Lee and not Capote. It is an incredible monologue, but the circumstances are noted.

Infamous has a difficult comparison with the earlier "Capote." Still it is a different view of the same story and characters and is written with more emphasis on the perspectives of those who knew, or thought they knew, Capote. Toby Jones may not fully match the nuanced performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman but he does, possibly, a better imitation of Capote. Infamous has a better known cast of supporting players and they do a creditable job. Sandra Bullock's Harper Lee isn't the quite same as that portrayed so well by Catherine Keener in "Capote" but her character blends perfectly with the tone of "Infamous." Daniel Craig adds another fine acting turn as the "In Cold Blood" killer who receives the most attention. Even Gwyneth Paltrow makes an excellent impression in a brief opening scene as, apparently, singer Peggy Lee. (In the showing I saw, she was introduced as "Kitty Dean???") I wondered why another version of this story was filmed and it may not do well after the success of "Capote" but I was surprisingly entertained and intrigued by this movie.

I haven't seen Bennett Miller's 'Capote' so I cannot make any comparisons between that and 'Infamous'. Douglas McGrath takes a huge risk and I admire that he went on making this film to show his vision and releasing it just a year after the hugely acclaimed 'Capote'. It's sad to see that the film gained only little recognition (which was perhaps because it was released too soon after 'Capote').

The writing is very smooth and I liked the way he infused humour and drama. The first 45 minutes is full of witty humour until the killers are found from which the movie gets more serious and darker, yet it the humour does not disappear. Many of the characters have a small role but they are well developed. The dialogues and monologues are awesome. The story is very engaging. Even though we know what will happen in the end, we want to know the characters's motivations and their next step. McGrath also cleverly displays the relationship between Truman and Perry such that in the end one wonders whether Capote felt guilt (for using Perry) or sadness (for losing him). The background score is effectively underused and the cinematography is superb.

The stellar cast includes a host of talented names. In the opening scene Gwyneth Paltrow is introduced as singer Kitty Dean (a portrayal of the singer Peggy Lee). It's only a role of a couple of minutes where she sings but in those few minutes, she shows some incredible acting and singing. Toby Jones's nuanced portrayal of the vivacious and flamboyant Truman Capote is brilliant. Daniel Craig is wonderful as the sympathetic cold-blooded murderer. Sigourney Weaver (splendid), Isabella Rosselini (effective), Juliet Stevenson (brilliant), Jeff Daniels (great) and Hope Davis (adequate) are among the supporting cast. However, it is Sandra Bullock who stands out as Capote's loyal friend Nelle Harper Lee. This is one of her best performances and she just blew my mind by showing how she's gotten into the character which is so different from anything she's ever done. Her diction is impeccable as her Southern accent sounds so natural.

'Infamous' tackles a very relevant theme and delivers the message very well. When people commit unforgivable acts (like the brutal murders Perry Smith commits), one tends to see them as monsters and overlook the fact that they are human beings. The murder scene makes one shudder but when we see that Smith was a common man who had his own goals to become an artist and someone who wanted to have friends and fall in love, we feel sympathy for him. To me, 'Infamous' is a great piece of cinema from recent times.

"There will be time to murder and create." T.S. Eliot's Prufrock

Truman Capote described murderer Perry Smith as between the "tender and the terrible." Such may be said about writer/director Douglas McGrath's superior Infamous, a tale of Truman Capote's (Toby Jones) love affair with his innovative novelization, In Cold Blood, and its protagonist,Perry Smith (Daniel Graig). The tender is Capote's love of his female friends, especially Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock) and Smith (DanielCraig), and the terrible slaughter of the Kansas farm family in 1959 by Smith and friend Dick Hickock (Lee Pace).

Inevitable as accusing Toby Jones of only imitating Capote is the comparison with Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar performance of the titular author in Capote (1955). Jones's turn is more complex than Hoffman's, alternating between Capote's imaginative connection with the crime and his growing respect, even love, for Smith. In fact, the well-known love between the men is avoided in Capote but highlighted in Infamous.

I was hooked in the first sequence, when Gwyneth Paltrow as Peggy Lee sings "What is this thing called love?" and breaks down in apparent awareness of her own losses. The song, perfect for the themes of the film, and the film's score carry a melancholy with them that McGrath captures in Tru's constantly frustrated search for truth and love and Lee's inability to pen another novel after her Pulitzer-Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird. For that matter, Capote never completes a significant piece after that himself.

Last year's Capote seemed centered on the conflict in Truman over whether or not he was exploiting Smith to get a story and then never fully engaging a campaign to free them. This year's Infamous (a poor title regardless of it double artistic appropriateness) is more interested in Truman's struggle to write a new kind of fiction (docudrama) and his true affection for Smith. Infamous fleshes out the story and the fabulous artist whose "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "In Cold Blood" are cultural staples of 20th century life.