Film Review: The Capote Tapes
© The Capote Tapes, Courtesy of Adam Wiener (Greenwich)
THE CAPOTE TAPES (2019) DIR. EBS BURNOUGH
Written by Belle McIntyre
Truman Capote has never suffered from neglect by the media, biographers, or documentarians. Not surprising since it became of paramount importance after he had achieved his literary and social success. Full disclosure: I think that his writing is so ravishing and moving that anything related to his life is fascinating, enlightening and worthy of re-examination.
© The Capote Tapes, Courtesy of Adam Wiener (Greenwich)
Is there anything new in this compilation based on George Plimpton’s audiotapes for his 1997 biography of Capote? Not really. But what is particularly engaging is the various angles that the director has chosen to present. It feels more sympathetic than some treatments of Capote I have seen. The archival footage seems especially poignant and revealing of a tragically insecure human being who launched himself into the celebrity stratosphere by defying acceptable norms of the time and creating a caricature - a dandified, diminutive man with flamboyant manners, absurd affectations, and an outrageously wicked sense of humor. He was simultaneously a courtesan and a jester to the grand and the great of New York society. Moving among the crême de la crême of the “ladies who lunch” (especially at La Côte Basque), he amused them, gained their confidence, and called them his “Swans”. He gave one of the most spectacular parties ever held. Capote’s White Party was the stuff of society legend and was attended by all the most beautiful, rich and famous who were required to wear masks.
Elliott Erwitt. USA; NYC; Truman Capote at his “Black and White Ball” at the Plaza Hotel. 1966. © Elliott Erwitt, Magnum Photos, Courtesy of Adam Wiener (Greenwich)
Touching interviews with Kate Harrington, who Capote adopted when she was 13 years old after her father, who was his banker and an abusive alcoholic and his lover, had died. He took Kate to New York and launched her into a modelling career and changed her life. News to me was that his mother who was a “courtesan” with posh aspirations, which she achieved. After she left her husband and abandoned young Truman. She ultimately made an advantageous marriage and summoned her neglected son. She, arguably, did herself in with drugs and alcohol. It seems to run in the family.
© The Capote Tapes, Courtesy of Adam Wiener (Greenwich)
Once he turned on all his dear “Swans” with scurrilous excerpts from his unfinished novel published in Esquire. He viciously skewers the whole of the society he had cultivated for so many years. He lost many of his former friends. But he found a whole new set of party animals with the opening of Studio 54 of which he became a denizen. It was a steady decline with all of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. This, in lieu of the love that he craved, is not a unique story. But this brilliantly charming monster is mesmerizing and somehow very human and, dare I say, lovable.
Ebs Burnough © The Capote Tapes, Courtesy of Adam Wiener (Greenwich)
