Truman Capote with his dog. Courtesy of Getty Images

TRUMAN AND TENNESSEE: A CONVERSATION (2020) DIR. LISA IMMORDINO VREELAND

Lisa Immordino Vreeland is arguably one of the best biographical documentary filmmakers working at this moment. Her last three films The Eye Has to Travel (Diana Vreeland), Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, and Love, Cecil (Cecil Beaton) were all thoroughly original in their presentation and narrative crafting, skillfully implementing music and graphics to enhance her subjects to great effect. In Truman and Tennessee she has taken a different approach to her subjects who are writers and whose tools are words. Here she has deftly used the authors own words, voiced by Jim Parsons (Truman Capote) and Zachary Quinto (Tennessee Williams), accompanied by archival footage and still photographs. A particularly inspired choice was the juxtaposition on a split screen with each man on the David Frost Show. It did, indeed, set up the sense of an actual conversation between the two in real time.

Tennessee Williams. Courtesy of Getty Images.

Frost has the ability to dig deep and ask the personal questions which seem to elicit answers which are not always easy to answer in public. The similarities between the backgrounds of the two men are striking despite their 15 year age difference. Both Southerners had problematic alcoholic fathers and troubled childhoods. Openly gay in less open-minded times, they found acceptance in artistic and socially liberal circles where they were feted and celebrated for their larger-than-life personalities and extravagant lifestyles. Williams, the more private of the two did not court the attention the way Truman did, like a moth to flame. He agonized over his less well-received work in spite of the prolific output he created. Truman almost revelled in the fact that he was not producing work, all the while working on his unfinished novel, Answered Prayers , which skewered nearly everyone in his life including Babe Paley and Tennessee. It was a mean-spirited piece of work which alienated many friends and allies. Both men struggled with drug and alcohol abuse.

Truman Capote and Dolls. Corbis Historical-Courtesy of Getty Images

The genius of this documentary is that it fully employs the words of two of our most accomplished wordsmiths to tell their own stories instead of a bunch of talking heads. Who better than an author who freely draws from his own life experiences to reveal his own story. The intertwining of the two lives enriches the film and gives a convincing context for their complex relationship. It is a bonus for the viewer in that we get two biographies in one. A must see for anyone who appreciates the beauty of language.