Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams were not only friends (even if the friendship had its highs and lows as Capote observes and this film documents), but both experienced great success as young writers, struggled with addiction and lived as openly gay men. They are the focus of Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (Lisa Immordino Vreeland), a documentary that constructs an imagined discourse between the two, using the writers’ actual words. Despite being intimate, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams’s conversation is more with themselves than with each other. However, this is not an issue; what makes this film work so well is the delicate crossover between their conversation, the thematic and contextual interaction. There are certainly comparisons to be drawn between them, but it is their individuality that keeps the conversation so captivating: hearing their different experiences and responses to the events and emotions of their lives.
The film is predominantly an aural documentary, in the sense of how it is conveying its information. Whilst there are clips from archival interviews (notably conducted by the same interviewer, David Frost, on different occasions as a general framework), several still images and extracts from film adaptations of the writers’ works, the visual elements are frequently ancillary to the topic of conversation. It is the words that dance from the screen, which feels to me like a fitting choice to represent a conversation between writers. Yet, the visuals play their part by representing the physical presence of the voices we hear. Due to a lack of recorded material, Jim Parsons steps up as the voice of Capote, and Zachary Quinto does the same for Williams. This enables Vreeland to structure the film with an elegance that the pre-existing material would perhaps not allow, free of the limitations of historical recordings and with even more of a focus on the written work of the two writers.
In places, this works against the film. Whilst Quinto is near-pitch perfect as Williams, Parsons struggles to break past a voice that sounds like Jim Parsons attempting a Truman Capote. Having Capote’s real voice interspersed throughout cannot help but serve to remind us that it definitely isn’t Capote we’re always hearing. The emotional delivery of the lines is all there, but the sound isn’t quite right and does, unfortunately, serve as a minor distraction. Capote’s voice is so unique that any likeness is always going to be met with stern scrutiny. Philip Seymour Hoffman managed it, but that just goes to show how difficult a role Capote is.
That small spot of bother aside, Vreeland’s film is a moving portrait of two writers and friends discussing their lives and craft with one another. They reveal where they found friction, laughs and love on their respective journeys, and whilst it is Vreeland who sensitively arranges the words to form a slick cinematic structure, it is Williams and Capote’s words that invite you in.
Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation is available in virtual cinemas & on Dogwoof on Demand from 30th April.
Photo of Tennessee Williams Courtesy of Clifford Coffin, & Truman Capote, 1948 by Irving Penn © The Irving Penn Foundation.
