The authors of In Cold Blood and A Streetcar Named Desire, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams

TRUMAN AND TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION
Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆☆

DRAWING on the intimate correspondence between two of the titans of 20th century writing, this remarkable, strangely relaxing documentary about the lives of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams brings them alive and provides a platform for their thoughts and musings.

We spend time in the company of the authors of In Cold Blood and A Streetcar Named Desire as they dart about the world being fabulous and terrible in equal measure.

Name after name flit in and out of this appreciation, creating an illusion of a closeted world where Gore Vidal and Marilyn Monroe pop by for coffee, followed by angsty discussions with Marlon Brando or Paul Newman.

But Vreeland does not offer lazy talking heads. Instead, the letters, read by Jim Parsons (Capote) and Zachary Quinto (Williams) provide a first person insight into their craft and how it reflected their characters.

Capturing Capote’s unique voice is a hard task – and at first, when you hear him speak, and then Parsons read the letters, there is a sense of dislocation.

But it is all healed by the time Parsons has read the passage through the strength of what he had to say.

Williams also comes over well: a perfect balance of funny and political. He talks of how his plays adapted into films often disappointed him, due to censorship – he says viewers should leave five minutes before the end, as they always change the finale to render it meaningless. He cites Streetcar Named Desire as being turned on its head when committed to celluloid.

Watching David Frost interview the pair on separate occasions is grand television, and shows how Capote poked fun at the world by playing to assumptions.

Hearing Frost try to entice him into talking about love, friendship and sex and his honest response is a heart-warming two fingers up to the homophobia he faced.

Frost did the same with Williams, who comes over as more thoughtful in his delivery, while Capote always has a twinkle in his eye, as if he enjoys the mischief.

The telescoping nature of time means the pair have been elevated to literary sainthood. It is a joy to see them as real flesh and blood.