In My Spare Time, Part III

“Capote” (2005)

Since I’ve always wanted to write for a living, this movie attracted me. The book “In Cold Blood” had to be a pretty gutsy thing to write in the late 50’s and early 60’s, in fact the whole subject of the brutal and unnecessary slaughter of a family in small-town Kansas had to be shocking. As a wannabe writer I’d have been just as grimly intrigued by the story as Capote was. What I find startling about this film is that it is not really a flattering portrait of Truman Capote, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman (who won the Best Actor Oscar). He was incredibly smart, a gifted writer, and very self-absorbed and egotistical. If this film is factually accurate, then Capote basically just used the killers to grind out non-fictional material for a book that would probably influence many future writers. He lies to them, especially the half-Indian, to gain their trust and extract the details of the killings which would earn them the death penalty. That Capote was unable to match the success of “In Cold Blood”, come to think of it I don’t believe he ever tried much after, is telling. It seems he pours his soul into this one work, even growing to care for the killers in a strange way. He also, if I am not mistaken, succumbed to alcohol. I probably sound like a dork in writing this review. But the minds and personalities of writers, especially great ones, fascinate me to no end.

“Pan’s Labryinth” (2006)

My Netflix queue has not missed many Spanish movies, usually Pedro Almoldovar. The Spaniards produce a different breed of cinema, I’ll give them that. Personally I think some of the most distinct films imported from Europe have come from Spain, more so than France or Germany or Britain, and they have definitely been some of the most imaginative. This film directed by Guillermo Del Toro is outstanding. It doesn’t move much beyond a fascist compound in Civil War Spain high up in the Pyrenees. The rest of the setting is a little girl’s imagination. Her mother has married an evil fascist captain, and is also pregnant with his son. The captain wants to kill rebels lurking in the surrounding forest. The little girl sees fairies and all sorts of creatures-- the theory is that she is the immortal soul of a magical princess coming home. While the rebels and fascists duke it out, brutally, she sets on a number of tasks that will help her return, one of which involves entering what looks like some magical realm. Throughout the film, we never really know how much of what she sees is real, as the adults never catch on. There aren’t many movies like this one, and it might seem kind of weird to some people. But it sucks you in, somehow.