Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation

Oooh what incredible lives these men led. All jet-set and insecurity.

Their similarities are balanced by their differences [and, quite possibly, their indifferences]...but, bitchiness and jealousies - towards each other -reign supreme. And, there is just a hint, a smidgen...of unrequited, non-platonic love!

Both these writers - in their latter days - bit the hand that fed them...Hollywood gets it in the neck! Then, Truman Capote shot himself in the foot...with the partially published Answered Prayers...a 'tabloidy' tell-all that cost him dearly, friends and respect. Truman's demise - literally speaking - was self imposed. Whereas Tennesse just couldn't reach his previous high - The Night of the Iguana heralded the beginning - and, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore [later filmed as the brilliantly atrocious Boom!] concluded his literary success.

Their demises led to their last commonality...Dr Feelgood, that drug dealing doctor to the stars...how many lives did he ruin? Well, that's an other film entirely. Truman & Tennessee died within 18 months of each other. Tennessee, February 25, 1983 (aged 71). Truman, August 25, 1984 (aged 59). Perhaps, Truman missed his old jousting pal [so much] and died of a broken heart? No, alas...they both died from substance and alcohol abuse.

Like all anecdotal and archival biographies...subjectivity is always an issue, what's been left out? Why include that? Forget all that, Lisa Immordino Vreeland chose to neither judge nor invent an obtuse narrative...instead, she allowed the literary giants to speak, in their own words, from beyond the grave. It's enchanting, entertaining and really rather sad.

A lovely, lovely film.

Trailer...