Film studies
Movie – Capote (2005)
1) creative process
A true fiction writer develops the art of creative writing to enhance the impact on the audience and his impression of the possible subject for a novel depends on how he perceives the world around him. An art of creative writing involves fusion of the reality driven facts presented in a fictitious wrap of events so that the writer has the thrill of unusualness and a notion of familiarity with the logical occurrence of the events. The movie, Capote (2005) has shown that Truman Capote was extremely bored with the prevalent trend of the autobiographical style of writing.A typical fiction writer assimilates inputs from the real life incidents and then uses them to give some slight strokes of reality in his fiction. Capote, in his search of creating a reality-oriented fiction, came across the real incident where the four members of Clutter family been murdered in rural Kansas in November 1959 by two drifters named Richard Hickock and Perry Smith. Capote’s creative instincts evolved over the time as he spent more of his thoughts on structuring the content of the novel. Initially, he relied on using the reality aspect of this story and was trying to present the narrative tale of the rural dwellers who experienced it as a tragedy . ‘I don't care one way or the other if you catch who did this,’ (Miller)– that were his words addressed to some agent from the Bureau of Investigation in Kansas. In his pursuit of getting more of reality into his novel, he started getting acquainted with the two killers and his gradual interaction with them started affecting his perception over the fictitious course of the novel. However, the strangest part of the art of creative writing is envisaged by this film which showed that the writer was too much possessed by his creativity that he started considering the fiction to be the supreme driver of the reality. The movie shows how Truman search for reality in his fiction content in the story got superimposed by his creative writing skills that gradually started driving him away from the real chain of events. He surveyed the crime scene to catch finer details that could have added value to the creative aspect of description in his novel and also managed a visit to the dead bodies at the crematorium. He became good friends with the two killers and convinced them to a level where they shared all the details of the actual incident with him. The paradox explained in the creative instinct of a writer via this film is related to the fact that while he was gaining enough insights of the real participants, his creative instincts were pushing him to manipulate the course of events to a different end which he considered being the most emphasizing act of justice for the two convicts. However, being a human, he soon got caught into a fix where he ethical and moral instincts clashed with his creative instincts and ultimately resulted in a nervous breakdown.
2) artist temperament
Being an egocentric, gossip-mongering gay, writer Truman Capone was the most interesting person in every company he was with. He was ready for new experiences, new situations, he was sure of who he was and able to prove that fact to the others. In the movie we can see that he was a real hard worker with ruthless discipline, ready to do whatever needed to reach his aim, despite being a person who was in the center of gossips, drinks and teases. Because of his large ego, small stature, peculiarity of his appearance and speech, he was an outsider wherever he went. Nevertheless, at the same time, this man had charm and grit even hidden under the gay bling. His outsiderness helped him to reach people from strange angles and to disarm people who were underestimating him.
Capote had an uncommon insight and strength, but his great achievement requires the surrender of his self-respect. It won him a mass recognition, in the pursuit of which he was willing to lie, flatter, dissemble and betray as necessary.Capote himself is a kind of murderer of the spirit — his own and others’ —his involvement in the case finished him off both as a productive writer and as a man, as handily as it made him a star. If, as Capote famously remarked, life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act, the Clutter murders provided him with one hell of a play and a truly horrific third act — a free fall into drugs and booze, only hinted at in this admirably explanatory movie, and his inability to complete another book before he died.
3) art world (whether visual or literary)
The director of this film, Bennet Miller, used different types of camera angles in his film. For example, Close Up was used many times in this film in order to show feelings and emotions of the heroes. When the audience sees only hero face on the screen, it creates an atmosphere of intimacy and deep dive into the atmosphere of the film. Long shots, on the contrary, are used to underline the connection between the heroes and the environment as well as setting up a philosophical mood. Combination between Close Up and Long Shots make the film eye-catching and not boring. In addition, the director used Aerial shots to show the landscapes and a little bit to distract the audience.
During almost all the film, the lightning was muffled. The story that the film tells, is impossible to name positive and entertaining. On the contrary, the film has a depressing and heavy atmosphere. The use of dark lights enhances that effect. One more fact is that the lights in the film are natural that make the story even more real.
The transitions from scene to scene are very fast, especially at the beginning of the film. The director used the cuts as the basic type of scene transition. This makes the film dynamic and keep the audience always in careful attention. Moreover, it makes the film look like a chronological narrative of events.
In the conclusion, I would like to quote the words of William Shawn:‘This book will change the way people write,’ (Miller)William Shawn, the editor of the New Yorker, breathlessly told Capone. At present, ‘the truth of that prophecy is all aroundus and unlike the writing in ‘In Cold Blood,’ it isn't pretty.’ (Scott). This film vividly illustrates this statement.
References
Miller, Bennett Capote (film), 2005.
Scott, A.O.,Big – Name Novelist, Small – Town Murders. The New York Times, Sept. 27, 2005. Print.
