Unprofitable failure

Denis Zakharov - in a nutshell about the new Bayopic about Trumen Kapot

The FX channel, after a seven -year break, released the second season of the series "enmity". This time, Showranner Ryan Murphy decided to turn to the plot of the expulsion of the writer Trumen Capote from the higher world of New York, taking as the basis the book of Lawrence Limer “Women Capote: a true love story, betrayal and swan song of an entire era”. About why both the book and its film adaptation are a failure, unforgivable in the year of the centenary of the American classic, says Denis Zakharov, a specialist in the Capote creativity, the author of the book-commentary to the novel “The Prayers heard”.

Starting from February 24, 2022, we were all in the face of the advancing barbarism, violence and lies. In this situation, it is extremely important to preserve at least the remnants of culture and support the values of humanism - including for the sake of the future of Russia. Therefore, the editorial office of Gorky will continue to talk about books, reminding our readers that the world remains in the world and fiction.

“Trumen Kapota would have rolled over in the coffin if he found out that the most difficult moments of his life are causing such a boredom in the viewer,”writes the critic of the Chang in a review of the Bayopic series from Showranner Ryan Murphy.

It all started in 2021. In the USA, “women of the hood came out: a true love story, betrayal and swan song of an entire era.” Lawrence Limer's book became a national bestseller and received flattering press reviews. What is not surprising. Every three years, the writer has been releasing a new job that either falls into the top sales or forms the basis of the film adaptation (such as, for example, the biography of the climber Willy Ansold, the rights to which was acquired by the producer company Robert Redford).

The biography of the star of the night broadcast of John Carson, the compositions about the Kennedy family and Ronalde Reagan, “Arnold Schwarzenegger’s life” - the public is of great interest to all the books of Limer. In 2019, for the scandalous project “Mar-A-Liaz: the Gate of the Power Palace of Donald Trump, the writer was forever excluded from the elite club of millionaires. The fact that it was not good to tell other people's secrets, Limer learned from his own experience. (Perhaps this prompted him to turn to the similar story of Trumen Capote, who in the mid-1970s was similarly expelled from the Manhattan Café Society Society after the publication of one of the chapters of the novel “Hearing Prayers.”) And then there was a pandemic. Locked in his house in Palm Beach in Florida, an eighty-year-old writer, together with his wife Praudovic (native of Yugoslavia), set to study the biographies of the New York Bohemia-CBS President William Payili and his wife Beib, secular lionesses Gloria Vanderbilt, Carus Marcus Saroyan, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria Guinness. Two biographies of Trumen Capote - official, authorship of Gerald Clark (1988), and oral (memories of friends and enemies), George Plimpton (1998), were also useful. As a result of the reader’s marathon in the head of the author, everything mixed up in a bizarre ball.

“Capote women” had not yet managed to go out of the press, and Lawrence Limer began to get confused in the testimony. In a series of promotional publications, for example, he argued that before the release of “kill the mockingbird”, Harper Lee went with Truman to Nebraska (actually to Kansas) to help the writer collect material for the book “Cold -blooded murder”. Later, Vanity Fair magazine posted a fragment of one of the chapters of the “Capote Women” dedicated to the sisters of Buvier. In it, Limer claimed that "after a divorce from Onassis, Jackie Kennedy returned to New York." When attentive readers wrote in a comment that Aristotle Onassis actually died in Paris from respiratory failure, and Jackie for the second time became a widow, an annoying blooper was quickly replaced.

It is worth saying that several female authors wrote to Limer about the hood scandal with his swans. In 2016, Melanie Benjamin published the documentary Fiky Five Avenue - the work is so helpless that the relatives of the Payili family were going to file a lawsuit. Then they abandoned this venture, so as not to attract attention and not to contribute to the growth of fan fiction sales. In the rating of the Goodreads reader site, the book of Melanie Benjamin barely gained 3.5 stars.

In 2019, the debutant Kelly Grinberg-Jufkott released her “ swan song ”-a fiction story about how and why the hood quarreled with the Higher Light. This work was distinguished not only by a deep analysis of the causes and motives of the heroes, but also by the conscientious appeal of the author with facts. The Swan Song was awarded several literary awards and was warmly met by critics on both sides of the ocean. Perhaps it was this work that could become a great basis for a full -fledged series, but then the limit intervened with its resignation.

His lightweight retelling of other people's biographies, flavored with superficial reasoning,, by inertia, fell into the ratings of “The Best Books of the Autumn of 2021”. Journalists praised the work as if no one spoke out on this subject to Limer. Critics preferred not to report on ignorant errors in the narrative, but the opinions of disappointed readers have been fading on book reviews: “In this plot, the hood plays a very insignificant role, his personality is openly overwhelmed by the author. It is written clumsily, incoherently and extremely highly. It seems that the book was not edited at all: just tons of errors . ”

Book marketing did his job. The success of Limer was largely contributed to the well -chosen name. “Capote women” parted in a large circulation, and the name of the venerable author promised the success of the famous television producer Ryan Murphy, who had long been looking for the second season of “enmity”.

In April 2022, Murphy announced the purchase of rights to Lawrence Limer's book. After the appearance of this message, a few specialists in the Capote's Creativity in Culuar conversations expressed doubt that the project would be successful. It is impossible to build a strong foundation of the script on the shaky soil of multiple retelling, in which the truth was mixed with ridiculous mistakes.

When the project only started, the biographer of Kapote Gerald Clark said: “I will not spend a minute of my time to watch the series.” He had to break his promise and evaluate the first three episodes, as journalists began to break his phone with a request to comment on the loud premiere of the FX channel .

In a telephone conversation with The Guardian correspondent , the 86-year-old Clark said: “[In the series], Trumen appears a disgusting person who was never a nasty old queen, whom he has never been.” Who was he was a bonvian with caustic wit and dazzling set of social ties.

The main claim to the film is the one -sidedness of interpretation of the image of the writer. The hood turned out to be caricatured flat, devoid of all charm. You do not experience empathy for him. The creators armed themselves with a magnifying glass in order to consider the most disgusting features of the character of the main character - alcoholism, sexual licentiousness, mannerism, odion, tendency to slander. Trumen is supposed to sympathize only in moments when the writer is beaten by his abyss friend John O'Sha. And then some may have the impression that he received in the face right.

Clark believes that the team of Ryan Murphy was not able to reflect the positive aspects of the personality of the genius, and most importantly - they could not explain the true motives of the hood for the audience: what became the basis of many years of friendship with swans? Which of them is who and why Kapota was so attached to Beib Payili? Why did the writer need to print individual chapters of an incomplete novel in Esquire ? What preceded this and what really moved them? Behind the sluggish change of scenes, taken off, even beautifully, the plot thread is lost.

Showranner John Robin Bayz (by the way, two -time finalist of the Pulitzer Prize) was too carried away by Freudian theory. He believes that this unfortunate publication in the magazine Kapota avenged the swans for his own mother, who committed suicide in 1954. Like, they would never support the provincial beauty from Alabama and would not accept her in their flock. I'm afraid that such an interpretation is too obvious to be true. However, the screenwriter attributes to the hero more complex motives: Trumen took revenge on his status of a court jester, entertaining a rich audience in the evenings in the evenings. As the critic of incca Kang rightlyremarks : “Bayts puts forward a lot of unfinished ideas in the film. These fragmented and unabled hypotheses cannot be connected together, which only enhances the impression of aimless repetition. ”

“No matter how great Tom Hollander is, his hood seems empty. This is rather a sketch than a fully formed character, ” writes Graham Gutman in Screen Rant . One cannot disagree with this.

In his recent interview, Gerald Clark gives a striking example: “Once, in the early 70s, I walked with a hood along the street in New York, and the taxi drivers protruded from the window and shouted:“ Hey, Truman, how are you, buddy? ” They saw him on TV in Johnny Karson's show and in other programs and found him funny. People really liked Trumen Kapote, and Trumen really liked people. He remained on an equal footing with everyone. For example, when he was refueling gasoline, he could approach the tanker and exchange jokes, jokes or stories from life. People adored him. "

The fatal drawback of the series is in the absence of plot ups and downs. Sometimes it’s just boring to watch. The enmity of the heroes seems too far -fetched. Today's viewers, brought up by the openness of social networks, are sincerely perplexed, why is this all this star commotion? The problem looks like a storm in a glass. And the series itself resembles a gift box of chocolate assorted, in which the manufacturer forgot to add a lipstick. Some kind of sweets without filling with the aftertaste of deceived expectations. It is not surprising that egregious inaccuracies that migrated from the book of Limer to the screen begin to catch their eyes.

The film begins with how Trumen Capote hurries into the apartment of the ST. Regis on the fifth Avenue, where the Payili couple lives, Bill is the famous telemagnate, Babe - “Diamond” in his collection of acquisitions. Having caught her husband on treason, Babe called her confident - a famous writer and a longtime family. Naomi Watts in the image of the most important swan from a pack of Capote admits that her bedding Porthault is stained with the menstrual spots of Happy Rockefeller, with which Bill continues his grotesque romance. The room also has the smell of Calèche spirits , which is used by the wife of the governor. The experimental audience is cut by the emphasis of Naomi Watts, who defiantly incorrectly calls French brands. In her lips, Porthault (Porto) sounds like Port Hole , and Calèche (Kalesh) -Cal-Light . It is impossible to believe that the stylish Babe Payili, who was flying to Paris to try on the Zhivanshi, could be so redesigned.

As for the mistress ... In the “heard prayers”, the hood speaks of the fleeting (one -time) adultery. To sleep with the wife of the Governor of New York was the obsessive idea of Bill Payili: “He needed the governor’s wife precisely because he wanted to get out of an arrogant pigsty for his destitute life, wanted to see how she squeals, sweat and calls him daddy . ” But there was no relationship (all the more long), and therefore the incident with the sheets cannot be interpreted as "bloody revenge on the lover for parting." The authors of the series understood the text vice versa.

The dramatic line with suicide Anne Woodword, played by Demi Moore, is also failed. The situations recreated in the series reflect an extremely superficial look at this high -profile story, in which the hood was involved.

In October 1955, Ann shot her husband William Woodwordo-Ml. From a shotgun, having consulted him as a robber. Tragic accident or deliberate murder? The incident immediately overgrown with rumors and speculations, and the press dubbed the crime with a “shot of the century”. Anne managed to avoid punishment thanks to the intercession of his mother-in-law Elsi Woodword,-the Grand Dama of secular Manhattan. Two years before, Elsie buried her husband-banker, and now her adored son died at the hands of an unloved daughter-in-law. Elsey wisely reasoned that the scandal, however,, like the prison conclusion of their non -pound mother, would not benefit her poor grandchildren. The jury recognized the incident by an accident. Anne avoided punishment, but became an outcast. She could no longer play the role of a carefree secular lioness and fled to Europe for several years, closer to the children whom her grandmother determined to study in Switzerland. The “shot of centuries” was unusually interested in the hood as a material for the future “tragicomedy of secular customs”. He long and carefully collected facts about the Woodword case, and even gained access to the testimony of witnesses of the trial. Truman asked common acquaintances about the pair Anne and William-Ml. In this he was helped by Jan Fleming, with whom Woodwords were friends. And of course, Kapota in companies often told the story of Mrs. Pif-Paf, as he began to call Anne. This aspect in the series is reflected quite vividly.

For writing, there was a personal reason. When Anne lived in Europe their paths with Trumen once dramatically crossed. The incident occurred on vacation in Biarrice. One of his friends pointed out an “inconsolable widow” at a famous author sitting at a neighboring table in a bar. "Is this the same fagot?" Anne asked asking enough. Many who were sitting nearby, including the hood itself, heard an offensive remark. The next day, Trumen collided with the offender in the lobby and strangled through his teeth: “I am the same fagot, and you are Mrs. Pif-Paf.” Here he is, an occasion for enmity, but it is worth making a reservation that since then the offender and the victim have almost never seen each other. This was also recognized by Ann: “I never met with Trumen Kapota, with the exception of that unpleasant incident in the Barritsa bar,” she told Bill Sudout to her friend. Therefore, the scene from the series, when Anne hisses with hatred on Truman, douses him with water from a glass and dirtyly calls him in the presence of a swan, has nothing to do with reality. This artificial drama changes the motivation of the heroes, presenting the viewer with false information about the conflict of Trumen and Ann. Moreover, from this deception, an even greater untruth about the unnecessary visit of Anne Woodword to the black and white bout hood in November 1966 follows. The authors of the series show how Truman with hatred drives Anne and her son from a party in Plaza.

In the book of Deborah Davis “ Party of the Century ” dedicated to the black and white ball of Trumen Capote, it was written in black and white: “There was one pleasant couple (their names remained unknown), they were politely escorted . Not a very well -dressed woman in a street dress spoke with Trumen. She apologized for her undeclared visit and said that she just wanted to look with one eye. Trumen kindly invited her to drink a glass of champagne, after which she became gloomy and attacked him with accusations: “How can you spend such money on the ball when people die all over the world”. Truman called the guard and asked to invite the lady to the dance and, in the process of valcing, to take her out of the hall. Susan Pason employee of the public relations department Bergdorf Goodman and her gentleman Jerry Jones (employee McKinsey ) - joined the group of late and penetrated the ball without an invitation. Trumen warmly greeted them and led them to the hall, seating at a table with Elvin Dewey, an agent who investigated the Klautter family murder. ” There were no more unexpected guests.

William Woodword-Ml. With his wife Anne at the races. 1954

It did not occur to the screenwriter that Anne Woodword simply could not appear on the ball to Trumen Kapota. The reason was simple: her mother -in -law had already received the invitation! Elsi Woodword took him and appeared on the ball in Plaza. Anne herself understood that in the company of mother -in -law to have fun at the Capota festival, it was to challenge the next call to a secular society. Why does she need it?

Finally, the most egregious inaccuracy, which has been replicated for many years. “Anne committed suicide because of the story of Trumen,” Slim Kit says to her friend Beib Payili at the end of the first series. “<...> And we are still alive.” At this moment, the viewer finds himself on the terrace of the mansion at the sunset of the day. The camera demonstrates the open pages of the Esquire magazine lying on the table with the very head of the hood. Nearby pills are lying. Demi Moore in a fur coat with a glazed look demonstrates the tragic death of the heroine.

And now only the facts: Anne Woodword committed suicide on the night of October 9-20, 1975 (15 days before the appearance of Esquire magazine on sale). In the morning, the maid discovered a dead housewife, fully dressed and painted in a cooled bed (and not on the terrace). I read Ann Granki of the future article Capote - it is not known for certain. The accusations of Kapote in the death of Woodword appeared much later. The tragic accident with Ann was used by the enemies of the writer to finally bury his reputation. Partly they succeeded in this revenge. The act of Kapota was regarded by many as cruelty. He was paid off with the same coin.

The level of training of the Ryan Murphy team for the project is characterized by one, but a characteristic detail. Choosing the performer for the role of John O'Sha, the authors of the series recklessly trusted the Getty Images photobank . The picture was taken on April 26, 1978 on the anniversary of the opening of the Studio 54 Club Pionerator Paparazzi Ron Gallel. On the left hand from Trumen sits a fluffy gentleman in a white sweater, with a cocktail in his hands. Getty images indicates that his close friend John O'Sha is captured in the photo along with the hood . And the English actor Russell Tovi really has an external resemblance to the person depicted in the photo next to the writer.

The irony is that the picture is not John O'Shi, but Joseph PetroCik-a neighbor of Trumen in the cottage on Long Island. В 1963 году писатель приобрел небольшой летний домик в Сагапонаке (Лонг-Айленд), где и была написана скандальная глава La Côte Basque , 1965 . Однажды на пляже Трумен познакомился с Джозефом Петрочиком, который проживал в соседнем Саг Харборе.

«В конце 1960-х Трумен подошел ко мне на пляже, чтобы спросить, не видел ли я его собаку Мэгги. Она куда-то убежала от него. На следующий день, во время ланча на Манхэттене, Капоте случайно оказался за соседним столиком. Это было началом долгой-предолгой дружбы», — вспоминал Петрочик. (Он умер в 2019 году.)

В тот памятный весенний вечер потусоваться в Studio 54 вместе с Труменом Капоте пришел его лонг-айлендский приятель. Он есть и на других фотографиях, сделанных на вечеринке 26 апреля 1978 года, но в Getty Images Джо Петрочика опознали как Джона О'Ши. И вот в 2022 году кастинг-директор «Вражды» Алекса Фогель нашла актера, похожего на Петрочика. По всей видимости, Фогель не стала проверять изображения О'Ши по другим источникам, иначе как объяснить, что на роль невысокого, средней комплекции 44-летнего вице-президента банка она пригласила плечистого тридцатилетнего дылду Рассела Тови? Сам актер в интервью Valture подтвердил : «В качестве материала для изучения [личности Джона О'Ши] у меня были две фотографии. В частности, на одной из них он в очках, которые я выбрал для Джона. Мне дали свободу действий, чтобы сделать его своим».

«Вражда: Капоте против лебедей» представляет собой торжество мифов, взятых из книги автора, пренебрегающего элементарным фактчекингом. Но все эти неточности не имели бы большого значения, если бы режиссер, погрузившись в контекст, постарался почувствовать глубину душевных переживаний и истинные мотивы писателя. But it turned out what happened. И у непонятого современниками Трумена Капоте остается все меньше шансов быть понятым нынешним поколением читателей. Показ сериала закончится 13 марта 2024 года. Боюсь, что к этому времени его создатели нанесут серьезный ущерб репутации Трумена Капоте. Такой вот подарок к столетию писателя.