Infamous (2006) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error While researching his book In Cold Blood, writer Truman Capote develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. Director: From $2.00 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 34 titles created 16 Apr 2011 a list of 32 titles created 05 May 2012 a list of 34 titles created 11 Jan 2015 a list of 33 images created 11 months ago a list of 22 titles created 4 months ago Search for " Infamous " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 3 wins & 2 nominations. See more awards » Videos Bo is a transexual prostitute in Brussels who left home after being abused by her father.

She's now in an abusive relationship with a neighbor and suspected by the police in a series of ... See full summary » Director: Francis Girod Joaquin (Polo Ravales), an unassuming fisherman, is forced to confront his homosexuality when his sex-starved wife Cynthia (Althea Vega) returns from her overseas job eager to get pregnant.... See full summary » Director: Joel Lamangan A fictionalized account of what may have happened when John Lennon and Brian Epstein went on holiday together to Spain in 1963. Director: Christopher Munch Young girl spends her adolescence in an institution for minors, developing some masculine traits in her personality. In this hostile environment, she can only find some sympathy in a ... See full summary » Director: Sergio Toledo Fernando, a.k.a. Fernanda, a 19-year-old Brazilian transvestite, travels to Milan and becomes a prostitute to finance sex-change surgery. Fernanda dreams of becoming a "real" woman, but in ... See full summary » Director: Henrique Goldman When a new boy moves into the area Cecilie and Peter's friendship is changed. Director: Frank Mosvold Felix is secretly in love with Ralph.

This doesn't seem to be the biggest problem. But Felix is 15 and Ralph his 34 years old soccer coach. They meet every day in an ambush. One day Felix ... See full summary » Director: Martin Busker Sebastien is a small town boy who moves to Paris and begins to explore the gay night life there. When a friend from back home calls to announce he's coming to Paris, Sebastien confronts some unrequited feelings. Directors: Bernard Alapetite, Cyril Legann Stars: Benoît Delière, Johnny Amaro, Thibault Boucaux Khoi, a naive twenty-year-old, travels to Ho Chi Minh City from the countryside to begin a new life. It's his first time in the big city and he's looking for a place to live. He befriends ... See full summary » Director: Ngoc Dang Vu 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6/10 X A couple of gay men must break up due the impossibility of one of them to accept his homosexual condition. The farewell gets very difficult when the other one tries to convince him to accept himself and not to leave him.

Director: Sergio Tovar Velarde Beneath a railroad bridge a young rural gay man begins to his explore his gay feelings with the aid of an understanding friend. Director: Michael Burke In this short film, a girl named Sara recalls her senior year of high school and the intense crush she had on another girl. Director: Katherine Brooks Edit Storyline On November 16, 1959, Truman Capote reads about the murder of a Kansas family. There are no suspects. With Harper Lee, he visits the town: he wants to write about their response. First he must get locals to talk, then, after arrests, he must gain access to the prisoners. One talks constantly; the other, Perry Smith, says little. Capote is implacable, wanting the story, believing this book will establish a new form of reportage: he must figure out what Perry wants. Their relationship becomes something more than writer and character: Perry killed in cold blood, the state will execute him in cold blood; does Capote get his story through cold calculation, or is there a price for him to pay?

Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com> There's more to the story than you know Genres: Rated R for language, violence and some sexuality | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 13 October 2006 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Every Word Is True See more » Filming Locations: $452,966 (USA) (13 October 2006) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia Sigourney Weaver talked to Babe Paley's daughter while researching for the role. The girl told her about a habit her mother had (covered the teeth whenever she smiled) and Weaver actually did it on the movie. See more » Goofs During 1959 visit to small Kansas, writer Harper Lee (who is not an aviator) suggests that Capote stay "under the radar" - a phrase not in popular usage until three or four decades later. See more » Quotes Diana Vreeland : Here's a word I loathe: eccentric. Eccentric is a word that boring people use to describe someone I think of as interesting. A great many people think of me as eccentric simply because when I have my shoes polished, I have the entire shoe polished.

Top, sides and soles. Some people think it eccentric that every morning I have my maid iron my money. When I told Truman I had my maid iron my money, you know what he said? Here's what he didn't say: "How eccentric." Here's what he did say: "How ... (United States) – See all my reviews Infamous is by far the better movie about Truman Capote. I saw this film in Venice where the audience gave it a 15 minute standing ovation. There is a lot that is brilliant about this film. The cast is perfect. This film shows us more characters than the previous movie and each is played beautifully by a highly competent actor. INFAMOUS is one of the most effective and unique films I have seen in a long time. It treats its' subject with humor but also with emotional depth. I was moved by Truman's journey. His relationship with Perry Smith is complex and heartbreaking. Daniel Craig rides a thin line between sympathetic and dangerous. He is a truly gifted artist. Doug McGrath's film-making is brave and true to itself in every way. Toby Jones is the perfect Truman. I was unfamiliar with him as an actor and totally surprised by his amazing, seamless performance.

I'm telling you, Toby Jones is Oscar material. 84 of 110 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Infamous Movie Review & Film Summary (2006) | Roger Ebert Tweet "Infamous" is that other Truman Capote movie, and it plays like doodles in the margins of last year's " Capote " -- more Answered Prayers than In Cold Blood. That in itself is fine, and for the first half hour or so of "Infamous" I found myself thinking: "Why not?" Advertisement Why shouldn't there be a fizzy, comedic take on the naughty adventures of the Park Avenue gadabout as he fashioned In Cold Blood, coming after Richard Brooks' spare black-and-white 1967 of the "nonfiction novel," and Bennett Miller's somber character study in "Capote" (2005) in which the artist creates a work of art that demands the death of the thing he loves -- not just Perry Smith, the murderer with whom Capote was allegedly smitten, but his own creative self?

Why not a movie that concentrates on the contrast between the writer's frivolous party-boy side and the brutal murders in Kansas, the exotic and colorful tropical specimin who becomes a fish-out-of water when he jumps from his luxurious highrise swan pond into the Midwestern plains? That's what "Infamous" starts off to be, a story about Capote as a denizen of an upper-crust milieu, peopled with names that were once semi-famous because of their wealth and style and the more famous names they once knew, or at least talked about over cocktails. There's a wistfulness running through the movie, which views the Social Register figures of the '50s and '60s as living anachronisms, faint and ghostly relics.

"Infamous" whets its whistle with an aperitif montage of sparkling cocktails, and segues into a nightclub performance by Kitty Dean ( Gwyneth Paltrow ), singing Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love?" Midway through, Dean (the movie's pseudonym for Peggy Lee) lapses into an "Is That All There Is?" moment, and leaves the crowd wondering: Is this an artist connecting with her material on a personal level, or is it all part of the performance? The question reverberates throughout the rest of the movie. Advertisement It's the beginning of the '60s, and for Truman and his friends, rigor mortis is already encroaching. There's a wonderful scene, amid the uber-decorated red floral-patterned profusion of a Manhattan apartment, where society divas Babe Paley ( Sigourney Weaver ), the wife of CBS chairman William Paley, and Slim Keith ( Hope Davis ), the former Mrs. Howard Hawks , introduce their crowd to a marvelously vulgar recording the kids just adore -- a 45 of Chubby Checker singing "The Twist." And, you won't believe it, but they simply can't get enough of it themselves!

They put on the record and then Babe and Slim cut the rug. Raconteur and Random House founder Bennett Cerf ( Peter Bogdanovich ) stands in one place and turns stiffly like a rusty hinge, from the waist up, while Harper's Bazaar (later Vogue) editor Diana Vreeland ( Juliet Stevenson ) gets lost in herself, writhing vertically like an exotic flamingo imitating a Lava Lamp. Truman ( Toby Jones ), of course, takes to the Twist like a swan to a martini. He's in his element (booze, dinner party, New York society) -- and watching him dance like a kid at a sock hop... you remember that after In Cold Blood, he never published another major work. Out of career desperation as much as anything else, he sold out his friendships with these very people, publishing gossipy stories about them in an Esquire excerpt from Answered Prayers in 1976, and was banished from their lives.

"Infamous" is cobbled together from one of George Plimpton's books of quotations, with the precious title: Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career, and it feels similarly superficial and anecdotal. It covers the same period (1959-1965) as "Capote," from the Kansas murders of the Clutter family to the hanging of the killers, Smith and Dick Hickock. And, once again, the movie centers on the symbiotic relationship between Truman and Perry ( Daniel Craig , the next James Bond), pondering the extent of the seduction, and who seduced whom. Advertisement Did Perry really almost rape Truman in prison, as "Infamous" dramatizes? Or was this just one of the many variations on the story -- the artist's six-year struggle to write his masterpiece -- that Truman tried out on his friends? "Infamous" shows us the scene, but doesn't tell us where it came from, not even in cutaway "interviews" with some of the main characters, conducted in some indeterminate interstitial time-space set against a black-and-white abstract Manhattan skyline.

The "real" and the "fictional" get all mixed up. Toby Jones inhabits Truman as if he were to the character born, a livelier and more perversely ebullient man than Phillip Seymour Hoffman's version in "Capote." But writer-director Douglas McGrath (" Emma ") doesn't give the character shape or depth. Jones' Capote appears as a fascinating butterfly glimpsed in anecdotes, but not seen up close or in detail under the movie's magnifying glass. "Infamous" never finds its proper tone, which should have been set by the peacock performances of Jones and Stevenson -- flaming creatures who are comically flamboyant, self-possessed and just enough over the top to be dazzling. As Capote's fellow author and investigative collaborator Nelle Harper Lee, Sandra Bullock is robotic. When she shifts her eyes at a key moment in a scene, you can almost read the programming code that dictates the maneuver. Advertisement In the end, "Infamous" turns out to be the third-best movie built around the murders of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kan., in 1959.

Popular Blog Posts View All Photos (33) Movie Info Douglas McGrath's Infamous represents the second major biopic about the avant-garde belletrist Truman Capote to be released within a year. It thus tells roughly the same story as Bennett Miller's earlier Capote, recounting the events that belied the writer's six-year authorship of the seminal "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood. The story opens with Capote (Toby Jones) visiting the site of the 1959 Clutter family homicide, on a Kansas research trip, accompanied by his close friend and colleague, author Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock). As Capote settles into the community, McGrath uses the preponderance of screen time to explore the emotional tapestry of Capote's increasingly risky emotional attachment to one of the two murderers, Perry Edward Smith (Daniel Craig), with whom he senses more than a few common bonds.

McGrath weaves a decidedly bittersweet tale, contrasting the optimism and devil-may-care, "conquer all" attitude of Capote in his early years with a seemingly endless string of poor choices in the writer's later years, from addictions to drink and pills, to a failure to maintain healthy output as a writer, to poorly chosen romantic and sexual entanglements. Most significantly, however, McGrath reveals how the relationship with Smith virtually destroyed Capote as an artist and a human being, by inducing him to sell out on all levels to satisfy his lust for accomplishment and notoriety. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi Rating: R (for language, violence and some sexuality) Genre: Infamous (2006) - Movie | Moviefone Moviefone find it. watch it. search movies, tv, zip codes & more press enter to see all results More on Moviefone...

DVD Release Date: February 13th, 2007 R|1 hr 58 min Plot Summary In Kansas, with childhood friend Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock), author Truman Capote (Toby Jones) developed an intense and complex relationship with convicted killer Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) while researching what would become one of his greatest works, "In Cold Blood." Peter Bogdanovich as Bennett Cerf Ratings & Reviews Joe Morgenstern Wall Street Journal The film benefits from three splendid performances: Toby Jones as Capote, an aggressively gay elf exuding a tosspot charm; Sandra Bullock as Nelle Harper Lee, a novelist who uses spoken words with quiet precision, and Daniel Craig as Perry, a deluded monster who is nonetheless forthright and strong. show more 63 The film's most pleasing surprise is the beautifully nuanced portrait of Capote's confidante, "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee, by Sandra Bullock. You heard me. Bullock gives the film what it otherwise lacks: the ring of truth.

show more 75 Infamous Reviews - Metacritic 10 trishcMar 2, 2008 Hands down, "Infamous" is the superior movie. It is so entertaining in the beginning, paced just right -- back and forth from Kansas and New York in the middle, and explosive, devastatingly so at the end. The casting is almost perfect, except for the banal Hope Davis, and Toby Jones is -- well, Truman Capote!! 0 of 0 users found this helpful 10 BaileyDec 2, 2006 This is a GREAT film! It really is a shame the collective press so highly touted the other Capote effort, and now doesn't seem able to give this (far better) film it's due. If this had come out first, Tody Jones would have won as Oscar. Truman would have loved this film and hated the one which bears his name. 0 of 0 users found this helpful 10 HassanOct 17, 2006 Simply fantastic. Perhaps one of the best acted, best told stories of the year. Don't miss it. 0 of 0 users found this helpful 10 One of the better Capote depictions.

Toby Jones is fantastic! 0 of 0 users found this helpful 9 AnnyK.Apr 22, 2007 I didn't see "Capote" and I dont go to the cinema often, but this film contained all of the elements I enjoy in a movie experience, whilst easily accessible it none the less contained enough material to engender reflection on the human condition intersperced with some very humourous moments. The actors Toby Jones , Sandra Bullock and especially Daniel Craig provided some wonderful performances. 0 of 0 users found this helpful 8 BradleyFilm Apr 20, 2012 The best thing about 'Infamous' is the truly stellar cast that provides the performances that a story like this needs. Toby Jones and Sandra Bullock are the true standouts but there's further great support from the likes of Jeff Daniels, Sigourney Weaver and Daniel Craig. If you're a Gwyneth Paltrow fan she sings for about 3 minutes - though she is good. 0 of 0 users found this helpful00 0 TitoO.Feb 13, 2008 This was the worst movie I have ever seen.

I can't believe that someone actually tried to out due the original "Capote". It was an awful rendition and an embarrassment to the film industry. 0 of 0 users found this helpful You wait years for a good Capote film, then two come along at once - Telegraph You wait years for a good Capote film, then two come along at once David Gritten 12:01AM GMT 05 Jan 2007 David Gritten sympathises with Infamous director Douglas McGrath for being the victim of cruel coincidence In pictures: Infamous It's hard not to feel a twinge of sympathy for writer-director Douglas McGrath. He is the creator of Infamous, a film about the gay American author Truman Capote and the writing of his book In Cold Blood. Which would be fine had McGrath not been comprehensively beaten to the punch. Capote , another film covering exactly the same period of the author's life, was released in America late in 2005, and hardly slunk away unnoticed: it was nominated for five Oscars , with Philip Seymour Hoffman named best actor for his brilliant performance in the title role. McGrath sighs when the "other" Capote film is mentioned.

"I feel in the same predicament as the people who made the competing asteroid-hits-earth movies," he jokes gamely, referring to the 1998 films Armageddon and Deep Impact. There have also been competing Robin Hood adventures, Wyatt Earp westerns and erupting-volcano action flicks. Related Articles Court allows publishing of unseen In Cold Blood files 02 Dec 2014 Ominously, one film tends to be a big loser on such occasions; both timing of release and US box-office results suggest that Infamous is the underdog. But McGrath seriously insists he is not upset by the previous film. "All that matters to me is that I got to make the film I wanted to make. It would have upset me deeply if I hadn't been able to." Besides, McGrath feels Infamous is a substantially different film. Both films tell the story of Capote's journey to rural Kansas to write about four brutal murders, and of Capote's subsequent infatuation with one of the killers, Perry Smith (played in Infamous by Daniel Craig).

But McGrath used George Plimpton's oral history of the author as his primary source, whereas Dan Futterman's highly-praised script for Capote was based on the biography by Gerald Clarke. McGrath also delves into Capote's odd fascination with New York's high-society world, lunching and gossiping with the wealthy heiresses he called his "swans", played here by Sigourney Weaver, Juliet Stevenson and Isabella Rossellini. And, unlike Capote, which hinged on Capote's exploitation of Smith, Infamous looks at the writer's artistic and personal decline after In Cold Blood. The other major difference between the films is the portrayal of Capote himself. Hoffman, beefy and reasonably tall, looked nothing like the diminutive author, but in Infamous, the little-known British actor Toby Jones bears a striking resemblance. While some US critics have charged that Jones's performance comes close to impersonation, McGrath begs to differ. "No disrespect to Philip, but for me I got the most perfect Truman I could get. I'd never heard of Toby, but we couldn't have made the movie without him. People have asked who was my second choice. I had no second choice.

We'd have had to wait for someone else to be born. "Toby gives an amazing performance. I've never seen anyone work the way he does. He purely becomes the character. I've seen the film over and over, and, in scene after scene, he still brings tears to my eyes. He doesn't act it, he feels it. I've never seen it with an actor like that." McGrath, 48, has an intriguing CV. He was a staff writer for a year on the long-running American TV sketch show Saturday Night Live: "It was 1981, which I can safely say was the least funny year in the show's history." He is one of the few writers ever to collaborate with Woody Allen on a film, the witty, sophisticated Bullets Over Broadway (1994). He directed Gwyneth Paltrow (who has a cameo role in Infamous) in the film adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma (1996), and also brought a version of Nicholas Nickleby (2002) to the big screen. McGrath speaks carefully.

His syntax is as elegant as his dress; few directors these days wear a tweed jacket and a silk tie to an interview. He became intrigued by Capote the very year he was in New York working on SNL: "I saw him interviewed on TV by Dick Cavett, who gave him this extraordinary introduction – one of the greatest writers of his generation, and so forth. But when Capote came on, he was a terrible mess, and I thought, 'What happened?' His writing interested me enough to read about his life, and I loved Plimpton's oral history. "But what happened to him? It wasn't that it was hard to get the story. In some ways, Capote was as tough as nails. It was Perry. I believe he fell in love with him. I believe he felt closer to Perry Smith than any person in the world." McGrath is now hoping that Infamous will find an audience in Britain. "People seem interested in seeing both films to make comparisons, which pleases and surprises me." And he underlines the fact that when both films started shooting neither knew of the other's existence. "People have asked, how do I explain this coincidence?" he says, shaking his head ruefully.

"As if I could explain it." Infamous opens in the UK on January 19 Start your free 30 day Amazon Prime trial» Website: wip.warnerbros.com Content: (RoRo, PCPCPC, HoHoHo, AP, B, LLL, VVV, SS, N, A, D, MMM) Strong Romantic worldview with very strong, politically correct view of homosexuality and opposition to the Death Penalty for infamous murderers, plus some brief talk against American society and Americans and references to Psalm 23 as killers are executed; at least 42 mostly strong obscenities (including many "f" words and some crude sexual obscenities), one strong profanity and five light profanities; very strong violence with some blood includes shotgun murder, man's throat is slit, two other implied shotgun murders, discussion of two suicides, fighting, and angry man viciously grabs another man and stuffs rag in his mouth and threatens sodomy but no sodomy rape occurs; depicted heterosexual fornication in one scene, depicted homosexual kiss, man stops rape of teenage girl, angry man grabs another man and appears to threaten him with sodomy rape but that's not his intent, and some crude sexual references, including homosexual

 ones; upper female nudity in one sex scene and shots of upper male nudity; alcohol use; smoking; and, gossiping, lying, robbery, manipulation, jealousy, and author rewrites truth to make it sound better, but he is rebuked by his oldest friend (He ignores her rebukes, however, and does it anyway).

Summary: INFAMOUS is the second movie about homosexual author Truman Capote's investigation into four brutal murders in Kansas that led to Capote's Pulitzer Prize-winning book IN COLD BLOOD. INFAMOUS is not as well done as the earlier movie and contains plenty of foul language, graphic violence, depicted homosexual behavior, and a Romantic worldview with a very strong politically correct outlook. Review: INFAMOUS is another movie about homosexual author Truman Capote's investigation into four brutal murders in Kansas that led to Capote's Pulitzer Prize winning book IN COLD BLOOD. The book helped lead to the Supreme Court's ruling against the death penalty, which was eventually overturned. The movie is laced with fictional interviews with Capote's friends in New York. Like the previous movie, which was simply called CAPOTE, INFAMOUS leads off with a brief intro of Truman Capote's effeminate personality and high-pitched child's voice. Despite his bizarre voice, Capote was able to captivate crowds with his storytelling abilities and wry, often sarcastic and cruel, humor. INFAMOUS shows Capote, played by Toby Jones here, as being a master of getting and spreading gossip.

Capote travels to Kansas with his childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee (played by Sandra Bullock), the author of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. They're off to investigate the murders of the Clutter family for an article. At first, the townspeople and the police chief are put off by Capote's flamboyant nature and his silly-looking outfits. He tones down his outfits, but they still shun him, until they learn that he's worked with many Hollywood celebrities, including Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe. Capote decides that his material on the murders would make a great book, not just a great article. In writing the book, he wants to apply fictional storytelling techniques to a factual story. Then the two killers, Dick Hickock (Lee Pace) and Perry Smith (Daniel Craig), are caught, and Capote changes the focus of his book. Dick is anxious to tell his story, but Perry is reluctant. Perry pictures himself as an artistic type and is upset by an allegedly vicious interview article that Capote did with Marlon Brando, one of Perry's heroes. It turns out, however, that Perry and Capote have much in common, including Perry's latent homosexuality and the suicides of their respective mothers.

The question then becomes, does Capote fall in love with Perry or is he just exploiting Perry in order to finish his explosive book? INFAMOUS has a more entertaining, though shallow, beginning, but it is not as well done as the earlier movie. The actors do a good job, but they all do not quite match the high standards of CAPOTE. The personal psychology of the characters is not as convincing, either, though the townsfolk's obvious interest in Capote's celebrity stories is, even though it makes the people in Middle America appear somewhat shallow at times. The Capote in INFAMOUS is more conflicted than the Capote in the earlier movie. Thus, INFAMOUS suggests that, while the execution of the two killers would be a great conclusion to his book, Capote's personal feelings for Perry stand in the way. In that way, INFAMOUS becomes more of a politically correct excuse for Perry and Capote's homosexuality. The movie even suggests that Perry murdered the Clutter patriarch and his son because Dick mocked Perry's alleged homosexual feelings for the two men and goaded Perry into killing them.

Thus, homophobia is partly to blame for the brutal deaths of this family, not the perverted sexual desires of the two vicious killers (Richard wanted to rape the daughter, the movie says, but Perry wouldn't let him). The politically correct Romantic worldview of INFAMOUS ultimately is abhorrent, no matter how artistic the worldview is presented. Not only does it promote homosexuality, it also often makes a joke out of people's interest in the gossip that Capote likes to dish out. Finally, the movie also seems to be against the death penalty, even for vicious murderers. The Bible not only sees homosexuality as evil, it also supports the death penalty for first-degree murder, which is the intentional, malicious killing of an innocent human being. Some pro-life Christians argue against the death penalty, even for first-degree murder, but they are wrong. In fact, Numbers 35:31 says that the death penalty for convicted murderers in the first degree can never be set aside. Of course, the Bible also says that if someone deliberately convicts an innocent person of first degree murder and that person is put to death, then the person who knowingly convicts and executes such an innocent person is himself guilty of first-degree murder and must also be put to death.

Thus, supporting the death penalty for first-degree murder is itself a pro-life position. Overall, INFAMOUS is a more sympathetic portrait of both Capote and Perry Smith than the previous movie about this subject. As such, it offers viewers a Romantic, politically correct view of homosexuality and brutal murderers on Death Row. Although both movies eventually neglect the crime victims, INFAMOUS comes to immoral conclusions that are reflected by its Romantic worldview. The Clutters, the family that was murdered, deserve better. In Brief: INFAMOUS is the second movie about homosexual author Truman Capote's investigation into four brutal Kansas murders that led to the Pulitzer Prize-winning book IN COLD BLOOD. INFAMOUS leads off with a brief intro of Truman Capote's effeminate personality and high-pitched child's voice. Despite his bizarre voice, Capote was able to captivate crowds with his storytelling abilities and wry, often sarcastic and cruel, wit. INFAMOUS shows Capote, played by Toby Jones, as being a master of getting and spreading gossip. Capote travels to Kansas with his childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee (played by Sandra Bullock), the author of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

They're off to investigate the murders of the Clutter family. Capote ingratiates himself with the townspeople, but falls in love with one of the brutal killers, Perry Smith. INFAMOUS is not as well done as the earlier movie. The actors do a good job but do not match the high standards of CAPOTE. The personal psychology of the characters is not as convincing. Along with plenty of foul language, graphic violence and depicted homosexual behavior, INFAMOUS has a Romantic worldview with a very strong, politically correct view of homosexuality and killers. Infamous Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 171 out of 194 people found the following review useful: If Brussel Sprouts could talk from Dallas, Texas 27 September 2006 Greetings again from the darkness. What a unique film-going experience. Having the opportunity to see two takes on the same subject matter within a year or so is pretty rare in Hollywood. It happened most recently with "Tombstone" and the vastly inferior "Wyatt Earp". Rarely does it happen when both films are exceptionally well made and acted ... as is the case with last year's "Capote" and now, "Infamous".

First of all, you must understand that the films are actually based on different books. "Infamous" is based on George Plimpton's book in which he really tries to capture Truman Capote, the man and the genius. Because of this, director Douglas McGrath ("Nicholas Nickleby" and "Emma") utilizes some faux-interview segments, much like a "Biography" segment on television. Of course, both films center around the process of Capote researching and writing his masterpiece "In Cold Blood" based on the brutal slaying of a Kansas family in their farmhouse. They both also explore Capote's bizarre relationship with Perry Smith (played brilliantly here by the next James Bond, Daniel Craig). The sexual tension between the two is palpable, but we continue to question if Capote is merely manipulating Smith for the story or if, in fact, there is real substance to the attraction. We will never know if his reaction on death row is heartbreak or guilt. The mystery adds to the power of the story. The cast in this film is nothing short of spectacular.

From the opening moments with Gwyneth Paltrow portraying the great Peggy Lee in a melancholy stage moment to Sigourney Weaver, Hope Davis, Isabella Rossellini and Juliet Stevenson doing the twist, the actresses are terrific - as are their amazing costumes! In addition to Daniel Craig as Perry Smith, Lee Pace (as Dick Hickcock), Jeff Daniels as the sheriff and ("Last Picture Show" director) Peter Bogdanovich as Bennett Cerf, the actors are also top notch. Toby Jones as Truman Capote is much more flamboyant and colorful than the amazing performance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman last year. Many will try to compare, but what I say is, enjoy them both for their high level of artistry! Now for something I never thought I would put in writing. Sandra Bullock is extremely effective as Nelle Harper Lee (Capote's muse and of course, the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird"). Bullock usually flips her hair and bumbles all cutesy-like through her performances, but not here. She plays Ms. Lee straightforward and tough, just like the real thing. How wonderful.

Yes, the story is still heart-wrenching, but "Infamous" provides much more levity, humor and color than the more somber "Capote". Both are wonderful films with excellent casts. Enjoy them both as fine film-making seems to be a rare commodity these days. Was the above review useful to you? 134 out of 153 people found the following review useful: I saw Capote and I saw Infamous. Infamous captured my impression of "In Cold Blood" when I read it many, many years ago. from Reston, VA 8 October 2006 When I saw "Capote" I was really impressed by the presentation of the story and the quality of the acting. When I saw "Infamous" today, I was caught up with the story in a way I had not been before. It was closer to the experience when I read the book many,many years ago. "In Cold Blood" is about killing human beings, and I believe that it is no more right for cold blooded murders to do it than for me do do it as a member of society that authorizes the death penalty.

I believe that the film as well as the book makes people think about this issue The cast was superb, and I said the same about the earlier rendition, but this time the characters were fully developed and believable under the circumstances. I had been impressed before, but this film is different from the last--it is more emotional, more detailed in rendition of the characters, and more interested in showing not just the destruction of Truman Capote, but in sharing the ideas that he expressed in "In Cold Blood". When I was growing up (I am 62 now) I recall that I did not like Capote when I saw him on talk shows repeatedly. I really knew nothing of gay culture or what even that meant at the time, so it had nothing to do with the sexual orientation. It had to do with the ego that was constantly expressed and realted to nothing that I really cared about. But what was incredibly important to me then and now is that we can lose track of the fact that we are all human beings, a point that was stressed in the film. Killers may be killers, but they are us, in a way, filled with some of the same ambitions, hates, emotions that most of us can control.

What separates us from them might not be very much, so why do we need to kill them as they jailed their victims? It is easy to kill, but not so easy to try to understand. This film hits an emotional level that the previous film did not. I am pleased that it ultimately was made. I am also pleased that the quality of the performances, the writing and most especially the direction, were so superb. Watch the scene where the farmer speaks only to Harper Lee and not Capote. It is an incredible monologue, but the circumstances are noted. Was the above review useful to you? 121 out of 153 people found the following review useful: Capote in Kansas Redux; A very good film, but not quite up to "Capote" from Portland, Oregon, United States 11 October 2006 Writer-director Douglas McGrath's new film about Truman Capote and the creation of his most famous book, "In Cold Blood," is full of contradictions and contrasts when compared with its predecessor, the 2005 film "Capote," that covers the same five-year period. Perhaps this is fitting.

There may be some justice in the fact that these two filmic accounts of how Capote researched material for his magnum opus disagree significantly in emphasis and purported events. After all, Capote used fictional methods to embellish - some might say falsify - his journalistic reportage on the murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. If the screenplays for these two films tell differing stories of Capote's experience, does it matter if one is closer to the truth than the other? Or that we can't be sure - indeed, will never know - what actually occurred during many of the encounters between Capote, who was famous for fabricating yarns about his own life, and others out in Holcomb so long ago? The films are each based on separate biographical accounts. "Capote" was adapted from Gerald Clarke's 1988 biography bearing the same title.

"Infamous" is based on George Plimpton's 1997 book, "Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career," an account presented as a sequence of quotes from interviews Plimpton conducted with more than 150 people who knew Capote. "Infamous" is far kinder to Capote than the earlier film, portraying him as quite clearly enamored of the killer Perry Smith (an ardor fully requited by Smith) and deeply anguished when Smith is executed. "Capote" depicts the author as more conniving, manipulative and disingenuous, willing to say or do anything to get Smith to spill his story, and withholding of possible interventions he - Capote - might have made to further delay or avert the executions of Smith and his accomplice, Dick Hickock. In "Capote" the author's erotic attraction to Smith is more muted, hinted at, not acted upon.

Indeed, "Infamous" is in general more explicit and direct in its portrayals, often more graphic if you will, than "Capote." Besides kisses and embraces between Capote and Smith, other scenes not covered in "Capote" include moments of violence when Smith virtually attacks Capote in his cell. We also witness the murders of the Clutters and Hickock's execution by hanging, including the protracted interval during which his body remains vertically suspended until he is finally declared dead by the attending physician. There are other differences, for example, Capote's bid to establish rapport with the local Sheriff, Alvin Dewey, is depicted as much more problematic in "Infamous" than in "Capote." A plus for "Infamous" is its attention to Capote's relationships with a covey of New York society women known as his "swans," their adulation of him, his ability to coax them into sharing their secrets for his later use as gossip fodder. But, again, McGrath employs a graphic style to introduce us to these women, and several others in Capote's social circle, namely, the use of large white name titles as we first meet each, documentary style.

I find it impossible to resist comparing acting performances in the two productions. The more nuanced, oblique style of "Capote" is realized not only through its general avoidance of graphic scenes but in the greater subtlety of the two central actors' performances. In "Infamous," the English character actor Toby Jones physically resembles Capote more than does his counterpart in "Capote," Philip Seymour Hoffman. Both actors offer convincing personifications in voice and style. But I lean toward Hoffman's as the more complex, accomplished turn, characterized by critic Shawn Levy as "note-perfect." Levy goes on, "The wheezy laugh, the pain of work, the prying nature, the cold eye, the self-obsession, the ability to perform and ingratiate and wheedle - it's Capote you're watching up there " The brilliant English actor Daniel Craig gives a forceful, indeed galvanizing, performance as the killer, Perry Smith. But I think his mercurial, intensely melodramatic interpretation of his character is less convincing than his counterpart in "Capote," Clifton Collins, Jr.

Collins's Smith is more introverted, by turns chilling or vulnerable to be sure, but for the most part quietly opaque, subdued, soulfully melancholic. For me this depiction is the more compelling and believable. Other key performances are well delivered in both films: Catherine Keener ("Capote") and Sandra Bullock ("Infamous") as Harper Lee, though I liked Ms. Bullock's turn better; Chris Cooper ("Capote") and Jeff Daniels ("Infamous") as Sheriff Dewey. Capote's "swans" in "Infamous" are delightfully played by Sigourney Weaver, Juliet Stevenson, Hope Davis and Isabella Rossellini. So we have two versions of the story of Capote's adventures in Kansas: both strong films, well cast, worthwhile. I think "Capote" is the better film because of its more subtle approach and the performances of the two central actors. As for realism in the interpretation of Truman Capote's character, perhaps the two portrayals taken together triangulate on the "real" Capote, a complex, convoluted personality as worthy of our sympathy as our contempt.

My grades: 8/10 (high B+) (Seen on 10/10/06) Was the above review useful to you? 93 out of 104 people found the following review useful: A Third Powerful Look at the Murder of the Clutter Family from Alexandria, VA 13 October 2006 Truman Capote may be unique among recent celebrities to have two excellent films made about his life. Just a year after Phillip Seymour Hoffman's mesmerizing performance in "Capote," Toby Jones does a fine, if more expected, impersonation of the author of "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's." With the razor sharp wit and effete mannerisms more focused than they were in "Capote," Jones, in Douglas McGrath's "Infamous," is a more vulnerable Truman and is unquestionably in love with one of the Clutter family killers, Perry Smith. Although ostensibly a drama, "Infamous" is replete with Capote's celebrated wit, and the one-liners, which are often sexual in nature, are welcome relief from the heavier scenes. However, "Infamous" is at heart a love story, or rather two, love stories.

The first romance is between Truman Capote and his coterie of largely female socialite friends, with whom he gossips and parties and self adulates. The second, much deeper love story, between Capote and Smith, begins as Capote explores Smith's background and family history. Although their relationship, which the film implies was more than platonic, develops within the confines of prison, the two men connect through similar personal tragedies in their childhoods. Smith, well played by Daniel Craig, was at least bisexual or even gay, according to McGrath's screenplay. Although a subliminal connection between the two killers was suggested in both the films "In Cold Blood" and "Capote," in this film Dick Hickock, Smith's partner in the Clutter killings, recognizes Perry's orientation and taunts him with it. Although a bevy of well-known performers threatens to undercut the realism of the drama with a game of "isn't that so and so?," the acting rises above star cameos and blends seamlessly into the whole. In fact, the familiar faces aid in maintaining recognition of the parade of celebrities, such as Babs Paley, Gore Vidal, and Harper Lee that surrounded Capote in life.

Borrowing a technique from Warren Beatty's "Reds," McGrath effectively uses witnesses that talk to the camera about Truman as though being interviewed at some later date. Surprisingly, these interview segments do not interrupt the flow of the drama and enhance rather than detract from the film's power. And powerful it is. Although the execution scenes have been filmed twice before, Truman's parting from the killers and the actual hangings remain almost unbearable to watch. Although two films have preceded this one and related essentially the same story, "Infamous" stands as a worthy addition to what is now a trilogy on the Clutter family murders (1967's "In Cold Blood," 2005's "Capote," 2006's "Infamous"). Surprisingly, each film is equally engrossing and brings its own viewpoint to the story. Like different facets of a prism or a three-film version of "Rashomon," the tale of Truman Capote's reportage of the murders retains its fascination and the enigma of Capote's relationship with the killers. Rarely have three such powerful, outstanding films been made from the same subject matter. Was the above review useful to you?

84 out of 110 people found the following review useful: INFAMOUS outshines Capote from United States 30 September 2006 Infamous is by far the better movie about Truman Capote. I saw this film in Venice where the audience gave it a 15 minute standing ovation. There is a lot that is brilliant about this film. The cast is perfect. This film shows us more characters than the previous movie and each is played beautifully by a highly competent actor. INFAMOUS is one of the most effective and unique films I have seen in a long time. It treats its' subject with humor but also with emotional depth. I was moved by Truman's journey. His relationship with Perry Smith is complex and heartbreaking. Daniel Craig rides a thin line between sympathetic and dangerous. He is a truly gifted artist. Doug McGrath's film-making is brave and true to itself in every way. Toby Jones is the perfect Truman. I was unfamiliar with him as an actor and totally surprised by his amazing, seamless performance. I'm telling you, Toby Jones is Oscar material. Was the above review useful to you?

74 out of 94 people found the following review useful: Aliens and Humans from Italy 10 September 2006 It could be a work of fiction. Just like the factual novel of Truman Capote. For maximum enjoyment one should forget last years "Capote". Like so many other things in modern pop culture the same stories can be told countless times, the versions vary but at its center there is a truth that its stranger than fiction. Truman Capote is like an alien visiting our planet, his intellect allows him to see beyond our limitations and his need to belong to be accepted transforms him into one of the greatest manipulators of all time. Toby Jones is extraordinary. There is no performance other that Capote's own daily performance to charm and seduce everyone who has anything he needs. He seems him quiver when his rapport with Perry King takes unexpected erotic turns. There is real sexual tension in their scenes together. I believed it, Perry King I mean, I believe that he felt compelled and attracted by this tiny,famous,alien celebrity. Daniel Craig is superb and his character has the power to get under our skin without betraying the brutal side of his nature. What Capote felt is another story.

He lies so blatantly, so beautifully that it's impossible to tell, maybe even Capote himself couldn't tell. Doug McGrath's version of the events is funnier, more entertaining and certainly more theatrical that last year's version that I've advised you to forget - The advise is heartfelt but difficult to put into practice - Sandra Bullock, Juliet Stevenson, Sigourney Weaver and Isabella Rossellini contribute to the fun and to the theatrical feel of "Infamous" If you're a sucker for pop culture and who isn't? Run to see it. Was the above review useful to you? 53 out of 65 people found the following review useful: Brilliant from New York, NY 17 October 2006 Forget Capote! This film blows Bennett Miller's version out of the water. Not to take anything away from the Hoffman performance, but Toby Jones is incredible as the late Truman Capote making me understand his pain and love and guilt for Perry Smith and his demise. This was all accomplished from a legitimately real place, not some "pull-my-heartstrings-Ron-Howard- music-swells" sort of way.

The scene after he returns from his liason with Perry and the shift of emotions we see in Jones' face is reminiscent of Diane Lane's "train sequence" in Unfaithful. Incredible. And Sandra Bullock...where have you been hiding? Please Academy, do not be afraid to honor this film so close to its predecessor. Was the above review useful to you? 48 out of 63 people found the following review useful: Tender and Terrible 30 September 2006 "There will be time to murder and create." T.S. Eliot's Prufrock Truman Capote described murderer Perry Smith as between the "tender and the terrible." Such may be said about writer/director Douglas McGrath's superior Infamous, a tale of Truman Capote's (Toby Jones) love affair with his innovative novelization, In Cold Blood, and its protagonist,Perry Smith (Daniel Graig). The tender is Capote's love of his female friends, especially Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock) and Smith (DanielCraig), and the terrible slaughter of the Kansas farm family in 1959 by Smith and friend Dick Hickock (Lee Pace).

Inevitable as accusing Toby Jones of only imitating Capote is the comparison with Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar performance of the titular author in Capote (1955). Jones's turn is more complex than Hoffman's, alternating between Capote's imaginative connection with the crime and his growing respect, even love, for Smith. In fact, the well-known love between the men is avoided in Capote but highlighted in Infamous. I was hooked in the first sequence, when Gwyneth Paltrow as Peggy Lee sings "What is this thing called love?" and breaks down in apparent awareness of her own losses. The song, perfect for the themes of the film, and the film's score carry a melancholy with them that McGrath captures in Tru's constantly frustrated search for truth and love and Lee's inability to pen another novel after her Pulitzer-Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird. For that matter, Capote never completes a significant piece after that himself. Last year's Capote seemed centered on the conflict in Truman over whether or not he was exploiting Smith to get a story and then never fully engaging a campaign to free them.

This year's Infamous (a poor title regardless of it double artistic appropriateness) is more interested in Truman's struggle to write a new kind of fiction (docudrama) and his true affection for Smith. Infamous fleshes out the story and the fabulous artist whose "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "In Cold Blood" are cultural staples of 20th century life. Was the above review useful to you? 45 out of 60 people found the following review useful: A different view from Texas, USA 28 September 2006 Infamous has a difficult comparison with the earlier "Capote." Still it is a different view of the same story and characters and is written with more emphasis on the perspectives of those who knew, or thought they knew, Capote. Toby Jones may not fully match the nuanced performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman but he does, possibly, a better imitation of Capote. Infamous has a better known cast of supporting players and they do a creditable job.

Sandra Bullock's Harper Lee isn't the quite same as that portrayed so well by Catherine Keener in "Capote" but her character blends perfectly with the tone of "Infamous." Daniel Craig adds another fine acting turn as the "In Cold Blood" killer who receives the most attention. Even Gwyneth Paltrow makes an excellent impression in a brief opening scene as, apparently, singer Peggy Lee. (In the showing I saw, she was introduced as "Kitty Dean???") I wondered why another version of this story was filmed and it may not do well after the success of "Capote" but I was surprisingly entertained and intrigued by this movie. Was the above review useful to you? 36 out of 61 people found the following review useful: Pretty nice from Sacile, Italy 1 September 2006 I just saw this movie at the Venice Film Festival. I pretty liked it. It's not a masterpiece and sometimes it's hard to not compare with the other "Capote" movie. This one, anyhow, is funnier than the other one and some director's choices are interesting.

The cast is terrific (from Toby Jones to a surprising Sandra Bullock, to the enjoyable female supportings to Lee Pace and Daniel Craig) and the technical credits are more than stellar. The screenplay sometimes is a little clichéd but nothing disturbing. The 5-minute cheeres at the end of the screening (with Bullock, Jones, McGrath, Toniolo among others in attendance) proves I was not the only one who liked it. Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 11: 'Infamous' Fails Where 'Capote' Succeeded : NPR 'Infamous' Fails Where 'Capote' Succeeded Embed Embed 'Infamous' Fails Where 'Capote' Succeeded 'Infamous' Fails Where 'Capote' Succeeded Embed Embed Toby Jones stars as Truman Capote, with Sigourney Weaver as Babe Paley. Warner Bros. Entertainment hide caption toggle caption Toby Jones stars as Truman Capote, with Sigourney Weaver as Babe Paley. Warner Bros. Entertainment Infamous tells the story of Truman Capote as he wrote In Cold Blood.

If that sounds familiar, it's because a movie about the exact same thing came out a year ago, and it was a better film. STEVE INSKEEP, host: Now, one of the most celebrated films of last year's awards season was Capote, nominated for five Oscars and winner of Best Actor for Philip Seymour Hoffman. The new film Infamous is telling that story again. Los Angeles Times and MORNING EDITION film critic Kenneth Turan has our review. KENNETH TURAN: Everyone knows comparisons are odious, but in the case of Infamous and Capote, they are also inevitable. Both films cover exactly the same period in author Truman Capote's life. Infamous was held out of release for a year to put some distance between the two films. Even a year, however, isn't long enough to disguise the gap in quality between the two. Capote not only did it first, it did it considerably better. Infamous, written and directed by Douglas McGrath, would be frustrating in almost all areas even if Capote had never been made. That failure is not due to lack of ambition.

McGrath has tried a difficult maneuver, a change in tone that he himself describes as a shift from light to dark, from comic to tragic. (Soundbite of movie "Infamous") Unidentified Woman (Actress): (As character): What about Terry? Mr. TOBY JONES (Actor): (As Truman Capote): It's Perry. As in Antoinette? He's an enigma. You know, before he killed the Cutter boy, he put a pillow under his head? I can't quite put my finger on it. It seems insane to say that he's tender, but he does have the tender and the terrible side by side inside him. TURAN: The difficulty is that the first half of Infamous, which attempts to draw humor from Capote's flamboyant persona, is nowhere near as comic as McGrath intends. Instead, the picture's look at New York high society gives off a tone of arch stylization that plays as artificial and overwrought. Neither the seriousness of the second half, nor the vivid performance by Daniel Craig as killer Perry Smith, can rescue or renew it. Part of the problem is the casting of elfin British actor Toby Jones as Capote.

The actor looks like the writer to a remarkable extent. But the resemblance seems to have encouraged Jones to fall back into a kind of weird impersonation that verges on caricature. It also makes a hash of Capote's legendary ability to charm one and all. The only section where Infamous achieves the gravitas it is after is in it's portrayal of Perry Smith, the killer Capote formed an emotional attachment to. As played by Daniel Craig, slated to be the next James Bond, Smith comes across as a chilling, dark force. His interactions with Capote have a more dangerous edge than they did in the previous film. (Soundbite of movie "Infamous") Mr. JONES: (As Capote) Perry, I never judge my characters. Mr. DANIEL CRAIG (Actor): (As Perry Smith) Well, here's something for you to remember, all one hundred percent of: I am not a character. I'm a human being. TURAN: Craig's work is strong. But without the appropriate foundation to build on, it can't rescue the film.

When one character says about Capote's book on the murders that the writing lacked kindness, it's something that could be said, to its loss, about this film as well. INSKEEP: Kenneth Turan reviews movies, infamous and otherwise, for MORNING EDITION and the Los Angeles Times. Copyright © 2006 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Question: The film 'Infamous' is about which author?
Answer: Truman Capote