h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just got back yesterday from another weekend in Bath. I caught my usual train and my girlfriend met me at the station when I arrived. We crammed in a quick lunch in town and headed up to campus for the afternoon. Friday evening was mostly spent polishing shoes and ironing shirts in preparation for the wedding on Saturday. It was fortunate that one of my girlfriend’s housemates had some of her friends over for the weekend. She’d cooked a huge vat of really tasty curry (a Nigella Lawson recipe I believe) and invited us to eat with them saving us the trouble of defrosting something for ourselves.

The wedding on Saturday was really lovely. I like weddings and this is the first one I’ve been to in ages! The whole day was at a place called Priston Mill, an 18th century barn that has been overhauled and renovated to convert it into a venue for private parties (mostly weddings I think) and corporate entertainment. The building was really pretty and, given the weather, it was nice to be able to stay in one place for the whole day.

The ceremony was very nice. It was quite short and functional as is the case with civil ceremonies in my experience, but there were a couple of nice readings which were really appropriate for the couple added a personal touch. Afterwards we were all well fed at the wedding breakfast and enjoyed ourselves dancing until late. There was an impressive fireworks display as a surprise at about ten o’clock and after that we all enjoyed bacon and sausage baguettes (a brilliant touch in my humble opinion).

On Sunday I got up late and went for a long run, then relaxed for the afternoon before going out for dinner to celebrate our “sort of” anniversary (it’s “sort of” complicated). We’d planned on going to one of the remaining new Italian restaurants in Bath (if you can still call them new) that we haven’t been to yet, strangely they were closed on Sunday and Monday, but we ended up having a lovely meal at a Thai restaurant instead.

I stayed over for an extra day so that I could pop into the department on Monday and speak to my boss. I feel like I’m loosing my way a little with my thesis and I needed to bit of a chat (and something of a kick up the backside) to get myself motivated again.

Anyway, since I was around for an extra evening we decided to go to the cinema. We saw Capote with Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film focuses on the seven years of the author Truman Capote’s life while he researched and wrote In Cold Blood, the last novel he ever completed. For anyone who doesn’t know (and having not read the book, I didn’t really know) In Cold Blood is about the gruesome murders of the Clutter family in Kansas in 1959. Capote researched the book religiously and had extensive interviews with one of the killers, Perry Smith.

Hoffman’s performance is brilliant. Aside from the obvious challenges of the role, the almost cartoon voice and the fact that Hoffman is far taller than Capote (dealt with by the magic of modern special effects), Hoffman plays a wonderfully understated Capote. Everything from the way he holds a martini glass to a simple gesture while telling a story at a cocktail party is precisely carried out. I’ve long been a fan of Hoffman as an actor and this movie only serves to reinforce my esteem.

The portrayal of Capote is also admirably candid. It is often touching to see him empathising with and even befriending the killer Perry Smith, but it is made clear, though it is not forced down our throats, that Capote is really only interested in writing his novel and will exploit and lie to his “friend” to get to the truth. There is a wonderful scene where Capote, who is quite drunk, complains to his friend and research assistant Nelle Harper Lee (of To Kill a Mockingbird fame) that he is unable to finish his book because the story doesn’t yet have an ending. He means of course that he has almost the entire story, but the book cannot be finished until the two killers are executed. He describes the wait as torture, much to the disgust of Lee. Later, when Smith requests that Capote be present at his execution because he wanted to have a “friend” there, it is only after being bullied and cajoled by Lee that Capote eventually capitulates.

The director allows a small explanation of Capote’s behaviour towards Smith. The real turning point in their relationship, when Capote all but abandons Smith, comes when Smith finally reveals the details of the crime, though whether Capote shuns Smith because he was sickened to hear that Smith was truly guilty of the horrific crimes or simply because he had outlived his usefulness is left up to the viewer to decide.

Nevertheless the film’s epitaph relates how deeply affected Capote was by the experience of writing In Cold Blood. He never completed another book and descended into alcoholism and drug addiction and eventually died from a drug overdose. The implication is that he never quite managed to get over the guilt he felt for wanting the two killers to be given the death penalty.

Capote is an excellent film albeit mostly because of Hoffman’s outstanding performance which is entirely worthy of the Best Actor Oscar it earned him.

I got back to West Bromwich yesterday afternoon. There’s only a handful of days until next weekend when my girlfriend will be coming here for a few days so I’m going to try and get my head down and get some work done in the next couple of days.