True Stories 41: 10s—Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Maybe I liked this film so much because it was about a writer. I suppose that’s possible. But I think it’s more than that.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? [2018] by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, tells the true story of Lee Israel, a writer of biographies of the actress Tallulah Bankhead, the journalist Dorothy Kilgallen and the beauty businesswoman, Estée Lauder. None of the biographies were huge bestsellers and the one on Lauder, the one she thought would bring her name back into consideration to write other biographies, was competing with an autobiography Lauder would publish shortly after Israel’s biography of her. In fact, Lauder’s lawyers tried to buy Israel off—to pay her not to publish her book. They didn’t want anything competing with Lauder’s version of her life. But Israel answered their request by rushing her biography to publication even faster—so that she’d have more of a jump on the market before Lauder’s version came out.

But nothing worked for Israel. She couldn’t get arrested.

Take a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvJIaNsf_bY

So she becomes a criminal… to pay the rent. It begins by accident—she owns a letter from Fanny Brice and has to sell it or face eviction. When she sells it, she’s dismayed at the small amount of money she’s offered. Then the clerk tells her that if the letter was more interesting, she could offer more. This is the first Israel learns that the content of a letter can affect its value. And this starts her on her illicit journey.

On another famous letter, she adds a P.S. that’s written in the style of the writer—and that makes it worth a lot more. Eventually, she’s writing entire letters from well-known famous people. And she’s having fun with it! I mean, think about it. How easy is it to understand a writer’s style so completely that you could write a letter in their style and it would be recognizably them?

So the film was interesting—and fun—just from the POV of the writer working to write in the style of other writers. But the other element of the film that was powerful was the look it gave us into the life of Israel. And it wasn’t a happy life. Things didn’t go well for her. Like a lot of people, she didn’t have lots of friends—or hardly any, in fact—and life just wasn’t treating her well. She drank too much, smoked too much, and was, simply, unhappy.

How do you build a film around such a person? In fact, I marvel that this film ever got made! The idea of having a main character like Lee Israel would put most studios off. Why? Because likability is often a prerequisite for a main character. But it doesn’t have to be.

If you have a story to tell about an unlikable character like Israel, study this film. It shows how you can get inside their life and open up the story so that it’s intriguing and appealing.

Next week, another very intriguing film, BlacKkKlansman.

Copyright © Diane Lake

26Mar23

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com