Emdashes—Modern Times Between the Lines
The Basics:
About Emdashes | Email us
Ask the Librarians
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
Infamous (Almost) and the Ransom Note Approach
Filed under: X-Rea: Irvin Type Watch Tagged: Maud Newton, Rea Irvin, Truman Capote
I saw Infamous, the “other” movie about Capote, tonight, and I must say I liked it. I happened to get a gander at the movie poster and got a snootful of faux Irvin font! So close, close, close. It’s clearly not quite Irvin—and equally clearly, intended to evoke same.
T’other day I linked to a 2003 post on Maud Newton’s sharp media blog; if you look at her masthead image, you’ll see some authentic Irvin font peeking back at you. —Martin Schneider
Comments
I’m so glad someone saw it! I liked Capote a lot; I liked Infamous better. But it never stood a chance as the second release, especially with that awful title. People should Netflix it.
Capote is an excellent movie, and its ambitions (I think) led it to a very specific flaw, which is that it was much too hard on Truman; its guiding logic precluded it from granting In Cold Blood even a jot of redemptive value. That is to say, Truman has to be using those boys, he has to be a vampire. If you stop and say, “Hey, is some small degree of vampirism worth it if you produce a work of art as great as ICB?” the movie just about falls apart. So despite its high accomplishment, I sort of thought there was a lie at the heart of Capote.
So because of all that, I was highly predisposed to enjoy Infamous, a far more modest movie—not a great movie—but one clearly intent on not succumbing to that particular flaw. There were a lot of good things in it.
You know what everyone should see, also? Joe Gould’s Secret. I’m a fan.