Monday, March 28, 2011

Camelot Revisited: The Creators of "The Kennedys" Speak Out - NYTimes.com:
"Is it fair to say that all biographical films have to rely on a certain amount of reconstruction, and creating scenes where there’s no record of what was said or what occurred?

KRONISH Of course. For example, the scenes between Jack and Jackie in the bedroom, where nobody knows exactly what was said, but we do know what the attitudes were and we do know, for example, that she knew about several of his affairs and was deeply distressed by them, but she stayed with him. Although she would periodically leave, she would always return. We know that. That is historical fact. And so we used those facts to create scenes that had that basis in mind. You’re compressing 50-odd years of a family’s history into eight hours. That compression is going to have to show somewhere. It doesn’t mean that the facts are changed or invented."

I think when you "create scenes" that is kind of equivalent to "invented". I would just like for once to see a bio-pic where not one scene is invented, not one conversation is "imagined". If you cannot or will not do that, then you must not use real names or claim any sort of veracity to your film or book. Because everyone who sees this will believe that ALL the scenes really happened. And that is wrong.

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