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How can a feature film about Amanda Knox ring more true than the news? How can a feature film about Amanda Knox ring more true than the news?
(7 days later)
Next week, in Rome, Italy’s highest court will start considering a final appeal by Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox against their re-conviction 14 months ago for the 2007 murder of English student, Meredith Kercher. Next week, in the UK, a film by director Michael Winterbottom, The Face of an Angel, will be released in cinemas, taking this notorious case as its inspiration.Next week, in Rome, Italy’s highest court will start considering a final appeal by Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox against their re-conviction 14 months ago for the 2007 murder of English student, Meredith Kercher. Next week, in the UK, a film by director Michael Winterbottom, The Face of an Angel, will be released in cinemas, taking this notorious case as its inspiration.
It doesn’t seem at all comfortable, this juxtaposition of an ongoing process of justice against a cinematic confection. What’s really uncomfortable, however, is that Winterbottom’s fictionalised film, which includes a number of fantasy sequences, offers a much more truthful account of the case than the speculative contentions of investigators, both criminal and journalistic.It doesn’t seem at all comfortable, this juxtaposition of an ongoing process of justice against a cinematic confection. What’s really uncomfortable, however, is that Winterbottom’s fictionalised film, which includes a number of fantasy sequences, offers a much more truthful account of the case than the speculative contentions of investigators, both criminal and journalistic.
The many people around the world who have developed an obsession with the Kercher case, indefatigable in their assertion of the guilt or the innocence of Sollecito and Knox, are the people who are likely to appreciate this film the least. Even the title tricks them. In the “factual” media, it’s Amanda Knox who has the “face of an angel”. In the film, it’s Meredith Kercher. Or Elizabeth Pryce, in the movie’s version, as opposed to Jessica Fuller. All names have been changed, even that of the town; the film is set not in Perugia, but in Siena.The many people around the world who have developed an obsession with the Kercher case, indefatigable in their assertion of the guilt or the innocence of Sollecito and Knox, are the people who are likely to appreciate this film the least. Even the title tricks them. In the “factual” media, it’s Amanda Knox who has the “face of an angel”. In the film, it’s Meredith Kercher. Or Elizabeth Pryce, in the movie’s version, as opposed to Jessica Fuller. All names have been changed, even that of the town; the film is set not in Perugia, but in Siena.
In the film, the facts that remain are the central and indisputable ones: A young girl was violently killed and the seeking of justice for her was served up to the world as speculative entertainment. The protagonist, a man who is trying to make a film about the story himself (not Winterbottom), asks the journalists that he relies on for help in doing so: “Don’t you worry that the stuff you make up makes getting a fair trial harder?” But while the role of the media in whipping up the idea of Knox/Fuller as murderer or victim is lambasted in the film, Winterbottom makes no overt argument for either contention.In the film, the facts that remain are the central and indisputable ones: A young girl was violently killed and the seeking of justice for her was served up to the world as speculative entertainment. The protagonist, a man who is trying to make a film about the story himself (not Winterbottom), asks the journalists that he relies on for help in doing so: “Don’t you worry that the stuff you make up makes getting a fair trial harder?” But while the role of the media in whipping up the idea of Knox/Fuller as murderer or victim is lambasted in the film, Winterbottom makes no overt argument for either contention.
The care that Winterbottom has taken to honour Kercher’s memory is obvious. Ever since it was announced that he was going to make a film based on the case, there have been suggestions that such a thing would be exploitative or crass, inevitably an error of taste and judgment. There’s a basic riposte to such critics in the film itself. When one of the journalists inquires about the suitability of the case for a movie script, the film-maker replies: “You think you’re the only one who’s allowed to make money from this story?”The care that Winterbottom has taken to honour Kercher’s memory is obvious. Ever since it was announced that he was going to make a film based on the case, there have been suggestions that such a thing would be exploitative or crass, inevitably an error of taste and judgment. There’s a basic riposte to such critics in the film itself. When one of the journalists inquires about the suitability of the case for a movie script, the film-maker replies: “You think you’re the only one who’s allowed to make money from this story?”
It’s a crude point, but a telling one. Why the conniptions at the idea of a fictionalised drama about the case, when so much of the reportage was dramatic fiction anyway? All sorts of rumours were reported as facts in the case against Knox and Sollecito, like the unfounded one that had them in a shop buying lots of bleach on the morning after the murder. Those fictions are more dangerous than fictions contained within a film, because they are latched on to and repeated as facts, having been in a newspaper, in a way that Winterbottom’s signposting does not. It’s a crude point, but a telling one. Why the conniptions at the idea of a fictionalised drama about the case, when so much of the reportage was dramatic fiction anyway? All sorts of rumours were reported as facts in the case against Knox and Sollecito, like the unfounded one that had them in a shop buying lots of bleach on the morning after the murder. Those fictions are more dangerous than fictions contained within a film, because they are latched on to and repeated as facts, having been in a newspaper, in a way that Winterbottom’s signposting does not.
Anyway, lots of books have been written about the case. Why is a film so different? In part, the squeamishness comes from the literal idea that the crime itself will necessarily be portrayed and that even if it isn’t, some living person will be called upon to give an interpretation or representation of someone who is dead. Also, the tendency is to consider film or television drama as entertainment, not art. Winterbottom’s contention, achieved in the film, is that, in some cases, especially this one, as one of the journalists in the film asserts: “You can’t tell the truth unless you make it a fiction.”Anyway, lots of books have been written about the case. Why is a film so different? In part, the squeamishness comes from the literal idea that the crime itself will necessarily be portrayed and that even if it isn’t, some living person will be called upon to give an interpretation or representation of someone who is dead. Also, the tendency is to consider film or television drama as entertainment, not art. Winterbottom’s contention, achieved in the film, is that, in some cases, especially this one, as one of the journalists in the film asserts: “You can’t tell the truth unless you make it a fiction.”
Years ago, I remember the critic Paul Morley commenting on Winterbottom’s film about Factory Records, 24-Hour Party People, saying that even though barely a scene in the film got the facts right, he couldn’t imagine any depiction ever portraying the spirit of that time and place more accurately. Since then, Winterbottom has made a number of films based on real events or people. This one can be seen in part as a meditation on the challenges and responsibilities such an endeavour entails.Years ago, I remember the critic Paul Morley commenting on Winterbottom’s film about Factory Records, 24-Hour Party People, saying that even though barely a scene in the film got the facts right, he couldn’t imagine any depiction ever portraying the spirit of that time and place more accurately. Since then, Winterbottom has made a number of films based on real events or people. This one can be seen in part as a meditation on the challenges and responsibilities such an endeavour entails.
Feature films often make facts into stories, fashioning a narrative arc that real life has no awareness of. Sometimes, this can be uncomfortable. Eyebrows have been raised at American Sniper, for example, in which Bradley Cooper portrayed the dead US Navy Seal Chris Kyle, and which was released worldwide before the trial of his killer, Eddie Ray Routh, was over. Clint Eastwood’s film was based on a book by Kyle himself, and with the co-operation of his family, so you could argue that this was fine because it was based on a portrayal that Kyle himself had been happy with. But that was the problem with the film. It offered a highly partial view of historical events, as seen through the eyes of one protagonist. It was entirely partial, as individual stories tend to be.Feature films often make facts into stories, fashioning a narrative arc that real life has no awareness of. Sometimes, this can be uncomfortable. Eyebrows have been raised at American Sniper, for example, in which Bradley Cooper portrayed the dead US Navy Seal Chris Kyle, and which was released worldwide before the trial of his killer, Eddie Ray Routh, was over. Clint Eastwood’s film was based on a book by Kyle himself, and with the co-operation of his family, so you could argue that this was fine because it was based on a portrayal that Kyle himself had been happy with. But that was the problem with the film. It offered a highly partial view of historical events, as seen through the eyes of one protagonist. It was entirely partial, as individual stories tend to be.
But just as history is written by the victors, murder is investigated via the survivors. Many people are distressed by the way Meredith Kercher’s story became Amanda Knox’s. Maybe the most useful parallel with The Face of an Angel is Peter Morgan’s recent mini-series, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries, in which the behaviour of the press could be examined more usefully because the facts of the murder of Joanna Yeates had been established with much greater certainty.But just as history is written by the victors, murder is investigated via the survivors. Many people are distressed by the way Meredith Kercher’s story became Amanda Knox’s. Maybe the most useful parallel with The Face of an Angel is Peter Morgan’s recent mini-series, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries, in which the behaviour of the press could be examined more usefully because the facts of the murder of Joanna Yeates had been established with much greater certainty.