#midnight in the garden of good and evil

[ironmaidenhead]

THE LADY CHABLIS starring as Herself in MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL (1997) Dir. Clint Eastwood

[sharpmouth]

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt

[godlessondheimite]

kind of funny how twice in the late 90s, jude law starred in two book to film adaptations playing a moody young man who was murdered by a closeted/repeessed gay man who was obsessed with him. death by queerbaiting.

[andallshallbewell]

[biracy]

Good and Evil

[kevinspaceymrs]

Kevin Spacey and John Cusack in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

[bugcowboyart]

A glimpse at the 145 costume concept illustrations I created for “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” for designer Toni-Leslie James. The out-of-town production at the Goodman closes the 11th and then will presumably announce a date on Broadway (cross your fingers)

[heretherebedork]

Guess what I'm doing tonight?

[variousqueerthings]

FINAL THOUGHTS ON MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL! UNPACKING ALL OF THAT!

this guy, his girlfriend, and their third, the most stunning woman you ever saw who brought the picnic basket

So I was saying as I was watching that this is an odd duck for several reasons, the main gist of it being that it's at once kind of blander than I have a feeling the book is (or indeed the real events were), but also stunningly weird to watch in 2024:

kevin spacey as a rich dude who shoots a young, vulnerable (but also extremely volatile) hustler under somewhat mysterious circumstances, given we don't actually know too much about their relationship beyond the facts given to us by this rich guy and a couple of brief snapshots of the final night -- and he gets away with it (and then he immediately has a heart attack and it's suggested it was the ghost of the young man getting his revenge... alas not all meta is reflected 100% in reality....)

a movie that features a trans woman, who's playing a version of herself, because she was at the original events, but she's also just giving the best performance in the movie + it lowkey ends on the three of them kinda bein a thing (that is, a romantic couple and she is also there and she's the one who brought the picnic basket!) -- which like. you barely see anywhere and certainly wouldn't expect to see in a movie directed by clint eastwood

this not 2024-specific in its interest, but its general depiction of a community which is clearly so interesting in its contained ways, allowing a myriad of people to simply be, whether it be a trans woman or a suggested wider queer community (although for sure that acceptance is Conditional and not held by all), or a guy who ties live horseshoe flies to himself with string, or a guy who walks an invisible dog, or its respected practice of voodoo (i cannot speak to how well this film depicts voodoo, only that it does and as a part-time american gothic, also highly suggests the ghosts are alive and amongst us)

on the flipside of this we've got:

feels like almost all the leads are fully phoning it in. john cusack is truly the fish out of water in that he just doesn't belong here, nor is it clear why he's so interesting to anyone (why do y'all wanna have sex with this man???) -- and he's in practically every scene, yagotta... yagotta have someone you want to follow for two and a half hours here......

the pacing is meeessy, in that "oh yeah this was based on a book and didn't know what to keep and what to leave out and generally how it would work onscreen" kind of way, which ultimately does very few characters a service (except, again, for The Lady, for she pops up, has a great time, and then we wait around for her to pop up again). it does make me want to read the book!

it also just. should have revelled more I think. this is partially casting, partially scripting, but also I think cinematography and directing, it's so at arms length most of the time, like it doesn't really know how to present this community or the gothic parts of the story, so it ends up being a bit hammy and a bit point-at-the-weirdness and go "well that's weird." AGAIN the exception truly is Chablis, she's the realest character in the story, and AGAIN I'd hazard it's because of the fantastic decision to have her in the film playing herself, all the camera needs to do is point and shoot, she's got the rest on lock! the car conversation! the emceeing! the dancing! the courtroom Ensemble! the showing up with a picnic basket! but yeah, the rest of the film seemed a bit... the word that's coming up for me is timid. a bit dull. a bit lacking in guts

ultimately really happy I finally watched this one, I wonder if it would be possible to do a tight edit that cuts off roughly 30-45mins (keep all the Lady Chablis parts, naturally), but I do think it wanted also to just be more open and possibly also to make some more concise decisions on how it wanted to present this story, because I get the feeling the screenplay didn't know how to engage with the original book + it's got some serious 90s "This Is A Movie" elements to it

there's a part of me that thinks this one is actually worthy of a remake (Angelica Ross anyone???) but also what would that be without at least a cameo from The Lady herself? maybe we just need more American Gothic Crime Dramas with trans women doing cool shit in them. the answer is always more!

some highlights beyond The Lady Chablis

the garden itself -- the graveyard that is -- was quite eerie, especially in the opening and closing scenes

the opening and closing generally I was very into, that vibe wasn't sustained so much by the rest of the movie unfortunately

I liked the scene where the rich guy dies, it was a really cool Moment, especially the way jude law smiles -- he got what's coming to him

I did like parts of the courtroom drama part of it, I think that part was relatively well-paced

I liked the woman in the graveyard, who also bookended the whole thing. I liked the minor characters generally

good times! that time clint eastwood gave us the opportunity for one of the most sympathetically and interestingly portrayed trans women in a mainstream movie i guess???

[dandyads]

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 1997

[designerpussyfromgod]

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

dir. Clint Eastwood

Taking place in historic Savannah, Georgia, this movie adaptation of the 1994 John Berendt novel of the same name trails an exaggerated, fictionalized account of the real-life killing of Danny Hansford (renamed Billy Hanson for the film) by his employer and lover, famed antiques dealer and Savannah socialite Jim Williams, and his ensuing trial.

[hot-cross-poss]

an animation i made about savannah, ga for a contest. my third animation ever, featuring my questionable rotoscoping skills

[shutterandsentence]

“When an early autumn walks the land and chills the breeze and touches with her hand the summer trees….’ That’s poetry. And ‘Like painted kites the days and nights went flying by. The world was new beneath a blue umbrella sky.” ― John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Photo: Savannah, Georgia

[mariopenit]

[foxingpeculiar]

I may have said this on here before but Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) is a fucking weird movie to watch.

It’s based on a true crime story. Features Kevin Spacey as the villain, a wealthy and powerful man who is using the closet as a defense for murder (in 1997, mind).

Despite being directed by notorious right-winger Clint Eastwood, it features a trans woman character who’s actually treated with basic respect (again, in 1997–it’s not perfect but a lot better than most of what you got from the era).

AND, that character is played by the actual person who participated in the real events, playing herself.

Like, it’s a good movie, but it’s also very odd in a meta way that’s really interesting.

[dont-read-this-im-dead]

Can you believe I grew up with this book on my parents' bookshelf, and I never read it once? Of course I HAD to read it once I found it at the library.