Can You Ever Forgive Me? and the Louise Brooks connection

I finally got around to watching Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the based-on-a-true story about a literary forger starring Melissa McCarthy. It is a brilliant film, but not one I can say I enjoyed watching. Truth-be-told, it is just too much of a downer. McCarthy is really, really good in the role of Lee Israel, the author and biographer who turns to forging letters from famous writers after her own career stalls out. Richard E. Grant is also superb in his supporting role as Isreal's problematic friend. Both McCarthy and Grant deserve Academy Award nominations.

[After a well received  theatrical run, the film is now out on DVD. More info HERE.]

I was keen to see this film for various reasons, not least of which was the fact that among the more than 400 letters Israel forged were a bunch by Louise Brooks. The actress's role in Israel's book Can You Ever Forgive Me? is prominent. Nearly three chapters are given over to Brooks in Israel's slim 2008 book, in which she admits to forging at least a handful of letters from the silent film star. Four of the Brooks forgeries are depicted in the book. However, in the film, Brooks' role is greatly diminished. By my count, the actress is mentioned twice and pictured once.

Brooks is first mentioned during a rapid recital of the personalities who's letters Israel forged or embellished: Fannie Brice, Noel Coward, Edna Ferber, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman and others. The second mention comes near the end of the films when (spoiler alert) Israel's character is seeing a lawyer, who tells his client that he enjoyed reading the Louise Brooks' letters.

An image of Louise Brooks can also be spotted in the film, pinned to a bulletin board above Israel's couch in her New York City apartment. In the screen capture below, Grant is lounging on the couch after he and Israel return from a night out drinking.

Curiously enough,this is not the first film in which co-star Richard E. Grant is seen next to a picture of Louise Brooks. The first was the not-so-dissimilar Withnail and I (1987), an acclaimed indie film about two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood (Louise Brooks devotee Paul McGann) and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail (Grant) -- who spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. Here is a screen capture from that film.

Grant, it should be noted, also had a role in the last season of Downton Abbey, and as any regular reader of this blog may know, that acclaimed television series has a number of well-known connections to Louise Brooks.

Well, back to Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which I've written and blogged about in the past. There is a piece in my 2018 book, Louise Brooks, the Persistent Star on my own "brief encounter" with Israel - via email. I've also blogged about Israel's book and the film. Those with an eye for the obscure may notice Louise Brooks' name on the cover of the original edition of Can You Ever Forgive Me? It is the third on the list, x'ed out Louise Brooks.