Wunderkind Carson McCullers

A co-production of Phlox-Films/ ARTE/ SR/ SRF and the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians
Length: 53 min.
 

With her first work The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers became the star of the New York literary scene and a celebrated child prodigy in the spring of 1940. At the age of just 23, the author, who was born in the southern states, published a novel that gave a voice to outsiders in her society and became a global success. The writer, who only lived to be 50 and suffered from serious illnesses throughout her life, left behind a relatively small but powerful oeuvre. Often referred to as the "author of loneliness", she dealt with topics in her works that are more relevant today than ever: Racism, the search for identity, homosexuality, feminism and many more. Almost all of her books have been made into films by famous directors such as John Huston, and the stage adaptation of Frankie (Member of the Wedding) became a Broadway hit. It is above all the epic power of her language, but also her doubt about the expressive possibilities of language itself, which she formulates in all her stories, that makes her work so special. Her gaze draws attention to things, conditions and contexts, but above all to characters who only appear as marginal figures in other works. Her heroines and heroes are those who are otherwise overlooked and whose inner turmoil she was able to put into words.

The film presents excerpts from her most important works and traces the short and dazzling life of an author who remained androgynous and girlish until her death, who grew up in the USA at a time of racial segregation and rebelled against social conventions and social roles. Who was married twice to the same man, but mainly fell in love with women. Who, despite several strokes, never lost her courage to face life and her will to work. Her closest friends included the playwright Tennessee Williams, but also other celebrities of her time such as Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller, Truman Capote, Erika and Klaus Mann and many more.

Interviewees such as the singer and songwriter Suzanne Vega, who has been involved with McCullers since her youth and has not only written songs but also a stage play about her life, provide information about her fascination with her work and person. One of the few surviving contemporary witnesses, the well-known US film critic Rex Reed, who conducted one of the last interviews with Carson McCullers, describes his encounters with what he considered to be the most eccentric artist of her time.

This film aims to bring to light the work of the best-known unknown in American literature.

The film can be seen under the title "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - The Writer Carson McCullers" from 19/08/2024 in the ARTE Mediathek.
TV broadcast on Wednesday, September 18 at 11:00 pm.
A co-production of Phlox-Films/ARTE/ SR/ SRF and the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians.