Can you ever forgive me?

Discussion Questions

What did you find most interesting or surprising about the cinematic adaptation of Lee Israel’s Can you ever forgive me? 

I really loved and appreciated the realism of the movie; how human Lee is depicted. This is shown through Lee’s full immersion into her scheme and how the taste of success drives her to be greedy for more and fall back into cycles that can often go away and end happily in the conclusion of movies/novels. The imperfectness of the characters, the simplicity of the settings, and the connections that are made (which are often not welcomed by Lee) are what makes the film so interesting and unique. It brings out emotions kindred to that of the character because her actions and the way they are presented are so human.  

In both the memoir and the movie, Lee Israel indicates she did some of her best writing in her forgeries. How does that related to “writing in your own voice” and what did that mean for Lee’s Israel’s writing career? 

In Lee’s case she was able to mimic or impersonate the writing style and voice of other people, so instead of writing in her own expression she is feeding off other individuals’ way of articulation. Although there is a talent and skill in doing that, of creating stories and distinct voices in her letters, her writing career can be seen as not her own, as an imitation of other writers and figures. A lack of writing in her own voice made for Lee to not hold her own writing career that is distinct and looked at as being Lee Israel’s.  

Did you catch where the title of the memoir and movie came from? The title came from a forged Dorothy Parker line that Lee Israel wrote. Share your thoughts on possible implicit meanings from that. 

I think the title Can you ever forgive me? Is a question poised towards the individuals such as Dorothy Parker in regards to Lee’s impersonation of them of creating lines and phrases of which they never spoke and profiting off of their voice and level of fame/importance. Lee’s goal is gaining not only money but a position in the literary world and there is a guilt that is present in what she is doing to get there, and the title in the form of the question is directed towards those voices she is stealing from writers.  

Lee Israel goes to great lengths and finds very clever ways to create her forgeries. Yet, the reason she is in this predicament is that she was unable to focus that energy on her own writing. Using specific examples, what are some ways she could have used those strategies in her own writing? 

The craftiness in which she was able to accomplish her scheme in of itself is a creativeness which could have been funneled into her own works. But for Lee there is that insecurity that her work, her own words won’t be good enough to gain any traction in the literary world. That is shown in the film by her book being heavily discounted at the bookstore. So instead, she is still able to write, pursue that passion of writing under the guise of famous writers and people without the judgement of other people. Lee could have gained inspiration and techniques from the letters she read instead of completely immersing herself to be that person instead of learning to create her own work. The stories that she accumulated from the letters she read could have been used to branch off of and create her own creative stories. Overall, all the work she did to mimic other writers could have been used to create her own stories from observing and reading other people’s personalities and their connections.  

What lessons did you learn from watching this movie? What questions did it leave you with? 

I learned that your actions will have consequences and those consequences may not come right away but could come when you least expect it to haunt you. I also learned that your own voice matters and to have confidence in your ability, that you are your own person capable of creating instead of merely taking. A question it left me with is; if Lee didn’t get caught, would she have continued or would have guilt caught up to her and allowed her to give up the charade on her own?