At 95, Rose Styron, the widow of the celebrated novelist William Styron and a journalist, poet and activist in her own right, is now the focus of James Lapine’s documentary “In the Company of Rose.”
Its release this weekend on streaming platforms coincides with her just-published memoir, “Beyond the Harbor: Adventurous Tales of the Heart” which is also set on Martha’s Vineyard where she’s lived for 60 years. Both book and film examine her life with one of America’s most famous authors with “Sophie’s Choice,” “The Confessions of Nat Turner,” and “Darkness Visible,” his instant classic about battling depression.
Lapine, a legendary Broadway writer-director whose book “Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created Sunday in the Park with George” says it all, began this vivid chronicle of Styron’s somewhat enchanted life on impulse.
“We just met up here on the Vineyard one summer, probably five years ago,” Styron said in a phone interview. “We liked each other so much — and I had just seen his documentary on Steve Sondheim on HBO. He said, ‘Could I just photograph you for a little bit and maybe do a film?’ I said, Sure.
“We set out on my lawn, which is where I’m sitting now. He set up his old-fashioned camera and started to ask me a question or two, and then he said, ‘You don’t feel comfortable in that chair.’
“So he went up to the porch, got my mother’s 100-year-old wicker chair and I sat in it. ‘That’s better,’ he said. After an hour interviewing me he said, ‘Oh my God! I forgot to turn my camera and sound back on when I went to get the chair.’
“I said, ‘Come next summer and try again.’ I thought it was pretty funny; I didn’t know if he did.”
A year later, in the same spot on the lawn, “With my back to the harbor so he could see the boats or whatever was going by, he started quite successfully to ask me some questions.
“In the next couple of summers, we’d sit inside by my dining table and talk. I enjoyed it immensely And then all of a sudden he said, ‘Okay, I’ve got a film. Come down to the Film Center in Vineyard Haven, I’m going to invite some people to see this first draft.’ We did that — and I didn’t know what to expect.
“At first I was quite embarrassed that such a good filmmaker would do this but I was quite intrigued. He did a great job. And now they’re releasing that. So that’s all I could tell you.”
“In the Company of Rose” is available on streaming platforms, including Apple TV and Amazon Prime
