Robert Durst’s New Trial
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“Against this Barnum-like theatricality, spontaneous gestures stand out. There’s a poignant scene in which Durst is found not guilty of his neighbor’s murder: he turns to his lawyer and says, uncertain, “Did they say ‘not’?” The most unsettling example comes in the fourth episode, when Jarecki suggests that he and Durst take a break from discussing his testimony in Texas. Durst has confirmed that his lawyers hinted that he could answer specific questions about the dismemberment with “I don’t know”; that way, he’d sound less coldhearted. As soon as the filmmaker leaves the room, Durst, who is still wired for audio, lowers his head and mutters a sentence to himself. “I did not knowingly, purposely lie,” he says, and then pauses, considering, to add a word: “I did not knowingly, purposely, intentionally lie. I did make mistakes.”
Durst was rehearsing the interview, the way one might rehearse one’s testimony—but does that make him seem more guilty or just more realistic about documentaries? His lawyer tells him that his microphone is hot. Durst is fascinatingly unconcerned. He says again, “I never intentionally, purposefully lied. I made mistakes.” Then, with the shrug of an honest man, he adds what might be the tagline for the series: “I did not tell the whole truth. Nobody tells the whole truth.”
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Robert Durst’s New Trial
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/23/what-about-bob
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