Faulkner suit leads to a surprise ending
JACKSON, Miss. - Shooting has begun in Mississippi on a new documentary about legendary author William Faulkner — the first ever authorized by his estate.
It’s a documentary that might not have happened if Faulkner’s estate hadn’t decided to sue, alleging filmmaker Woody Allen had infringed on the author’s copyright.
In his 2011 movie “Midnight in Paris,” a writer played by Owen Wilson winds up being transported back to 1920s Paris, where he visits with F. Scott Fitzgerald and other literary greats.
When Wilson returns, he remarks to his fiancée, “The past is not dead! Actually, it’s not even past. You know who said that? Faulkner. And he was right. And I met him, too. I ran into him at a dinner party.”
Faulkner’s line appeared in his 1951 novel, “Requiem for a Nun.” (“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”)
A year after “Midnight in Paris” went on to gross more $150 million at the box office — more than any previous Allen film — Faulkner’s estate sued Sony Pictures Classics, alleging the movie had violated copyright laws by using a quote from the author.
“Congress created a copyright as a hard stop” against appropriating such material, Lee Caplin, executor of the Faulkner Literary Estate, told The Clarion-Ledger. “Somehow in the electronic age, people assume they are free.”
The lawsuit alleged Allen’s use of the quote and Faulkner’s name was “likely to cause confusion, to cause mistake, and/ or to deceive the infringing film’s viewers as to a perceived affiliation, connection or association between William Faulkner and his works, on the one hand, and Sony, on the other hand.”
In the end, the judge sided with Sony: “At case is whether the single line from a full-length novel singly paraphrased and attributed to the original author in a fulllength Hollywood film can be considered a copyright infringement. In this case, it cannot.”
And it’s a good thing the new documentary is authorized by Faulkner’s estate because otherwise it might take issue with the main title: “The Past Is Never Dead.”