The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst
| The Jinx | |
|---|---|
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|
| Genre |
Documentary True crime |
| Written by |
Andrew Jarecki Marc Smerling Zachary Stuart-Pontier |
| Directed by | Andrew Jarecki |
| Opening theme | "Fresh Blood" by Eels |
| Composer(s) | West Dylan Thordson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 6 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Cinematography | Marc Smerling |
| Editor(s) | Zachary Stuart-Pontier |
| Running time | 38–51 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
HBO Documentary Films Blumhouse Television Hit the Ground Running |
| Release | |
| Original network | HBO |
| Picture format | 16:9 HDTV |
| Original release | February 8 – March 15, 2015 |
| External links | |
| Website | www |
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst—generally referred to as simply The Jinx—is a 2015 HBO documentary miniseries about accused murderer Robert Durst, written by Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, and Zachary Stuart-Pontier. The series was also directed by Jarecki, who had previously directed the feature film All Good Things (2010), which was inspired by Durst's biography.
Robert Durst had professed admiration for All Good Things and telephoned Jarecki after its release, offering to be interviewed (a conversation recorded and incorporated into the documentary). Durst would ultimately sit with Jarecki for more than 20 hours over several years, despite having never previously cooperated with any journalist.
The Jinx gained widespread exposure when Durst was arrested on first-degree murder charges the day before its finale aired.
The series investigates the unsolved 1982 disappearance of Durst's wife Kathie, the 2000 execution-style killing of writer Susan Berman, and the 2001 death and dismemberment of Durst's neighbor Morris Black in Galveston, Texas. It uses a wide array of existing footage including news, security footage, police evidence, and archival interviews combined with footage shot by Jarecki, which is composed of contemporary interviews, visual reenactments (some of which were shot at Jarecki's upstate New York home), and self-reflexive footage of Jarecki's film-making process and peculiar working relationship with Durst. Its complex editing style and narrative construction emphasize the contradictions within both Durst's life and the bizarre and grisly murders he allegedly committed.
In the sixth and final episode, Jarecki confronts Durst with a letter hand-addressed and mailed by him in March 1999 to his friend Susan Berman in "Beverley [sic] Hills, California". Durst concedes he cannot distinguish his block letter handwriting on the 1999 envelope from that of an anonymous December 2000 note, presumably mailed by Berman's murderer, alerting the "Beverley [sic] Hills Police" to a "cadaver" at Berman's address. After the interview Durst goes to the bathroom and, apparently unaware that his microphone is still recording, makes a rambling, off-camera statement to himself, ending with "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."
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