Film stuff

[inulro]

I really want to see The Black Dahlia, which opened here on Friday, even though the reviews have been less than enthusiastic, and as this article in the Independent outlines, the true story (and the books listed in the article) are almost certainly far more interesting.

Comments

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

I read the James Ellroy novel and found it immensely disturbing (not to mention a bloody good read). I also then picked up a book called "Severed" about the true case, which is even more disturbing.

The film looks terrible. :(

[girfan.livejournal.com]

Especially since it's about his mother.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Well, not literally. 'My Dark Places' is the one about his mother, although it could be argued that he had his mother's murder underlying his thinking when he wrote The Black Dahlia.

[zenmonkeykstop.livejournal.com]

No you don't. I've just been. It's crap.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

I've been an Ellroy fan for years - I must be the only person who left the cinema after 'LA Confidential' saying 'well, that was crap'. The Black Dahlia is the first in his LA Quartet, a series of novels that he planned as a quartet but the final three (White Jazz, LA Confidential, The Big Nowhere) got repackaged in one volume as 'The Dudley Smith Trilogy' after the LA Confidential film was such a success. I'd recommend them; redemption is the central theme of the quartet, I think. There's a sparseness of description that I find refreshing. His language is very immediate and often very violent.

As for that article, it's really wishywashy. There's plenty on Elizabeth Short online, and the writer of the article appears to have taken the book they're promoting at face value. Suggesting that Elizabeth Short's killing was done as a work of art would imply that it was the visual impact that was important - in which case, why was she tortured for so long? Someone got a kick out of working on her for a very long period of time before killing her. Why was she left in an anonymous vacant lot? How would one of thousands of anonymous wannabe actresses meet men that high up the Hollywood tree? It's an intriguing case, but I doubt anyone will ever be able to identify the real killer.