The Film Noir Thread - Beyond Tiki

J JOHN-O Tiki Socialite Dogtown, USA Joined: May 16, 2008 Posts: 2721	J JOHN-O Posted posted on Thu, Oct 15, 2009 7:57 PM OK, so maybe I was a bit overcritical on "L.A. Confidential". Because so many people love it, I tend to be the contrarian. Sometimes though, I think of it as "Film Noir with training wheels" for today's young generation of self-professed film geeks. Here's an example. I was standing in line at Meltdown Comics on Sunset Blvd. The young twenty-something "film geek" in front of me was raving on and on about the movie which he had just seen on DVD . I asked him, how did he like it in comparison to classic Film Noir? He replied "Huh, you mean all those old black-and-white movies?". You've got to admit though, there are a lot of cliches: Kim Basinger as the hooker with a heart-of-gold. The real criminal mastermind turns out to be the police captain. The use of existing vintage locations. At first I thought it was cool, but then I was annoyed. "Look, it's the Frolic Room." "Look, it's the Formosa Cafe." How ironic. Oh well, at least they didn't use Bulgaria as an LA stand-in like they did in the "Black Dahlia". The latter part of the movie turns into a Russell Crowe / Guy Pearce "buddy picture". But you might argue, isn't this just an adaptation of James Ellroy's novel? Trust me, the book is much more complex and hard-boiled. So what does Ellroy think of all these adaptations? He's laughing all the way to the bank, especially when they pay him for options on books which he considers unfilmable. I actually spoke with him in 2007 when he hosted a tour retracing his non-fiction book "My Dark Places". I could write a whole another post on that interesting experience. The guy is a Noir character himself. Here's a funny story that he told. Some little old lady comes up to him in a video store and just gushes on and on about how much she loved the movie "L.A. Confidential" (and whether Kevin Spacey was really gay). Ellroy asks if she had bought and read the book, and she admits she hasn't. Ellroy then replies "Then what the fuck good are you to me?" :) [ Edited by: JOHN-O 2009-10-15 22:32 ]

OK, so maybe I was a bit overcritical on "L.A. Confidential".

Because so many people love it, I tend to be the contrarian. Sometimes though, I think of it as "Film Noir with training wheels" for today's young generation of self-professed film geeks. Here's an example. I was standing in line at Meltdown Comics on Sunset Blvd. The young twenty-something "film geek" in front of me was raving on and on about the movie which he had just seen on DVD . I asked him, how did he like it in comparison to classic Film Noir? He replied "Huh, you mean all those old black-and-white movies?".

You've got to admit though, there are a lot of cliches:

Kim Basinger as the hooker with a heart-of-gold.
The real criminal mastermind turns out to be the police captain.
The use of existing vintage locations. At first I thought it was cool, but then I was annoyed. "Look, it's the Frolic Room." "Look, it's the Formosa Cafe." How ironic. Oh well, at least they didn't use Bulgaria as an LA stand-in like they did in the "Black Dahlia".
The latter part of the movie turns into a Russell Crowe / Guy Pearce "buddy picture".

But you might argue, isn't this just an adaptation of James Ellroy's novel? Trust me, the book is much more complex and hard-boiled. So what does Ellroy think of all these adaptations? He's laughing all the way to the bank, especially when they pay him for options on books which he considers unfilmable. I actually spoke with him in 2007 when he hosted a tour retracing his non-fiction book "My Dark Places". I could write a whole another post on that interesting experience. The guy is a Noir character himself.

Here's a funny story that he told. Some little old lady comes up to him in a video store and just gushes on and on about how much she loved the movie "L.A. Confidential" (and whether Kevin Spacey was really gay). Ellroy asks if she had bought and read the book, and she admits she hasn't. Ellroy then replies "Then what the fuck good are you to me?" :)

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2009-10-15 22:32 ]

Post #488443 by JOHN-O on Thu, Oct 15, 2009 7:57 PM