He takes all of the themes he explored in previous novels and packs them into a book thats an even larger, more epic tale of crime, perversion, and hollywood corruption than any of his previous books. The film though excellent does not touch the novel. Confidential is filmnoir crime fiction akin to chinatown, hollywood babylon, raymond chandler, dashiell hammett, and jim thompson. I wanted to hate this movie because i loved the book so much.
In a time when it seems that every other movie makes some claim to being a film noir, l. Confidential is a 1997 american neonoir crime film directed, produced and cowritten by curtis hanson. Confidential stars kim basinger alongside kevin spacey. Sep 21, 2016 a 90s classic and one of the best noir films ever made, well according to me. Jun 01, 2011 in this critically acclaimed neonoir movie from 1997, kim basinger plays a prostitute who works as a lookalike of veronica lake, while her customers, like the one played by jim metzler here. May 05, 2017 curtis hansons gripping, graceful 1997 thriller l. Mickey cohen has just been sentenced to ten years in federal prison for failure to pay income tax. Confidential is an epic crime tale spanning nearly a decade, a tale of corruption, greed, drugs, pornography, and in the aftermath of the bloody christmas, the lives of three cops are forever entwined. Confidential 1997 proved that it was still possible to fashion an actordriven detective yarn in 1990s hollywood. Confidential has been hailed by critics as one of seminal works of neonoir. The film tells the story of a group of lapd officers in 1953, and the intersection of police. I do feel like spenser confidential lends itself well to a sequel, obviously given how we ended up the film.
Confidential 1990 is a neonoir novel by james ellroy, and the third of his l. Sagalike narrative hardboils down to three gutsy, basically honest but flawed lapd officers. Dudley smith james cromwell is the head of the lapd and is loyal to. A 90s classic and one of the best noir films ever made, well according to me. Confidential is a 1997 american neonoir crime film directed, produced and cowritten by. Confidential, 1997kim basinger two sleeveless fulllength gowns of ivory satin, with swags of ivory chiffon draped from the shoulders, crossing round the body to form a bow at the base of the lowcut back. I love his books, i love his persona and he is a great great interview. I loved the film then, and i still love it now, but ill take raymond. Confidential by curtis hanson curtis hanson, kevin. Confidential is the real thinga gritty, sordid tale of sex, scandal, betrayal, and corruption of all sorts police, political, pressand, of course, very personal in 1940s hollywood. San diego uniontribune was quoted as saying, ellroy will soon be as well known as hammett and chandler, and l. Curtis hanson has very skillfully and artfully styled every image, every inch of the plot in the film under 50s, which, naturally, looks very impressive. After his twogrossing films the hand that rocks the cradle and wild river, he was able to get this. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
The director confessed to disliking the characters for too long into the story, and the characters all too often were the. You expect feature films to have problems with jane austen or henry james, but whats depressing in recent times is the way they seem to have difficulty. The chicago tribune said, ellroy is a master at juggling plot lines, using a stripped, spare noir style that hits like a cleaver but is honed like a scalpel. With kevin spacey, russell crowe, guy pearce, kim basinger. While ellroys books have exposed hollywoods flaws with candor and. Those who like either film, and some people like them a lot, will probably like both. Based on a book by leading crime author james ellroy, l.
Confidential the movie20 years later the venetian vase. Directed by curtis hanson from the bestselling novel by james ellroy, l. The sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inviting, and the orange groves stretch as far as the eye can see. Confidential quotes showing of 3 some men get the world, some men get exhookers and a trip to arizona. Every working man can have his own house, and inside every house, a happy, allamerican family. Where the book and film differ most is the latters contradiction of the. Confidential is a 1997 american crime film directed, produced and cowritten by curtis hanson. Hes honest to the degree that sometimes you get nervous for him. Ed is an ambitious careerist who wants to do everything by the book. Confidential feels like the book that james ellroy has been preparing for and working up to during his entire career up to this point. Confidential was a key magazine of the 1950s, a monthly that sold millions of copies with its seamy exposes of celebrity drugs and sex. Narcotics sergeant jack vincennes, recovering from. Published in 1990, it was ellroys coming out party as a force to be reckoned with in the genre and the dawn of a new generation in crime fiction.
And an instructive one for screenwriters, a model, i submit, for how to adapt a complicated story line, how to build a plot from a book so rich in character and incident. The screenplay by hanson and brian helgeland is based on james ellroy s 1990 novel of the same name, the third book in his l. Confidential will be the book that puts him over the top. The epigraph is a glory that costs everything and means nothingsteve erickson. In this critically acclaimed neonoir movie from 1997, kim basinger plays a prostitute who works as a lookalike of veronica lake, while her customers, like the one played by jim metzler here. I read it for the first time at 16 and its the book that really got me interested in reading. Confidential 1990 is neonoir novel by james ellroy, and the third of his l. Although i wouldnt put them in the like category, i find that lacking any movies that are in the same vein, i find that i return again and again to the noir classics that are the big sleep and the maltese falcon.
Over the opening strains of i love you, california, a montage. A polished policier in the tradition of chinatown 1974, with a plot as convoluted as film noir chestnut the big sleep 1946, l. Confidential is immersed in the atmosphere and lore of film noir. Every mystery or crime novel ive read since has been chasing the dragon of l. I found it on my dads night table and read it breathlessly, the stories of reefer parties, multiple divorces, wifeswapping and leading men who liked to wear frilly undergarments.
They found that they not only shared a love for ellroys fiction but also agreed on how to adapt confidential into a film. Adapting the story from james ellroys novel, director curtis hanson deftly captures the glamour. Confidential is one of the best police stories, filmed in the genre of black detective. The film has all the attributes, necessary for a classic black detective. I picked up the hardcover version of this book in 1992 and since then have read it a dozen times, making it one of the most dogeared books in my collection. The magazine sank in a sea of lawsuits, but it created a genre. D ed exley, the cleancut cop who lives shivering in the shadow of his dad, a legendary cop in the same department.
I hope the film is a success by whatever barometer netflix uses. See more ideas about movies, james ellroy, kim basinger. Jack vincennes, a cop who advises a police squad like tv show and busts. Confidential by brian helgeland based on the novel by. The oscarwinning screenplay is actually based on several titles in james ellroys series of chronological. Confidential by brian helgeland based on the novel by james ellroy november 16, 1995 minor revisions. As far as he was concerned, history ended as did his 2009 book bloods a. Ed exley, the by the book cop who is forever in his fathers shadow, glory hound jack vincennes, and bud white, the man forever avenging his dead mother. Confidential is such an immersive invocation of a bygone past that it can be hard to process the fact that the film is now 20 years old. The director confessed to disliking the characters for too long into the story, and.
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