The film has all the attributes, necessary for a classic black detective. 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 by brian helgeland based on the novel by james ellroy november 16, 1995 minor revisions. Over the opening strains of i love you, california, a montage. Jack vincennes, a cop who advises a police squad like tv show and busts. I loved the film then, and i still love it now, but ill take raymond. The sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inviting, and the orange groves stretch as far as the eye can see.
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. While ellroys books have exposed hollywoods flaws with candor and. Narcotics sergeant jack vincennes, recovering from. They found that they not only shared a love for ellroys fiction but also agreed on how to adapt confidential into a film. Confidential will be the book that puts him over the top. Hes honest to the degree that sometimes you get nervous for him. 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. Dudley smith james cromwell is the head of the lapd and is loyal to. The magazine sank in a sea of lawsuits, but it created a genre. A polished policier in the tradition of chinatown 1974, with a plot as convoluted as film noir chestnut the big sleep 1946, l. The director confessed to disliking the characters for too long into the story, and the characters all too often were the. Ed is an ambitious careerist who wants to do everything by the book. Confidential by curtis hanson curtis hanson, kevin.
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. Confidential has been hailed by critics as one of seminal works of neonoir. Confidential the movie20 years later the venetian vase. Confidential is immersed in the atmosphere and lore of film noir. 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. Based on a book by leading crime author james ellroy, l.
Confidential by brian helgeland based on the novel by. Confidential is a 1997 american neonoir crime film directed, produced and cowritten by. 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. The epigraph is a glory that costs everything and means nothingsteve erickson. Confidential is one of the best police stories, filmed in the genre of black detective. The oscarwinning screenplay is actually based on several titles in james ellroys series of chronological. Confidential is a 1997 american crime film directed, produced and cowritten by curtis hanson. I love his books, i love his persona and he is a great great interview.
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. 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. I do feel like spenser confidential lends itself well to a sequel, obviously given how we ended up the film. With kevin spacey, russell crowe, guy pearce, kim basinger. As far as he was concerned, history ended as did his 2009 book bloods a. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. D ed exley, the cleancut cop who lives shivering in the shadow of his dad, a legendary cop in the same department.
The director confessed to disliking the characters for too long into the story, and. 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. 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. See more ideas about movies, james ellroy, kim basinger. Confidential stars kim basinger alongside kevin spacey. Hes an open wound which is funny because his writing is so rata. Confidential 1990 is neonoir novel by james ellroy, and the third of his l. I read it for the first time at 16 and its the book that really got me interested in reading. 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. In a time when it seems that every other movie makes some claim to being a film noir, l. 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. 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. May 05, 2017 curtis hansons gripping, graceful 1997 thriller l.
A 90s classic and one of the best noir films ever made, well according to me. Confidential is filmnoir crime fiction akin to chinatown, hollywood babylon, raymond chandler, dashiell hammett, and jim thompson. Confidential 1997 proved that it was still possible to fashion an actordriven detective yarn in 1990s hollywood. Confidential 1990 is a neonoir novel by james ellroy, and the third of his l. The film tells the story of a group of lapd officers in 1953, and the intersection of police. Mickey cohen has just been sentenced to ten years in federal prison for failure to pay income tax. San diego uniontribune was quoted as saying, ellroy will soon be as well known as hammett and chandler, and l. Confidential was a key magazine of the 1950s, a monthly that sold millions of copies with its seamy exposes of celebrity drugs and sex. Those who like either film, and some people like them a lot, will probably like both. Confidential is a 1997 american neonoir crime film directed, produced and cowritten by curtis hanson. 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.
Sep 21, 2016 a 90s classic and one of the best noir films ever made, well according to me. 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. Confidential feels like the book that james ellroy has been preparing for and working up to during his entire career up to this point. I hope the film is a success by whatever barometer netflix uses. 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. I find them both ok but not compelling, with chinatown perhaps slightly the better of the two. Adapting the story from james ellroys novel, director curtis hanson deftly captures the glamour. Directed by curtis hanson from the bestselling novel by james ellroy, l. 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. The film though excellent does not touch the novel. I wanted to hate this movie because i loved the book so much.
Confidential quotes showing of 3 some men get the world, some men get exhookers and a trip to arizona. 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. After his twogrossing films the hand that rocks the cradle and wild river, he was able to get this. Sagalike narrative hardboils down to three gutsy, basically honest but flawed lapd officers.
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