Our Hardboiled Future

While I read Matt Zoller Seitz's movie column in the New York Press every week, I had no idea he had a blog. Even more to my surprise, Seitz blogged about his obsessive reporting quest to find out more about Brian DePalma's upcoming version of The Black Dahlia. Turns out DePalma has shot a movie version of James Ellroy's twisted and excessively obsessive novel that inspired three more books revolving around a couple generations of crooked cops in L.A., spawning the austere film interpretation, L.A. Confidential.

If Brian DePalma has anything to do with it, this movie will be anything but austere. I love DePalma for his criminal camera-eye, equal parts artist and voyer. The film version of L.A. Confidential dropped all of James Ellroy's gibbering insanity, glossing over an entire serial-killer subplot and crafting beautiful retro atmosphere instead. I've always wondered what would happen if a mad director paired up with this mad writer, and now I got my wish--a hardboiled future to look forward to...

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