Ask the Dust (2006)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Robert Towne

Writers (WGA):

Robert Towne (screenplay)
John Fante (novel)

Release Date:

13 April 2006 (Thailand)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Passion and ambition drive two dreamers in 1930s LA. Their love affair is ferocious and hot-blooded as they fight the city and themselves to make their dreams come true.

Plot:

Mexican beauty Camilla hopes to rise above her station by marrying a wealthy American. That is complicated by meeting Arturo Bandini, a first-generation Italian hoping to land a writing career and a blue-eyed blonde on his arm.

Plot Keywords:

Racism | Italian | 1930s | Poverty | Burn Scars

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Colin Farrell	...	Arturo Bandini
Salma Hayek	...	Camilla
Donald Sutherland	...	Hellfrick
Eileen Atkins	...	Mrs. Hargraves
Idina Menzel	...	Vera Rivkin
Justin Kirk	...	Sammy
Jeremy Crutchley	...	Solomon
Ronald France	...	Columbia Sweeper
Dion Basco	...	Filipino Houseboy
Donna Mosley	...	Red Headed Girl
Paul Rylander	...	Harold the Bartender
Natasha Staples	...	Denver Librarian
Wayne Harrison	...	Heilman
Yasuhiro Yoshimura	...	Japanese Vegetable Man
Sid	...	Willie the Dog

MPAA:

Rated R or some sexuality, nudity and language.

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | UK:15 | Ireland:15A | Singapore:R21 | Argentina:13 | Hong Kong:IIB | USA:R (certificate #41719) | Netherlands:AL | Germany:12 | Brazil:16 | Finland:K-11 | Australia:M | South Korea:15 | Philippines:R-18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Cape Town, South Africa

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Willie the Dog is played by Danny Finn, whose owner had to stand in for the film company's dog-handler, who could not get Danny pay attention. (Danny is not a professional actor.)

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the beach scene, before sunset, the ocean is on the left, and the shadows are stretching towards the camera. This cannot happen in L.A., where the ocean is in the west and sun is in the south. This reveals that these shots were taken on South Africa's west coast, where the sun is north of the zenith.

Quotes:

Arturo Bandini: What does happiness mean to you Camilla?
Camilla: That you can fall in love with whoever you want to, and not feel ashamed of it.

Movie Connections:

Features Dames (1934)

Soundtrack:

Blue Drag

A welcome return of the film maker who truly understands L.A.

Is Robert Towne L.A.'s Woody Allen? His portraits of the city are indelible, and one of the chief pleasures of Ask the Dust is the way in which the depression-era City of Angels becomes a character in the film. Ask the Dust is haunted by the notion that L.A. is the place where people come to slowly die in the sunshine and is fascinating as a piece of "sunny" film noir. It also explores themes of racism, prejudice and self-esteem and how they manifest themselves in personal relationships. There's a daring ugliness to the romance that makes the first third of the film especially compelling. The scene where Arturo Bandini and Camilla Lopez first meet is pure cinema and one of the more remarkable bits of mainstream film making I've seen in some time. In its way, it is as sublime as Brassai's photos of café-society Paris. In the work print I viewed, Ask the Dust wasn't able to sustain this opening intensity, but it managed to stay compelling nevertheless. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay Ask the Dust is that it reminded me why Chinatown is such a great film (and the comparisons will be inevitable); while I don't think Ask the Dust is in the same league, it does herald the welcome return of Robert Towne as an artist who understands L.A. by instinct, knows how to tap into Hollywood's rich history, and can deliver a human-scale film with the power to reward and possibly even change its audience.