Ask The Dust

by Chris

Luckily I've never read John Fante's original novel of Ask the Dust, so unlike my last review, you will be spared tedious background details about the writer. This film version is directed by Robert Towne, a screenwriter made famous by his Chinatown script back in 1974. He's also known for writing Days of Thunder and the first two Mission: Impossible films - safe to say he's made a few questionable choices during his career. There's no mystery about what drew Towne to John Fante's novel. The book is set in Los Angeles at around the same period depicted in Chinatown, and it evokes the memory of a city in which innocence and corruption sit side by side. It's a version of LA that is often described as neo-noir, partly due to its sunny, village-like feel, before the place became lost under a sprawl of freeways. The racial and class tensions touched on in Chinatown, and in this film, are brewing under the surface, but they're a long way from boiling over. LA is, as Towne has pointed out, a city in its "adolescence".

It's LA in the 1930s. Arturo Bandini (Colin Farrell) is living in poverty in a flea-bitten hotel, dreaming of becoming a great writer. He frequently hands out copies of American Mercury, a literary magazine edited by the journalist H.L. Mencken, in which one of his short stories has been published. With his last nickel, he orders a coffee at a café - where he notices a Mexican waitress, Camilla (Salma Hayek). He is attracted to her but also antagonistic. He taunts her about how bad the coffee is and she reacts angrily. Arturo throws a string of verbal insults at her, saying Mexicans should only be regarded with disdain (even when he refuses to confront his own humiliation as an Italian-American).

Gradually in the weeks that follow, the friction between them fades, and Arturo becomes involved with Camilla - seeing in her the inspiration he's been lacking. However, he is resentful of her relationship with Sammy (Justin Kirk), a seedy and violent barman who pays her wages. H.L. Mencken begins contacting Arturo at his hotel, mailing him money in return for his stories. Eventually, Mencken mails the young writer a cheque with a letter asking him to write a full-length novel. It dawns on Arturo that he might have finally found his path to fame.

If that synopsis sounds a bit disjointed, then its only because events are told from Arturo Bandini's meandering point of view. His story is impressionistic, confessional and very much short on narrative drive – much like the film itself. The city is seen through the awed eyes of Bandini, who romanticises his own hardships. He is a deeply contradictory character – cruel, narcissistic, but also strangely naive ("an inexperienced jerk", as he says in his voiceover). He is also a man prone to moments of lyricism. As previously mentioned, I've never read Fante's book, but apparently it was autobiographical about his struggles to become a great novelist. If that's true, then Bandini, like Fante, is trying to find a balance between experiencing life and writing about it. This is the central problem the film struggles to overcome. Unlike Chinatown, Ask the Dust is not plot-driven.

In the early part of the film, Robert Towne stays faithful to the film noirs he must have grown up watching. Using voiceovers, flashbacks and careful editing, he tries to capture Bandini in his full perversity. He shows Bandini surviving on a diet of cheap oranges and worshipping his photo of writer H.L. Mencken. Bandini fully lives up to the stereotype of the self-destructive artist. Unfortunately, Colin Farrell makes his erratic behaviour seem like the antics of a loveable rogue. Even when he is down to his last nickel, there is no real sense of poverty or desperation. It's all far too safe and artificial. The script really called for an actor who could convincingly project Bandini's conflicting thoughts as a writer (John Turturro did this brilliantly in Barton Fink). I just couldn't get past Farrell's boyish image - it's a million miles away from the hard-bitten and desperate image the character deserves.

The first half of Ask the Dust is by far the strongest. In a voiceover, Bandini freely admits he has little knowledge of women. He both desires Camilla and is terrified of her. The film is at its most effective when it's showing the misunderstandings between the couple. There are some uncomfortable moments in which they taunt and humiliate one another. Both are outsiders - she as a Mexican who can't read English, he as an Italian-American. Adding to the tension between them is sleazy barman Sammy, who always seems to be looking at them, and whose relationship with Camilla confuses and worries Bandini (is it based on sex, drugs or money?). It's also during this half where a strange Jewish woman, named Vera Rivkin, stalks Bandini. At first glance, she seems like a hardboiled femme fatale from a noir thriller, but she is soon revealed as someone lost and vulnerable. There are some eerie and unsettling scenes in which she strips for the young writer and shows him her scarred skin (the reason behind them is never explained). You're never quite sure if she is a real person or somebody Bandini is writing about in his stories.

Much of this edge is lost in the latter part of the film. Rather than exploring Bandini's twisted psyche, Robert Towne chooses to focus on his love affair with Camilla. The storytelling becomes ever more linear, ever more conventional, and ends up unbearably sentimental. The staple Hollywood clichés begin with Bandini using the money from his editor to take a holiday with Camilla. They rent a house by the beach. They buy a dog. For a while, they have an idyllic time basking in the sun. Bandini teaches Camilla to read English, and mentors her on American history in order for her to win US citizenship. He continues to work on his novel, and so on. You can't help but feel disappointed during these moments of the film, and when some rather nauseating melodrama creeps into the final scenes you begin to wonder if Robert Towne simply got bored of the story. By the end, the rawness and intensity that are promised early on clearly aren't there.

There is little to say about Salma Hayek as Camilla. She is feisty and sexy in the role, but not any different to similar performances in her past films. Once again she capitalizes on her smouldering looks, rather than act with any determined effort - including removing her clothes on two occasions. I'm guessing her contract states that nude scenes are compulsory. Her scenes with Farrell are fine, especially in the opening scenes when they first encounter one another at the café. Donald Sutherland also appears in a tiny role as Hellfrick, the hotel's token drunk, who unfortunately isn't given very much screentime. Some of you may be astute enough to recognize the voice of H.L. Mencken belonging to that of film critic Richard Schickel.

Visually, Ask the Dust is a great homage to the noir genre. On what must have been a modest budget compared to other films of this type, Towne and his production team do an amazing job in recreating 1930s LA. The locations and costumes are glossy and period perfect. Even impoverished writers like Bandini dress like Sam Spade, and the streets are full of beautiful but unobtainable women. The film was actually shot in Cape Town, South Africa – using huge sets built by production designer Dennis Gassner. They impressively evoke the ramshackle charm of the city, in particular Bunker Hill where the characters are mostly seen. Together with Caleb Deschanel's rich, dark cinematography, Ask the Dust is at least successful in the art department.

I'm afraid Robert Towne is only to blame for the films problems and the matter of it falling apart in the last act. Towne's examination of the racial and class tensions between the two main characters cover familiar ground, but he never makes it bold enough to have any effect. Statements about the irony of their relationship, and the myth of California as a land of equality and opportunity, are handled pretty badly. Despite the admittedly gorgeous cinematography and superb production design, it lacks the energy, passion, and dramatic weight needed to make it worthwhile. Put it this way, its no Chinatown.