The Black Dahlia (Brian De Palma, 2006)

[Dylan]

The official release date has been announced: October 13th.

And James Horner is no longer scoring. Now it's Mark Isham, who besides being a well-known film composer is a well-known jazz composer, so the music should be very interesting (who besides me is looking forward to a new virtuoso music and image set piece from De Palma?). A Horner/De Palma collaboration would've been interesting as well, and it isn't known yet why Horner left the project.

This is probably my most anticipated film of 2006 (next to "Tideland"), and I have a great feeling that it will be one of De Palma's masterpieces. That's a lot of steam to build up, but this project sounds so incredibly promising (and over the past few months I've become a serious admirer of De Palma's, so I'm sure that has something to do with it...along with the fact that I love films set in the 40s, I think the cast is perfect, and I love Vilmos Zsigmond). Fans and those awaiting this film should check De Palma a la Mod every other day for updates on this film, and other De Palma projects (DVDs, etc.):

Great website

A test screening of this was held recently with Brian De Palma in attendance. It seems that overall, the audience just didn't get it. Check out De Palma a la Mod's (link above) coverage (minor spoilers, though as somebody already thoroughly familiar with this murder case, I know what it involves anyway).

I think this sounds like such an amazing movie, but like all of his movies the appeal may be limited (after all, according to Scarlett, De Palma became obsessed with making 'the perfect film noir' during production, and such a thing may go over the heads of people...let me say though, out of every living director, the one who I believe could indeed make the 'perfect film noir' is De Palma {and with Zsigmond, no less}).

With that said, it should be a rule that (ala Woody Allen) Brian De Palma films never be test-screened.

Meanwhile, there is a very good discussion of test screening related to De Palma on the 24 Lies a second board:

It revolves around De Palma's forced editing of "Casualties of War" (his cut of which will be seen for the first on DVD late April), and a member posted with first hand knowledge of how test audiences are assembled and how pointless it is for this kind of film to have a test screening.

[Antoine Doinel]

This will be opening the Venice Film Festival.

[Cold Bishop]

Josh Harnett has me skeptical, but if Heath Ledger can have a breakout performance, why can't he?

And once again I hope test audiences don't affect anything.

But, slightly off-topic, I wonder if anyone here has heard Bob Belden's The Black Dahlia album dropped about a year ago. A very noirish and cinematic Jazz album inspired by the case, which I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to jump in his 1937 Plymouth Business Coupe, put on his fedora, and pretend he's Sam Spade in the middle of a film noir.

[Antoine Doinel]

Here's the trailer

[Dylan]

Wow, finally!

It looks as stunning and exciting as I imagined. As to be expected, the trailer is cut for the 'modern thriller' appeal, but it works quite well (though I do want to compare this with the French trailer whenever that comes online). I actually forgot it was coming out mid September, which is less than two months away (I was thinking it would be late October for some reason). Looking very forward to it.

And by the way, did anybody else recognize De Palma's voice as the director in the screen test footage that opens the trailer?

[jorencain]

And by the way, did anybody else recognize De Palma's voice as the director in the screen test footage that opens the trailer?

Damn, he sounds like Jeff Bridges to me. I assumed that's who it was.

[justeleblanc]

And by the way, did anybody else recognize De Palma's voice as the director in the screen test footage that opens the trailer?

I did notice it was him, and he says "sadness" in such a cool way. Not quite to the level of Herzog, but few are.

And I've been a huge Mia Kirshner fan ever since the first season of 24. She just might be the hottest woman working in Hollywood. But has anyone seen a film of hers where she's a decent actor?

And though I'm not thrilled about Josh Hartnett, this is my most anticipated film of 2006.

[John Cope]

She just might be the hottest woman working in Hollywood. But has anyone seen a film of hers where she's a decent actor?

Um...Exotica? She's also particularly interesting in Arcand's Love and Human Remains.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Yeah, this looks really good (er, as well as a few minutes of footage can) and I have really high hopes for this. It looks like Ellroy is possibly right 'bout this one, Josh Hartnett looked and sounded pretty good and the production design looks exquisite!

[Antoine Doinel]

I'm pretty much on board for whatever Aaron Eckhart does, so sign me up!

[justeleblanc]

Um...Exotica? She's also particularly interesting in Arcand's Love and Human Remains.

I haven't seen Arcand's, but I must disagree with you on Exotica.

[Polybius]

She's good in New Best Friend and Century Hotel as well as Exotica.

[justeleblanc]

I'll check them out, and if I must sit through another screening of Exotica I will.

[Polybius]

Well, Exotica is one of my favorite films of the last 15 years, so...you might want to take that into account in regards to my recommendations.

[Antoine Doinel]

Dave Poland has posted pics from the press kit. Pretty snazzy!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

[flyonthewall2983]

When I saw the trailer, I immediately knew what it was when I first hear Brian's voice (showing you hwo much a film geek I am). Seeing it I saw why Maggie Gyllenhaal rejected the part of the victim (the part where she crawls on the floor is too similar to certain scenes in Secretary). But damn, she would have been smoking.

I really hope the feeling I got from the trailer will translate to the finished product. Plus I think we all (or most of us) can agree that DePalma deserves another moment in the sun.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

I really hope the feeling I got from the trailer will translate to the finished product. Plus I think we all (or most of us) can agree that DePalma deserves another moment in the sun.

I couldn't agree more. Plus, I think that De Palma is at his best when he has strong material to work with and it doesn't get any better than James Ellroy. I always felt that they would be quite compatible so long as whoever wrote the screenplay didn't mess around with Ellroy's book too much.

Incidentally, if there any other Ellroy fans out there, he wrote a nice piece on why he's moving back to Los Angeles in the L.A. Times over the weekend.

It's nice to read Ellroy's trademark rat-a-tat-tat pulpy prose again.

[justeleblanc]

My guess is this will be a fun film like Untouchables, but I doubt it will have the emotional power of Carlito's Way -- which has been on tv pretty much every day, and I always have to finish watching it every time it's on. The scene on the boat with Sean Penn is still powerful.

[Dylan]

[Fletch F. Fletch]

A nice collection of stills from the movie: http://good-boy.livejournal.com/397880.html

[Antoine Doinel]

The face on that one sheet keeps reminding me of the Joker....

[Fletch F. Fletch]

A brief behind-the-scenes featurette

[Fletch F. Fletch]

From De Palma a la Mod:

Entertainment Tonight, the syndicated TV entertainment program which aired a story about the real life Black Dahlia case a couple of weeks ago, tonight aired a new segment on The Black Dahlia film, with new clips and behind-the-scenes peeks. You can watch the segment now at YouTube. It includes new interviews with Hilary Swank and Aaron Eckhart, and offers our first glimpse of k.d. lang singing in the film, as well as of Mark Isham's score (you can hear a few bars if you listen underneath at least one of the film clips). Also of interest: many people have chided Swank's line-reading of "Elizabeth and I made love once..." in the trailer for the film. Well, in this ET segment, they show the actual film clip, and it is a completely different and more convincing line-reading. There are two key differences: in the actual film footage, you'll notice that Swank whispers the line much more gently than in the trailer. The other key difference is that while in the trailer, she says "Elizabeth and I," in the actual film footage she says "Betty and I made love once." The clips shown in this segment all look excellent.

Check it out!

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Early reviews are starting to roll in...

Variety

The Hollywood Reporter

Screen Daily

[Antoine Doinel]

Pretty cool "newsreel" promotional video for the film