Ask the Dust

Plot

Adapted from a novel by John Fante, Robert Towne's Ask the Dust stars Colin Farrell as Arturo Bandini, a young writer who comes to Los Angeles during the Great Depression in order to write a novel. As the film opens, he is down to his last nickel and decides to spend it on coffee in a diner. He is served by Camilla (Salma Hayek), a Mexican beauty he is instantly attracted to even though he treats her horribly during their first interaction. Soon the pair is involved in a relationship that finds them sparring with each other at first, but slowly learning to trust each other. Bandini meets the acquaintance of a desperate woman who sees him as the most desirable man in the world. Eventually Arturo and Camilla get away from the city and their love deepens as he attempts to finish his novel. Donald Sutherland co-stars as a seedy but helpful and loyal neighbor. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Review

The biggest accomplishment of Robert Towne's adaptation of John Fante's Ask the Dust is that it will make anyone who sees it want to read the book. The film threads numerous layers of symbolism into the relationship between young Italian writer Arturo Bandini (Colin Farrell) and the Mexican waitress Camilla (Salma Hayek). There are questions of race, and what it means to be an American, and what it means to be in Los Angeles (a question that Towne has addressed often in his career), and how a writer must balance his time between writing and living life in order to have experiences to write about. Towne interweaves all of these themes into the dialogue in such a way that shows intelligence and an obvious love for the source material. However, for all of the thematic resonance built up, never once do these two characters seem to exist as real people. The characters are used to ask questions and make philosophical points, but they fail to register as three-dimensional human beings. Caleb Deschanel's exquisite cinematography, and the wonderful attention to period detail in the clothes and the cars, makes for a beautiful-looking movie that finds a perfect middle ground between being a perfect recreation of depression-era Los Angeles and expressing the dreamy, romantic vision of the protagonist. Towne and company get the subtext right, but fail to bring the main characters to life. Because of this, Ask the Dust engages the mind, but fails to touch the heart. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

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; Richard Schickel - Voice of Mencken; Charlie Hunnam

Credit

Tom Hannam - Art Director, Richard Johnson - Supervising Art Director, Hank McCann - Casting, Celestia Fox - Casting, Ana Feyder - Casting, Kia Jam - Co-producer, Jonas McCord - Co-producer, Galit Hakmon - Co-producer, Albert Wolsky - Costume Designer, Tommy Gormley - First Assistant Director, Robert Towne - Director, Robert Lambert - Editor, Redmond Morris - Executive Producer, Andreas Grosch - Executive Producer, Christopher Roberts - Executive Producer, Andreas Schmid - Executive Producer, Mark Roemmich - Executive Producer, David Selvan - Executive Producer, Jenny Shircore - Hair Styles, Heitor Pereira - Composer (Music Score), Ramin Djawadi - Composer (Music Score), Jenny Shircore - Makeup, Dennis Gassner - Production Designer, Caleb Deschanel - Cinematographer, Tom Cruise - Producer, Paula Wagner - Producer, Don Granger - Producer, Nancy Haigh - Set Designer, Nico Louw - Sound/Sound Designer, Robert Towne - Screenwriter, David Drzewiecki - Visual Effects Supervisor, Scott A. Hecker - Supervising Sound Editor, Pacific Title & Art Studio - Visual Effects, Lola Visual Effects - Visual Effects, Double Edge Digital - Visual Effects, Condor Post Cape Town - Visual Effects, John Fante - Book Author

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