Country:
United Kingdom/USA
Recognizable Faces:
James Ellroy
Nick Nolte
Directed By:
Vikram Jayanti
Netflix is good for dusting off that kind of gems. BBC and Showtime teamed up together to produce this documentary on the arch-god...oh wait...the demon dog of American crime fiction, James Ellroy and his fascination for those very complicated unsolved murders, including the one of his own mother Geneva Hilliker in 1958, when Ellroy was only ten years old. It's strange to think that the murder of this woman triggered what would be the greatest revolution in noir. Vikram Jayanti tries to understand the man and the vision behind the game changing novels of James Ellroy.
I'm not sure how close it is from My Dark Places, Ellroy's first memoir, but during the first half of the documentary, I'm pretty sure it's the book he's reading from, while explaining the intricacies of his mother's murders and revisiting the places of his youth. Jayanti's well engineered piece of cinema is using that first half as a build up for his quite spectacular second part. He's introducing Ellroy's friends at the LAPD department, who helped him since the days he started trying to solve his mother's murder. Those cops are amazingly human, one of them recalls the moment where he presented Ellroy the evidence on his mother's murder, including the murder photos and the dress she was wearing that night. "I remember that dress" Ellroy simply said. The cop, whose name is eluding me, recalled the days following that moment: "I witnessed a grown man, falling in love with his mother for the first time". The ties in between the LAPD and James Ellroy are very tight, as you can see.
But that only sets up the table for what is to come. The second half of Vikram Jayanti's documentary consists of Ellroy, the LAPD, journalist Larry Harnisch and Nick Nolte for whatever reason, dining together (feast of death) and discussing the Black Dahlia murder. Any amateur sleuth can appreciate this. Some of the sharpest minds, taking their pot shots at one of the greatest American enigmas along with the JFK murder. The unsung star here is Larry Harnisch, the journalist who, according to Ellroy, might very well have solved the case. They discuss the hypothesis of Dr. Walter Bayley, his ties to the Dahlia and his very fucking strange habits. Ellroy and Harnisch explain what, according to the writer, is the only logical explanation. The police cast their doubts, but their reasons are really weak. They are what you can call "a reasonable doubt" but the Walter Baylay explanation is really convincing. That's how analytical Ellroy is.
Feast Of Death is not a documentary that James Ellroy could've carried alone. The angle taken by Vikram Jayanti is vital to this brilliant piece of filmmaking. It's a legitimate effort to understand one of the wildest and by the same way, most mysterious and important writesr in the late twentieth/early twenty-first century. If you're looking to understand how crime literature managed to transcend the structural concept of morality (good vs evil), Feast Of Death is mesmerizing. It stresses the importance that the novels of Ellroy had over his contemporary writers and in perspective with the "classic" hardboiled school writers like Hammett and Chandler. Probably the best writer documentary I have ever seen.
SCORE: 88%
I'm not sure how close it is from My Dark Places, Ellroy's first memoir, but during the first half of the documentary, I'm pretty sure it's the book he's reading from, while explaining the intricacies of his mother's murders and revisiting the places of his youth. Jayanti's well engineered piece of cinema is using that first half as a build up for his quite spectacular second part. He's introducing Ellroy's friends at the LAPD department, who helped him since the days he started trying to solve his mother's murder. Those cops are amazingly human, one of them recalls the moment where he presented Ellroy the evidence on his mother's murder, including the murder photos and the dress she was wearing that night. "I remember that dress" Ellroy simply said. The cop, whose name is eluding me, recalled the days following that moment: "I witnessed a grown man, falling in love with his mother for the first time". The ties in between the LAPD and James Ellroy are very tight, as you can see.
But that only sets up the table for what is to come. The second half of Vikram Jayanti's documentary consists of Ellroy, the LAPD, journalist Larry Harnisch and Nick Nolte for whatever reason, dining together (feast of death) and discussing the Black Dahlia murder. Any amateur sleuth can appreciate this. Some of the sharpest minds, taking their pot shots at one of the greatest American enigmas along with the JFK murder. The unsung star here is Larry Harnisch, the journalist who, according to Ellroy, might very well have solved the case. They discuss the hypothesis of Dr. Walter Bayley, his ties to the Dahlia and his very fucking strange habits. Ellroy and Harnisch explain what, according to the writer, is the only logical explanation. The police cast their doubts, but their reasons are really weak. They are what you can call "a reasonable doubt" but the Walter Baylay explanation is really convincing. That's how analytical Ellroy is.
Feast Of Death is not a documentary that James Ellroy could've carried alone. The angle taken by Vikram Jayanti is vital to this brilliant piece of filmmaking. It's a legitimate effort to understand one of the wildest and by the same way, most mysterious and important writesr in the late twentieth/early twenty-first century. If you're looking to understand how crime literature managed to transcend the structural concept of morality (good vs evil), Feast Of Death is mesmerizing. It stresses the importance that the novels of Ellroy had over his contemporary writers and in perspective with the "classic" hardboiled school writers like Hammett and Chandler. Probably the best writer documentary I have ever seen.
SCORE: 88%
