Ask the Dust
Tags: romantic, depressing, flashback

Plot synopsis:
Arturo Bandini is a struggling writer living in a residential hotel in Bunker Hill, a rundown section of Downtown Los Angeles. Living off the zest of oranges, he unconsciously creates a picture of Los Angeles as a modern dystopia during the Great Depression era. His published short story "The Little Dog Laughed" impresses no one in his seedy boarding house except for one 14-year-old girl, Judy. Destitute, he wanders into the Columbia Buffet where he meets Camilla Lopez, a waitress.
Bandini falls in love with Lopez, who is herself in love with co-worker Sam. Sam despises Camilla, telling Bandini if he wants to win over Camilla, he has to treat her poorly. Bandini struggles with his own poverty, his Catholic guilt, and with his love for an unstable and deteriorating Camilla. Camilla is eventually admitted to a mental hospital, and moved to a second one, before escaping. Bandini looks for her, only finding her as she awaits for him in his apartment. He decides to take her away from Los Angeles, and arranges to live in a house on the beach. He buys her a little dog and they go to the new place. He leaves her there, to get his belongings from his Los Angeles hotel room. When he returns, she's gone. He tracks her down to the desert home of Sam, who is ill and dying. Before Bandini arrives, Sam has thrown Camilla out and she wanders into the desert. Bandini looks for her with an agonizing fear that he won't find the woman he loves, and he doesn't. He returns to Sam's shack, looks over the empty desert land. He takes a copy of the novel he had recently published, dedicates it to Camilla, and throws it into the desert.

Review: Set in the new-get-rich town of failed dreams (Los Angeles), the writer is an inexperienced and virginal Colin Farrell, who gradually falls for the uncompromising immigrant waitress Salma Hayek.
This is a movie which, like its hero, has great ambitions but fails pitifully in many of them, yet one which can be treasured for its moments of pure beauty and shining rapture in its laboured attempt to become a classic.Colin Farrell's career to this point, after a spectacular rise with the gripping and slightly manic role in Phone Booth, attempted to scale heights which were out of reach (in Alexander, for instance), and then now seems to be developing more methodically with admirable performances such as The New World.
She has been quoted as saying (in one of her less political or feminist moments), "I keep waiting to meet a man who has more balls than I do," and in our story Farrell has his work cut out to dominate her in true Mexican latino fashion.Farrell and Hayek both being considered among top cinema sex icons, it will come as no disappointment to fans of both that they get into the buff on more than one occasion.
happiness is that you can be in a place where you are secure, and fall in love with whoever you want to, and not feel ashamed of it) is not backed up with any clarity of thought in the script (Farrell justifies his American-ness by youth and love of his country, throwing ageism in to replace racism); and the pot-shots at marijuana (if you will excuse the pun), which Hayek uses partly, we suspect, to ease her illness, are so politically incorrect as to be laughable outside of the 'great United States'.
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.
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.
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..
"Ask the Dust" has excellent elements that almost come together as a whole.Like "End of the Affair" and "The White Countess", it surrounds a fraught love affair with exquisite looking period recreation that almost sucks the life out of it.
(As with those films, the senior citizens at my matinée really enjoyed the period aspect.) Set in a sepia-tinged Depression-era Los Angeles of polluted palm trees, it is populated equally by youthful blond California girls and boys and old people at the end of the continent and their lines, as symbolized by Donald Sutherland's begging boarding house neighbor, like a ghost from his role in "The Day of the Locust".
What saves the film is the frank dialog and odd sparks between Colin Farrell, as repressed Italian-American writer from Colorado, novelist John Fante's alter ego with the even more ethnically redolent name of "Arturo Bandini", and Salma Hayak as a non-stereotyped Mexican spitfire "Camilla Lopez".
The non-narrated scenes are a relief and are beautiful to look at, as the cinematography of Caleb Deschanel (dad of actresses Zoey and Emily) is consistently lovely.But then Farrell is surrounded by eccentric characters who are all hiding emotional or physical scars until he can face up to his own to find his real writer's voice.
From Chinatown to Personal Best to The Firm, he spouted off anecdotes and insights into Hollywood and the screen writing process in general.Then the audience was treated to a special preview screening of "Ask the Dust." It would seem that this has been a labour of love for Mr. Towne; one that has been several decades in the making.
Robert Towne's obvious love affair with John Fante's Depression Era novel, ASK THE DUST, is evident throughout this somewhat over-long film.
While the story is a bit clumsy and self-indulgent with so many sidebars that the momentum of the movie gets bogged down in the telling, there are enough fine attributes to make it a recommended evening of reminiscence about Los Angeles, the City of the Angels in the 1930s.Arturo Bandini (Colin Farrell) narrates the tale of a lad from Colorado with one published story in a magazine edited by H.L. Mencken who moves to Los Angeles' Bunker Hill apartments to write his big novel.
Arturo quickly becomes penniless, is pestered for rent by landlady Mrs. Hargraves (Dame Eileen Atkins) and for handouts by drunkard Hellfrick (Donald Sutherland), and still a virgin he plies his vision as a writer in a local café where he encounters the beautiful Camilla (way too much of a play on the character of Dumas' 'Camille'...).
The two play a battle of wits and insults to cover their apparent infatuation with each other: Mexican Camilla is looking for a wealthy 'white man' to raise her out of her illiterate station and Arturo is looking for a sexual encounter to spur his writing.During their extended 'courting' Arturo is vamped by Vera Rivkin (Idina Menzel), a Jewish housekeeper with grossly deformed legs who dreams of a man who will call her beautiful, and in a touching encounter Arturo displays the kind vulnerability lying under his rather callous and naive exterior.Arturo and Camilla at last connect, and in a Laguna beach house they fall under the spell of love, a state that ends tragically, like the dust from the desert winds burying all hopes of the people of Southern California.The story is a bit clunky and the dialogue feels forced at times but it is always a pleasure to see the work of Farrell, Hayek, Atkins, and Sutherland.
Salma Hayek also scores in her sniping early scenes with Farrell and portrays well her character's fears and insecurities at a time when being Mexican was so obviously looked down upon (a very neat selection by Towne for the film excerpt in the cinema scene).
Both characters- the writer with more aspirations than experiences to actually write about (Colin Farrel) and the beautiful yet grieving Mexican beauty (Salma Hayek) - wander through the sad streets of L.A, fighting each other and mostly themselves.
However, I was fairly impressed with Colin Farrell as Arturo Bandini and thought Salma Hayek pulled off a good Camilla.
Arturo and Camilla - beautifully played by Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek - are young and intelligent but victims of clearly outspoken prejudice against their family heritages; his being Italian and hers being Mexican.
Unfortunately, she falls for Arturo - an Italian and definitely not "respectable" in the United States of that time.Ask the Dust is more than just a delicious love story of two beautiful, passionate people.
I couldn't understand why many critics attacked this movie, I thought it was so gripping and heartbreaking.Idina Menzel, Colin Farrell and mainly Salma Hayek give so strong and convincing performances that the minor flaws in the film can be overlooked.
The cinematography, so talked on the reviews is indeed beautiful and also are the art direction and costumes.The beach scene is so intense and sexy that I'm sure it will become in of those scenes people talk for years.Arturo Bandini never looked more handsome with Colin Farrell playing it with restrain and wit.
He may be the cause why some people are bashing the film but he shows how much of a great actor he is.Salma Hayek brings a touching performance, one so powerful that sticks with you when the film is over.Donald Sutherland, Justin Kirk and Eileen Atkins get little to do but they do it as best as they can.
She makes you believe in her Camilla Lopez.Towne has given a great feel to his film with an exceptionally constructed Set of thirties Los Angeles and some beautifully put together and lit scenes and an accurate wardrobe of the time.
It has been ages since Robert Towne directed a new film, and Ask the Dust did not fail the anticipation of fans who love and appreciate his previous production, such as Tequila Sunrise and Without Limits.Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek makes up the new pair of silver screen couple, with the background set in the Depression Era of US in the 30's.
Farrell takes up the role of Arturo Bandini, an Italian author living in a cheap motel in Los Angeles, while Hayek plays a Mexican waitress, Camilla, who wants to marry an rich American for a better life.
Arturo was inspired by Camilla, which leads him to wrote more stories, and at the same time, making him realize who he loves eventually.Towne brought out the lives and problems of Arturo and Camilla well, where a young author will never spare much thought on how will he survive tomorrow by spending lots of money on luxury after he gotten his pay, while she will do anything to get herself married to an American for a better life.Ask the Dust also brought out one point faced in the previous century: racism.
While playing a bisexual trapped in between the love of his homosexual best friend and his best friend's female roommate in A Home At the End of the World (2004), Ask the Dust gives Farrell a greater chance of exploration of a romantic and sentimental man.
Keep a look out for the scene where both Farrell and Hayek swims in the beach nude, which is one of the attraction of the film, where this scene starts their romance.Veteran actor Donald Sutherland appears as a special appearance rather than a supporting role, where he plays Hellfrick, Arturo's neighbour.
Not much room was given to Sutherland, for his role was too redundant, where he appears less than 15 minutes in the whole film.In all, Ask the Dust has not failed that badly, and it was definitely worth the 8 years wait from Towne..
John Fante wrote a great book called ask the dust and Hollywood Screenwriter Robert Towne managed to make an efficient translation of The eclectic novel into the big screen.Relying on the powerful performances of his cast, the film depends mostly on the background of Los Angeles as the magnificent city of Dreams and ambition where lonely souls collide day after day.I particularly loved the way racism is portrayed on the film, not in The melodramatic way of last year's crash but as disease.Salma Hayek is terrific as the smoldering Camilla Lopez, a temptress Decided to rise above her status by marrying a blond American.
Ask the Dust does not get everything right, but it works nicely for a romantic drama with Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell at the top of their game.If I am going to ask the dust one question, it would be regarding secondary characters.
A film starring Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell, two respected and talented actors, sounds like a great idea.
No one is given a proper back story, so we don't ever know why the characters act the way they do.Explanations for physical and emotional scars are left to our imagination, if you still have one left at the end of this movie.I told a friend that I went to see this film, and that I thought it was awful.Her question: "Not even Colin Farrell could save it?" My response: "Not even Colin Farrell's ass could save it.".
The only entertaining aspect for me was Colin Farrell's character is an insecure writer and this screenplay, despite tackling the juicy subject of racism, approaches the audience in the fashion of an ABC Afterschool Special.The only person who didn't sound like he was "acting' was Sutherland, and his minutes were few.Stale approach to a tired plot..
It's clear throughout the film that this is an adaptation of a book and although most movies like it try to hide the fact, this one incorporates it willingly and in long moments of silence I missed Colin Farrell's soothing, low voice telling me what to feel.
Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but there are much worse ways to spend two hours.The film is set in Depression era Los Angeles and the attention to period detail is exceptional, 1930s L.A. brought brilliantly to life.
Colin Farrell plays writer Arturo Bandini who is struggling to find inspiration that will allow him to sell some stories for some desperately needed cash.
I share the hope that either this is a VERY rough cut and extensive repairs can be made, or that this will quietly come and go.Ask the Dust by John Fante, in my view at least, IS the Great American Novel, which makes for an all the more difficult task of adaptation.
I'm usually a person who watches a movie (or reads a book) all the way to the end, no matter how bad simply because I invested my time into it.
The best thing about 'Ask The Dust' is Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek.
Their scenes are a delight to watch.The film could have easily ended up being like a telenovella or soap opera but the two actors play their parts naturally and writer/ director Robert Towne manages to avoid romantic clichés as he lets the relationship flourish on screen.
I cannot believe that this amazing book is being turned into a movie starring Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell.
For all those who will see (or have seen) the movie but HAVE NOT read the book, you need to know: this is one of the great novels of American literature.
Hayek did well, she is a natural beauty and played the Camilla character they way I imagined her, with strength, charm and humility.I liked the LA scenery very much, the feel, the sand grains "from the Mojave" brought Ask The Dust alive, although -- and I've never seen 1939 LA -- the set did seem kind of sparse.One thing I did not like too much was the script, using as a base of comparison the novel.
Robert Towne, the acclaimed director of the classic, "Chinatown" brings us into the story of Arturo Bandini, an American writer who moves to write a beloved tale of love.
To make matters worse, the "Ask the Dust" movie set didn't even depict the Bunker Hill neighborhood--a real character in the book--but rather showed it only in the background as a distorted Third Street tunnel and the adjacent funicular, Angels Flight.
I really enjoyed the first half of this movie, I enjoyed the characters; Justin Kirk as Sammy felt as the right move, Salmha Hayek wasn't exactly depicting the picture I head of Camilla in my head after reading the novel, but overall, it is a good cast.
I don't like this film, but then I didn't think much of the book either which, although lauded by many as a "masterpiece", I found lacking in character development and disjointed and illogical in plot, although it was far more readable than Fante's dreadful first effort "Road to Los Angeles" not published until Fante became fashionable in the mid 80s.I was intrigued to see what sort of soup Towne would make with such meager ingredients.
Is it likely that their romance takes an unlucky turn?It is very surprising to find out that the chemistry between the two main characters, performed by Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell, does not work.
I have it on good authority that the movie has a more feel-good, "Hollywood" ending than the book, but aside from that factoid I know little of the original work.I do know that Fante wrote autobiographically, though, and that Colin Farrell's character in this movie - Arturo Bandidi - is basically him.
By filtering the story through the eyes of a writer named Bandini (one of Colin Farrell's best performances), Towne is able to give poetry and insight-fullness to the character and the events without coming off as overly pretentious.
Towne has been sculpted "Ask the Dusk" into a deliberate, five-way romance: a distillation of Towne's long-time love for Fante, Towne's adoration of noir (and its assorted signs, trinkets and decor), Towne and Fante's love for early Los Angeles (its history, its characters, locales and heartbeat), Towne's idealisation of the Romantic image of the struggling artist, and the in-film love affair between an artist (played by Colin Farrell) and a Mexican waitress (Salma Hayek).The film can't touch Nicholas Ray's "In A Lonely Place", but to those attuned to Towne's very specific yearnings it's a very good film.
Ask the Dust is a film based on the book of the same title by John Fante.
It stars Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek together with Donald Sutherland and Idina Menzel.The movie was written and directed by Robert Towne.Arturo Bandini is a young writer who comes to Los Angeles during the Great Depression in order to write a novel.
The themes are all there and Colin Farrell together with costar Salma Hayek have rarely been so affecting, or so effective, as self-hating ethnics who find love.We simply do care for their characters.Although thinking is required to fully appreciate this film,watching it is definitely a rewarding experience..
We knew something bad would happen - we just weren't sure what.If you like movies about interesting and unusual people, who overcome their flaws to bring out the best in themselves and each other, and who say some of the best lines Robert Towne has ever written - and believe me, I know his awesome body of work - see "Ask the Dust." You will not be disappointed..