Someone mentioned an interview with Ellroy in the KC Star,
but was
unable to find it. It's not in the archive library yet,
though I
herefound an article about a documentary recently released.
Anyone
seen it?
When the interview is archived it will be in the "Library"
section of
the KC Star webpage (www.kcstar.com).
James Ellroy's doing fine KC-based writer is subject of
documentary,
and 'L.A. Confidential'picked up Oscar.
By: STEVE PAUL Arts & Entertainment Editor
Date: 03/28/98
NEW YORK - Some week for James Ellroy.
The Kansas City-based writer of noir novels that dissect
the
underbellies of Los Angeles in particular and American
culture at
large was honored indirectly Monday night when the screen
adaptation
of his book L.A. Confidential won an Oscar. On Wednesday in
New York
a documentary movie about Ellroy and his work opened for a
two-week
run at the Film Forum, an indie-heaven movie house in
Greenwich
Village.
``James Ellroy: Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction'' is the
product
of Austrian filmmakers Reinhard Jud and Wolfgang Lehner. In
it Ellroy,
driving the streets of Los Angeles in a powder-blue
Cadillac
convertible, takes viewers on a tour of the dark side of his
life and
obsessions. It's filled with all the nervous energy and
grungy light
that readers of Ellroy's books might expect.
Tour stops include the sites of the notorious Black Dahlia
murder of
1947 (original crime scene photos of the bisected woman's
body are not
for the squeamish) and of the murder of Ellroy's mother 11
years
later. Neither crime was ever solved, and both have propelled
Ellroy's
psyche ever since. The film, made in 1993 and already shown
on
television in Europe, predates the publication of
Ellroy's
autobiographical My Dark Places and the making of
``L.A.
Confidential. ''
But the writer's driven, often wacky and abundant ego is the
central
and fascinating point here. He was 10 years old when his
mother was
murdered. He dropped out of high school and the Army and
descended
into a hell of booze and drugs and petty crime before working
his way
out in the late '70s and beginning his journey as a writer:
``I just
wanted to be Tolstoy. I wanted to be Dostoyevsky. I wanted to
be
Balzac. I wanted to be all these guys who, frankly, I've
never really
read. I wanted to give people crime fiction on an epic
transcendental
scale. ''
Ellroy was scheduled to attend a screening Friday night in
New
York. No word yet on whether the film will be shown in Kansas
City.
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