These days the 70 edition of the Festival de Cine de Cannes that ends tomorrow. Well, in that of hace 20 años the film adaptation of LA Confidential, the title of the most famous and acclaimed novel of James Ellroy. Directed her Curtis hanson (died last September).

El Rabid dog published LA Confidential en 1990 and they have adapted several works to the cinema. I, who have read almost everything about Ellroy, have it among my bedside novels. And from the movie I can only say that I think the better adaptation possible and a masterpiece of contemporary film noir. This review of both is another delivery special of the faces that they have put to our literary cops. With these they got it completely right. In all.

The Los Angeles Quartet

LA Confidential is third title of the so-called Los Angeles Quartet, composed of The Black Dahlia, The great desert, LA Confidential y White jazz. The last three follow the scheme of a trio of main characters, very common of this writer.

They all have their complexity both in structure and in reading, I would almost say that LA Confidential is the most. But that's why they are so fascinating to read. For that and for his telegraphic and forceful style, not suitable for delicate stomachs or politically correct spirits.

LA Confidential

Synopsis

The Angels, 50 years. The American dream coexists with pornography, police corruption and intrigues in the underworld of the city. A heinous mass murder sets off all alarms on the LAPD. There the lives of three policemen that could not be more different. The investigation they initiate will put them squarely in a trap maze that they have more inside than outside, and in themselves. And the consequences can be the worst.

Characters

They are innumerable. With the fictitious ones, the real, as the legendary head of the LAPD, William H Parker, or gangsters Jack Dragna or Mickey cohen. But let's see the most important.

• Ed ExleyGuy Pearce. Ambitious and thirsty for glory, to reach it is capable of breaking any law. He also intends to surpass his father, a prestigious ex-policeman and great tycoon who has passed away. It's a winner born and get what you want at any cost.
• Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey). An example of another type of ambition, that of fame. It feels more like a celebrity, is an advisor on a famous television series (Honor plaque) about the police and has no no scruples to pass information to tabloid magazines. But he will also be dragged by a plot that will make him rethink his principles. Even if it is too late.
• Bud White (Russell Crowe). Everything opposite to the previous ones. This marked by the brutal death of his mother, which he witnessed as a child, and has a special obsession with abusers of women. So violent as frustrated By its very nature, however, it reveals itself as a good researcher, which is ahead of everyone both in investigations and in action. It pays dearly for its skill, but it is also compensated.
• Dudley Smith (James Cromwell). Captain Smith, in the novel described as a round ruddy Irishman, is the character that connect the whole foursome. One of the the best of all those created by Ellroy, for the survival that proves his devilish nature. Perfect example of big baddies literary you can't avoid to admire.
• Lynn BrackenKim Basinger. The female characters in Ellroy's work are fewer, but they have a lot of strength and emotional charge. If they are not the obsessions of the male characters, they take the reins of the action or are decisive in it. The elegant luxury prostitute that imitates Veronica Lake is just one simple girl of people with just ambitions. So it is not a paradox that he stays with the man who also does not seek glory.

The film

How was impossible to develop in the cinematographic language the extremely complex and extensive plot, the screenwriter Brian Helgeland and the director Curtis hanson they made a engineering work which fortunately turned out very well for them. So good that they won the oscar the year after best adapted screenplay. But above all they got keep the essence of the original. They also managed to gather a Superb setting, soundtrack and photography. And they finished off the job with the choice of a choral cast in a state of grace.

The success: put a good hook with names of stars like Spacey y Basinger (which also won the Oscar a best supporting actress). They were joined by some fancy secondary like Cromwell (Exceptional like Captain Smith, although his physique did not correspond to that of the literary Smith). And they achieved that two unknown faces (Pearce y Crowe) will impact precisely because they cannot be associated with previous references, thus they became those characters.

The result: rods if someone has not seen it yet, it is taking time to do so as soon as I finish reading this. Those of us who have seen it, let's say, about 20 million times over these 20 years and we know the dialogues by heart (and in English), because once again it doesn't matter either.

• More about LA Confidencial here.