Venice fest open with <i>Black Dahlia</i>
News
oi-Staff
By Super Admin
Thursday,
August
31,
2006
VENICE
(Reuters):
The
Venice
Film
Festival
opened
with
the
world
premiere
of
The
Black
Dahlia,
a
sepia-tinted
throwback
to
1940s
Hollywood
based
on
a
grisly
real-life
murder
that
remains
unsolved
to
this
day.
Starring
Scarlett
Johansson,
two-time
Oscar
winner
Hilary
Swank
and
Josh
Hartnett,
Brian
de
Palma's
heavily
stylised
adaptation
of
a
James
Ellroy
novel
yesterday
kicked
off
11
days
of
movies,
stars
and
parties
along
the
fashionable
Lido
beach
front.
The
highly
anticipated
movie
is
one
of
four
major
US
productions
in
Venice
this
year
that
focus
on
true
murder
stories
from
the
1940s,
50s
and
60s.
The
title
The
Black
Dahlia
is
taken
from
the
nickname
given
to
Elizabeth
Short,
a
young
aspiring
actress
whose
grisly
death
in
1947
gripped
Los
Angeles.
Short's
body
was
discovered
naked
and
cut
in
half
at
the
waist.
Her
organs
had
been
removed,
blood
was
drained
from
her
body
and
the
killer
had
bludgeoned
and
sodomised
her
and
slit
her
mouth
from
ear
to
ear.
Ellroy's
novel,
which
layers
fiction
on
to
the
factual
murder,
was
the
writer's
way
of
coping
with
his
own
mother's
death
by
strangulation
in
1958
in
another
unsolved
case.
''Twice
in
my
27-year
novel-writing
career
I
got
lucky
with
film
adaptations
--
first
with
'LA
Confidential'
and
second
with
The
Black
Dahlia,''
Ellroy
told
reporters
after
the
press
screening
of
the
film
ahead
of
an
evening
red
carpet
premiere.
The
Black
Dahlia
is
an
obsessive
mark
on
my
history
deriving
from
my
own
mother's
murder
in
1958
--
my
mother,
Black
Dahlia
as
one.
''What
Mr
de
Palma
did
so
very
deftly
in
this
film
is
isolate
the
key
themes
of
sexual
obsession
and
redemption
and
the
triangulation
of
one
man
between
two
women,
and
always
the
haunting
spectre
of
...
Johansson,
asked
if
she
thought
her
scene
of
passion
with
Hartnett
might
prove
too
distracting
for
viewers,
replied:
''Of
course
it's
nice
to
be
considered
sexy
as
a
young
woman
in
my
prime,
I
guess.
''I
try
not
to
think
about
sexiness
or
sexy
scenes.''
She
drew
parallels
between
Hollywood's
fascination
with
Short's
murder
and
today's
media
frenzy
surrounding
the
unsolved
murder
of
six-year-old
US
beauty
queen
JonBenet
Ramsey.
''I
think
people
distract
themselves
with
those
type
of
news
stories
so
as
not
to
pay
attention
to
their
own
depression,''
she
told
reporters.
The
actors
in
this
modern
''film
noir'',
much
of
which
was
shot
on
set
in
Bulgaria,
drew
inspiration
from
screen
giants
from
the
1940s
and
50s
including
Humphrey
Bogart,
Lauren
Bacall,
Fred
MacMurray
and
Rita
Hayworth.
De
Palma
said
he
was
keen
to
resurrect
the
old
crime
genre.
''They
don't
do
many
of
them
today,
these
obsessive
stories,
these
femmes
fatales,
these
dark
depressive
characters
leading
into
hell,''
he
said.
''I
can't
quite
explain
why
that
period
was
so
full
of
these
noir
works.''
The
movie
is
a
fitting
opening
to
a
festival
also
featuring
competition
entrants
Hollywoodland,
about
the
mysterious
death
of
Superman
TV
star
George
Reeves
in
1959,
and
Bobby,
about
the
assassination
of
Robert
Kennedy
in
1968.
Hollywoodland
stars
Diane
Lane,
Adrien
Brody,
Ben
Affleck
and
Bob
Hoskins,
while
Sharon
Stone,
Anthony
Hopkins,
Demi
Moore
and
Lindsay
Lohan
appear
in
Emilio
Estevez's
Bobby.
Out
of
competition
is
Infamous,
Douglas
McGrath's
take
on
the
life
of
crime
writer
Truman
Capote
featuring
Sandra
Bullock,
Daniel
Craig
and
Gwyneth
Paltrow.