FridayMOVIES

Friday Film: Rehna Recommends – LA Confidential

Pitch perfect performances from every single member of the cast. A storyline that keeps you gripped from beginning to end as it twists and turns unexpectedly in directions you never see coming. Russel Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey at the top of their acting game. Kim Basinger at her most ravishing. Brilliant, taut writing and direction.

Co-writer Brian Helgeland, Kim Basinger and writer director Curtis Hanson on Oscar night

LA confidential is one of the best films of the past few decades. It’s cinema at its best: luring you into a world outside your own and having you invest totally in the life of each character as they plough through the corruption, sleaze, injustice, love and hope of the underbelly of the city of angels.

On my only trip to theOscars (to date) I had the pleasure of meeting the film’s director, the late Curtis Hanson on the red carpet. I’m glad I was able to tell him what an amazing film he had made and how it had deserved all the awards it won and  how it should have won more. Unfortunately for LA confidential, the film had come up against the juggernaut that was Titanic.

Hanson also wrote the screenplay together with Brian Helgeland.

The film is a Neo – Noir crime film based on James Ellroy’s novel of the same name. The story revolves around a group of LAPD officers in the 1950s dealing with police and political corruption, sexual scandal and the seedy side of Hollywood celebrity.

L.A. Confidential Kim Basinger as a call girl made up to look like movie star Veronica Lake. Courtesy Warner Bros.

The film made stars out of Crowe and Pearce and gained Basinger a best supporting actress Oscar. It also influenced the fashion and beauty scene with its depiction of old style Hollywood glamour.

In 2015 the United States library of Congress chose the film for preservation in the National film registry as being ‘culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.’

Highly recommended. If you love cinema, this is an absolute must see.

Yours editorially

Rehna