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Review & Behind the Scenes

Traditionally, Hollywood has a tradition of making it harder to bring darker subjects to the big screen, but what makes The Black Dahlia different from the traditional murder mystery is the way in which the case affects all those who are close to it. So the movie not only explores who committed the murder, but also depicts the impact of the case on the LAPD and on the women around the detective. Director Brian Palmer, who understands the nature of black *** and is very good at this kind of material, admits that he didn't just intend to tell the story of the Dahlia, but also to explore the world of the fictional characters in the book, who were all affected by the murder. Palmer has always been a fan of plot twists and turns, so he particularly appreciates that "everyone in the novel lies. Sometimes what you think someone is saying is the opposite of what they said earlier. Every character is compromised ...... and ultimately unstoppable."

All adapted screenplays cut certain episodes of the original, and in revealing the Dahlia crime scene, Palmer shifts the audience's attention to another scene (the shootout scene) at the same time as the discovery of the discarded body, a treatment that happens to be the exact opposite of how it's laid out within the novel. Palma believes that the big case is more ironic when it is hidden behind a smaller one. Although the director and screenwriter felt the need to bring the text and intricate subplots of the original to the screen, they also knew that the visual world of the movie required a skill that the novelist did not have. For example, the original states that the reason Elizabeth's murderer carved a gruesome smile on her face was inspired by the character Gwynbrand from Hugo's The Man with the Smiling Face. Gwynbrand was disfigured because the king had committed treason in revenge against his father. The character was also the inspiration for the Joker in Batman Begins. Bryan noted that in the original, the killer was so impressed with the Man with the Smiling Face that he committed the same atrocity on Dahlia's face, so he asked the staff, "How do we do it? Is there a movie about it? And of course there was." Palmer solved the problem by having Ryland, Dwight and Kay watch German director Paul Leni's 1928 film The Man with the Smiling Face. (It just so happens that the older film was also produced by Universal and was one of the studio's earliest sound films.)

Elizabeth Short finally made it to the big screen nearly 60 years after she was killed, and while she dreamed of being the actress who touched people's hearts during her lifetime, the process by which she has indeed burned herself into the hearts of the masses is so appalling. Elizabeth perished at a very young age, yet her story will live on, how did such a beautiful poster girl end up like this? Who was the killer and why? "The Black Dahlia has been around for decades and will remain a mystery forever.

The first in the L.A. tetralogy

The film is based on a true crime, adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name. The victim, Elizabeth Short, was born on July 29, 1924, and during World War II, many actresses dreamed of making a name for themselves in Hollywood, and Short was no exception, venturing into Los Angeles at the age of 19 alone. But Elizabeth's journey was not a smooth one, as she frequented celebrity social venues in an attempt to trade her body for money or gigs, and was allegedly last seen in public on January 9, 1947 at the Biltmore Hotel on Grand Ave. where she met with a male friend. Elizabeth was known for her black hair, black clothes, and beautiful flowers on her head, as well as the blonde actress Veronica Lake's The Blue Dahlia, which had just been released in theaters, making the Black Dahlia her nickname both in life and in death.

The appalling murder of the young actress shook Hollywood and the United States up and down in 1947, and there was no shortage of mob bosses, sleazy studio executives, and corrupt police officers in the entertainment industry town of Los Angeles, all of whom wanted to take advantage of the young woman's cheapness ...... and all of whom wanted to fish for a piece of the pie from the story of her tragic death. For months after the murder, both major and minor newspapers headlined Elizabeth's story, from Who Killed Elizabeth Short? to "Black Bags, Black Shoes: The Sexy Dahlia Leads the Way", Elizabeth's death became a Hollywood legend. Everyone who threw themselves into the investigation dove in head first, either working to trash Dahlia's reputation or trying to save it. Various messages, accusations, and confessions circulated after Elizabeth's murder, but the killer was never caught, and it became an unsolved case for the Los Angeles Major Crimes Unit. Forty years after Elizabeth's murder, crime novelist James Ellroy wrote the book "The Black Dahlia", this crime theory novel came out immediately after the best-selling works, and then, James has launched "The Big Nowhere", "L.A. Confidential" (L. A. Confidential), "White Jazz" three style works, thereby This completes the so-called "L.A. Quadrilogy".

The cast of The Black Dahlia was one that had to be able to embody the spirit of the modern day Black ***, capable of interpreting the thrillers of the 1940's and 1950's without becoming a clown imitating the characters of that era, and, according to director Brian Parmar, "a great cast can create an atmosphere that is completely amazing. atmosphere." After the director and producer solved the problem of funding, the biggest challenge was to select a new generation of Hollywood actors with excellent acting skills, otherwise they would not be able to successfully interpret the essence of James Ellroy's original, and even more unable to express the true soul of the black ***, and finally handpicked five young leading actors in turn in place, in which Josh Hartnett as Detective Dwight fell headlong into a murder case, and then his world is completely out of his control! , "Despite how corrupt the world is, Dwight is quite decent, and like Henry Bogart as Black ***, Dwight has his moral authority in the movie." Harnett faced not only dialogue in keeping with the style of the day, but also had to practice boxing four hours a day for seven months straight to match the protagonist's previous status as a lightweight boxer; the other protagonist of the convoluted love triangle was Alan Eckhart, who became famous with Diary of a Wicked Man, and whom Palmer considered to be "a young Kirk Douglas ", the opposite of the by-the-book Dwight, Allen could show off Ryland's crazy qualities as the fiery, hot-blooded detective.

After casting the androgynous characters, Palmer had to find three more actresses, three characters who are flavorful but definitely not ignorant girls waiting to be rescued; they're all mysterious and perpetually unsettling. Kay Lake is an injured woman taken in by Ryland and the object of Dwight's crush. Palmer thought it was important to find a worldly-eyed actress, someone who looked like she had stepped out of the past and was reminiscent of the old days, and he had met Scarlett Johansson, who was only then playing The Horse Whisperer, years before, and was so impressed with Scarlett's performance that he decided to work with her in the future; Canadian actress Mia Kirshner (Jenny in the lesbian drama The L Word) auditioned for the role early on to try to be more than just a woman of her word. Canadian actress Mia Kirshner (Jen in the lesbian drama The L Word) auditioned early for the role of Madeleine, who is not as good as she says she is. Appreciating her superb acting skills, Palmer worked with the writers to increase Dahlia's part, inviting Mia to star as the young actress; as for the role of the misguided and sultry Madeleine, the director believed that this person should not only have the charisma of a serpentine, but also look like Mia Kirshner, as the original story clearly points out, Dahlia's murder was purely due to the fact that she looked like another human being. Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank signed on to play this amoral woman after her role in Million Dollar Baby, believing that the role was so complex that the actress had to be able to portray "the poor rich girl who's always ready to take a man into her room," according to Palmer. Hilary is the quintessential Spider-Woman, she can play a woman who is very vulnerable but can show her evil side right away."

Reimagining L.A. of Yesteryear

James Ellroy described L.A.'s dark side as "sinful, ****, super sick." To create the 1947 Los Angeles of the film, the crew traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria, where "the audience can still see Beverly Hills, but it's far away from Sofia." In June 2005, the crew returned to L.A. to capture local footage, culminating in the City Hall on Spring Street; to match the style of the costumes, the costume designers shipped clothes from London to Bulgaria, especially the "radiant" costumes of the three female leads. Hilary Swank, who once modeled Calvin Klein's underwear, admired the look of the costumes in the film and felt that she instantly "glowed like Judy Garland or Rita Hayworth" in the costumes. Even Parmar said that the three leading ladies are all dressed beautifully and are extremely sexy, "They are beautifully dressed [for the movie], it's hard to resist seeing them." Costumers also prepared silk flowers, black satin dresses and tattered *** for "Dahlia". Scarlett Johansson found many beautiful costumes for Kay Lake as well, and laughed at her short-sleeved set of sweaters, pearls, and antique hair clips, saying, "How can you not feel sexy in that?" The men's outfits consisted of wide ties, double-breasted suits, and light-topped tweed hats. Although the two heroes are poorly paid police detectives, Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett wore the ultimate in fashion.

In addition, the director also paid close attention to the ambience of the soundtrack, so he brought in composer and jazz trumpeter Mark Eicha, and the sad sound of the trumpet greatly echoes the bluesy style of the movie. In addition, the nightclubs of the 40's were of course filled with long-legged singing *** girls, and Mia Frye, the dancer whom Palmer worked with in Femme Fatale (Two Faces Thriller), was especially invited to bring in French, Bulgarian, and British dancers this time around to recreate the nightclubs of the day. (TOM Films)