Ask the Dust trailer (1 Viewer)

That doesn't look quite as bad as I might have expected. I didn't know Robert Towne was the director.
 
John Fante. Ask the Dust is probably his best book, but he was a great storyteller who's simple, plain language style had a great influence on Bukowski when he found his books in the library. Fante also used the city of Los Angeles predominantly in many of his stories, and I think this had an influence on Bukowski too, as far as bringing the city he loved into his work.

His son Dan Fante can turn a good line as well...
 
Dan Fante

As mjp mentioned Dan Fante I'd like to second his recommendation. what I know - quick run down -

Novels:
Bruno Dante trilogy:
Chump Change
Mooch
Spitting off Tall Buildings
(Mooch, Spitting off Tall Buildings being my personal favourites.)

Poetry:
A Gin Pissing, Raw Meat, Dual Carburettor V-8 Son-of-a-Bitch from Los Angeles
(Some great poetry here)

Short Stories:
Cocksucker
(Believe this may only be available without finding fee direct from Wrecking Ball Press. Have read some of these, great stuff.)

Also:
Renewal (short story)
(published by Bottle of Smoke, first 50 signed. great wee book.)

please enjoy both the Fante's
 
just watched it this morning, and came running here :D
I'm very excited. I'm big into ask the dust ~ not long ago i did a monster painting of the last scene. (monster = 10 feet square). i'm more excited to see what the actors do to the characters, than actually watching the movie i think. i love salma, but i'm still not convinced she's for the role. as for collin, well.. hm. like i said i'm waiting to see how they change everything, praise in one hand, rage in the other.
 
No film can live up to a great book. Even if it does a great job touching on the main points/scenes, it's going to leave anyone familiar with the book wanting more.

As much as these films may fall short to the lovers of the original work (I'm thinking of Factotum and Ask the Dust, but there are - and probably will be - others), at least there are films being made from literary sources, rather than another sequel to whatever pile of shit made the most money last year. Movies on the whole have really turned stupid over the past couple decades. So it's good to see these films being made. Love 'em or hate 'em. ;)
 
bmcg said:
(Mooch, Spitting off Tall Buildings being my personal favourites.)
Click to expand...
Is Mooch the one that starts off with him trying to get his car running to get to a job interview (that he goes on to fuck up)? Man, I was laughing when I read that. Tragicfunny the way Bukowski could spin it. Good stuff.
 
Mooch

Yeah he's trying to get the car started to get to a meeting, real good real life stuff. Spitting off tall Buidings I did it in one go, in bed on a day off with a half bottle of vodka - ahh, memories. With all this talk I'm going to have to go back and re read them.
 
oh yeah Buk made black sparrow republish ask the dust didnt he...

im getting the black sparrow 1st ed of this. didnt he also write the foreward or something?

i feel dumb for just now finding all of this out
 
Yeah, he wrote an introduction to Ask the Dust. I think he talks about finding Fante in the library downtown...


small conversation in the afternoon
with John Fante

he said, "I was working in Hollywood when Faulkner was
working in Hollywood and he was
the worst: he was too drunk to stand up at the
end of the afternoon and so I had to help him
into a taxi
day after day after day.

"but when he left Hollywood, I stayed on, and while I
didn't drink like that maybe I should have, I might have
had the guts then to follow him and get the hell out of
there."

I told him, "you write as well as
Faulkner.:

"you mean that?" he asked from the hospital
bed, smiling.

?2001 Linda Lee Bukowski
reprinted with permission of Black Sparrow Press
 
I've never read any of Fante's work. Buk read Ask The Dust first so I think it's only right that that's the one I start with. I cant wait to read this book. I got a Black Sparrow first edition.
 
Ask the Dust is a bit of a masterpiece, and unquestionably Fante's greatest work. That's usually not the one to start on, with most authors anyway. But I think with Fante you can read it first, and you won't be disappointed by whatever you read after that.
 
I read ask the dust in one day. It's probably one of the best books I've ever read. I'm gonna read "wait for spring, bandini" next. Fante was a good writer.
 
Wait Until Spring Bandini is also very good...they're all very good. If you liked Ask The Dust, you'll probably like them all.

The Road To Los Angeles is good too. About a young writer who believes he is the most sensitive genius ever to walk upright. All of the mundane and typical thing he is forced to suffer through offend his sensibilities. There's a particularly good passage about a job in a cannery (Fante wrote about San Pedro quite a bit), and...ah, if I start mentioning the good parts I'll just recap the whole book. Heh. Very funny stuff, and I don't see that one mentioned very often.

By the way, I always pronounced his name fahn-tay, but the other night Linda Bukowski was saying fan-tay, and they knew him, so maybe that's the correct pronunciation. I think Bukowski says his name on the "Hostage" CD...telling people to go read his books...I don't remember how he pronounced it...not that any of this matters in the grand scheme of things...
 
You know, in Pulp, there are those two characters - "Dante" and "Fante". They speak in rhythm. I think by that we can see that Buk called him "Fahn-Tay".
 
ok, guys, you lost me there!

which is the difference between fan-tay and fahn-tay? just the "h"? does it change the pronunciation?
 
i believe the distinction would be: in fan-tay "fan" as in "soccer fan" and fahn-tay "fahn" pronounced as "fawn" of such as "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn" (a piece that Buk liked, as I recall).

[The beauty of Spanish, when I took it en la escuela, is that everything and letter had one way of pronouncing it, and wysiwyg, whereas, as you know, English, no (but not as off the wall as French).]

Cheers,

SD
 
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damnation

who's going to see this tonight? because you're lucky! this is not opening in chicago, from what i can tell. *mad*
the same thing happened with everything is illuminated.
*pouting*
 
yeah it's not opening is west virginia yet either. we'll get it sooner or later.

for those of you who see this in the near future,
POST REVIEWS
 
According to the critics, its not so great.

Critics are expressing massive disappointment with Robert Towne's Ask the Dust, his fourth film as a director, which is opening in limited release. (The film is based on the classic cult novel by John Fante.) Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times calls it, "a film of great beauty with unfulfilled promise." Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News writes that the film is "rich on atmosphere, heavy with metaphor and short on the kind of vitality that might fix an audience's interest." Joanne Kaufman in the Wall Street Journal remarks that the film is "beautifully shot" but that the images "serve only to emphasize the emptiness of the drama unfolding in the foreground." Jami Bernard describes the film as an "atmospheric but awkward drama," adding, "The movie weds hard-boiled dialogue with over-the-top medlodrama. The result is enough to qualify for the Camp Hall of Fame."
Click to expand...
 
finding a theater playing this is a pain in my tookis.

"Here's how it went on my new movie," he says. "I called up Salma Hayek and Colin Farrell and said, 'We got no money. Tom Cruise is producing. He's not getting a salary. I'm not getting paid. We have $15 million to create L.A. in the Depression, so we're going to have to shoot that in South Africa because we can't afford California. Are you in?'"

http://www.suntimes.com/output/pearlman/sho-sunday-towne12.html
 
okeey dokeey, if you're in chicago here's the two theaters I found.

Chicago:

Landmark Century Centre Cinema

Fri (03/17): (11:00 1:55 4:50) 7:40 10:15
Sat (03/18): (11:00) 1:55 4:50 7:40 10:15
Sun (03/19): (11:00) 1:55 4:50 7:40 10:15
Mon (03/20): (1:55 4:50) 7:40 10:15
Tue (03/21): (1:55 4:50) 7:40 10:15
Wed (03/22): (1:55 4:50) 7:40 10:15


Highland Park:

Landmark's Renaissance Place Cinema

Fri (03/17): (12:40 3:10 5:40) 8:15
Sat (03/18): (12:40) 3:10 5:40 8:15
Sun (03/19): (12:40) 3:10 5:40 8:15
Mon (03/20): (12:40 3:10 5:40) 8:15
Tue (03/21): (12:40 3:10 5:40) 8:15
Wed (03/22): (12:40 3:10 5:40) 8:15


although at this point, i may just buy the dvd and hide in my home to watch it.
 
Melissa Sue said:
i may just buy the dvd and hide in my home to watch it.
Click to expand...
At least then you won't have some jackass yakking on his cell phone a couple rows behind you. Or a bunch of kids having a conversation about pants, or someone coughing or farting or walking around...

Can you tell that I don't enjoy the movie theater "experience"?
 

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