The Black Dahlia (2006)

Based on the novel by James Ellroy, Brian De Palma's THE BLACK DAHLIA stars Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart as a pair of LAPD detectives assigned to the most notorious murder in Hollywood history. De Palma takes things slow, spending a good 20 minutes establishing the relationship between Buddy Bleichert, Lee Blanchard, and their mutual love Kay (Scarlett Johanssen), before introducing the 1947 murder after which the film is named. In the haunting screen-tests left behind after her mysterious death, aspiring actress Elizabeth Short appears to want fame so badly she'll do anything to get it. Her pornographic film ...
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appearances, and a rumored affair with narcissist heiress Madeleine Linscott (Hillary Swank), provide just two clues in a sea of confusion.

THE BLACK DAHLIA crams every subplot from Ellroy's novel into two hours, but only connects them towards the end of the movie. The screen-tests featuring a sadly desperate Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) are captivatingly filmed in gritty black-and-white. These scenes succeed in showing the industry ugliness most likely behind Elizabeth's death, while the rest of the film self-consciously strives to be noir through elaborate set design, dramatic camera angles, and narration taken straight from the book. If De Palma's goal was to make us examine our own voyeuristic fascination with murder, particularly the gruesome murder of a beautiful young woman, then he succeeds, because throughout a film invested in so many different storylines, Short's remains the most interesting one.
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Director Brian De Palma returns to the helm for the first time since 2002's Femme Fatale with this stylish screen adaptation of James Ellroy's novel detailing one of the most notorious unsolved murders in Hollywood history. Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) was a struggling actress looking to make a name for herself in 1940s-era Tinseltown. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, it was her grim fate that would ultimately overshadow anything she would accomplish during her short and tragic career. When police discover Elizabeth's body cut clean in half and with all of her organs missing, ex-pugilist detectives Lee Blanchard (A...
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aron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) are the men charged with cracking the case and apprehending the killer. This isn't your average murder case, however, and as Blanchard's marriage to Kay (Scarlett Johansson) begins to suffer due to his obsession with the sensational crime, his partner Bleichert discovers a troubling link between the victim and the mysterious Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), a prominent socialite and the daughter of one of the town's most connected key players.
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A tale of obsession, love, corruption, greed and depravity that revolves around a true story of the brutal murder of a fledgling Hollywood starlet that shocked and fascinated the nation in 1947 and remains unsolved today. Two ex-pugilist cops, Lee Blanchard and Bucky Bleichert, are called to investigate the homicide of ambitious silver-screen B-lister Betty Ann Short -- aka 'The Black Dahlia' -- an attack so grisly that images of the killing were kept from the public. While Blanchard's growing preoccupation with the sensational murder threatens his marriage to Kay, his partner, Bleichert, finds himself attracted ...
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to the enigmatic Madeleine Linscott, the daughter of one of the city's most prominent families -- who just happens to have an unsavory connection to the murder victim.
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In 1947 wordt in Los Angeles het levenloze en ernstig verminkte lichaam van een jonge vrouw, Elizabeth Short, gevonden. Twee LAPD-agenten worden op de zaak gezet, en Bucky, één van hen, ontdekt al snel dat zijn eigen vriendin een connectie had met het slachtoffer. Al snel leidt het onderzoek bovendien naar corruptie in het politie-departement.

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