Ask the Dust (2006)


Colin Farrell           Arturo Bandini
Salma Hayek             Camilla Lopez
Donald Sutherland       Hellfrick
Eileen Atkins           Mrs Hargraves
Justin Kirk             Sammy
Idina Menzel            Vera Rifkin
Jeremy Crutchley (II)   Solomon
Ronald France           Columbia Sweeper
Dion Basco              Filipino Houseboy
Paul Rylander           Harold The Bartender
Wayne Harrison          Heilman
Natasha Staples         Denver Librarian
Yoshimura Yasuhiro      Japanese Vegetable Man

Directed by:            Robert Towne
Produced by:            Redmond Morris, Mark Roemmich, David Selvan


Set under the brutally sunny skies of Depression-era Los Angeles, a tale of obsession that 
focuses on a city both exotic and vulgar, glamorous and raunchy--a place of heat and dust. 
Full of imports--palm trees from Egypt and people from everywhere in search of health and wealth, 
fame and fortune--L. A. is the city of first and last resort, where all dreams are supposed to 
come true. So it is for Arturo Bandini, the ambitious son of Italian immigrants who dreams of 
becoming a famous novelist and marrying a beautiful blonde, and Camilla Lopez, a Mexican who 
longs to marry a WASP and shed her last name. In a time when Anglo-Chicano relations hang by 
tattered threads, Bandini and Camilla collide with one another, fighting the city and themselves 
to make their dreams come true.

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L.A. in the early 1930's: racism, poverty, and disease color the Bunker Hill neighborhood where 
Arturo Bandini, a lover of men and beasts alike, has arrived from Colorado to write the great 
Los Angeles novel. After six months and down to his last nickel, he orders a cup of coffee, 
served by Camilla Lopez, beautiful, self-possessed, and Mexican. Arturo gets advice, encouragement, 
and an occasional check from H.L. Mencken, so he keeps writing and he keeps seeing Camilla. But, 
he's mean to her for no apparent reason, so the relationship sputters. A housekeeper from back 
East suggests a way out of his jealously and fears. "Camilla Bandini": is it in the cards?