"I am to the crime novel in specific what Tolstoy is to the Russian novel and what Beethoven is to music," boasts James Ellroy, an American crime fiction writer who was both cursed and blessed by his mother's brutal murder in 1958.  Haunted by the slaying, it became the focal point of his work. In this stylish documentary, narrated by Ellroy himself, the writer visits his "dark places," literally and figuratively, as he returns to his mother's murder scene and ruminates on the meaning of her death. As the author of L.A. Confidential and Black Dahlia, Ellroy expanded the boundaries of hard-boiled fiction while also tapping into the moody atmosphere of film       Clara Kuperberg/Robert Kuperberg---France---2006---52 mins.

• Facets Video
  Release Date: 07/24/2007