3 Los Angeles detectives work in conflicting ways: one is a brutal enforcer, one an ambitious opportunist and one a straight-arrow idealist. They all end up on the same conspiracy, which connects a celebrity tabloid, a prostitution ring and a massacre at an all-night diner. Curtis Hanson's neo-noir is a love letter to 1950s Los Angeles and an indictment of it at the same time.
L.A. Confidential is a 1997 crime, drama and mystery film directed by Curtis Hanson. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 narrative and 2 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Amadeus uses several of the same techniques.
Spreading good and bad qualities across 3 or more characters, where most stories use 2 sides. Nobody is purely the hero or the villain, so you can't easily pick who to root for.
How this film uses it
Bud White, Jack Vincennes and Ed Exley start the film as moral opposites. Bud is brute force, Jack is corruption and Ed is principle. Each turns out to be wrong in a way the others make up for. Vincennes is killed partway through, and the case forces Bud and Exley into an uneasy alliance.
Where to see it
The Victory Motel, where Bud and Exley finally fight side by side. By then Vincennes is dead, and his last words have pointed Exley toward the truth. Put together, their separate investigations reach a truth none of them could find alone.
Lighting a scene with strong contrast between bright light and deep shadow, a style borrowed from old paintings called chiaroscuro. How lit a character is hints at their moral or mental state.
How this film uses it
Dante Spinotti's photography gives 1950s Los Angeles a look that critics compared to classic noir, though he used more naturalistic lighting than the old films. Golden sunlight falls on the suburban streets and deep shadow covers the corruption underneath. The city looks exactly like the lie it is selling.
Where to see it
The aftermath of the Nite Owl diner massacre. The crime scene photographers' flashes go off blue-white against the night darkness of the diner.
Giving each time period or social world in the film its own set of colors. You always know where and when you are, and the colors carry a mood too.
How this film uses it
The amber and gold palette places 1953 Los Angeles between the 1940s noir it references and the corruption it will become. That is, the color makes the decade feel like a beautiful lie that has already started to yellow.
Where to see it
The opening montage of Los Angeles's postwar boom. It is all rich color and promise, and the rest of the film darkens it step by step.
Giving the film several endings. They can come one after another to close different emotional threads, or they can conflict and leave you to weigh competing versions.
How this film uses it
Each detective's story ends differently. Exley survives with his career intact and his morals compromised. Bud survives and leaves, and Vincennes is dead. You never get the single triumphant ending that noir usually provides.
Where to see it
The final scene outside City Hall. Exley goes along with the cover-up that makes Dudley Smith a hero and accepts accolades of his own. The plot is closed and the moral question stays open.
Questions
L.A. Confidential: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does L.A. Confidential use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in L.A. Confidential (1997): Triangulated Moral Ambiguity, Chiaroscuro Lighting, Period Color Separation and Multiple Resolution Structure.
Who directed L.A. Confidential?
Curtis Hanson directed L.A. Confidential, released in 1997. CineCode also covers 8 Mile (2002).
What films are similar to L.A. Confidential?
Films that share techniques with L.A. Confidential include Amadeus (1984), Chinatown (1974), The Favourite (2018), Unforgiven (1992).
