Djävul i en blå klänning

Ezekiel ''Easy'' Rawlins is an ex-soldier who fought in the Second World War. He moves to Los Angeles to seek his future, however the American dream seldom come true, particularly not for a black man in post-war America. He loses his job in an airplane factory and agrees to do a job for $100 for shadey De Wit Albright. Easy's task is to find Daphne Monet, a mysterious woman who has a secret relationship with one of the mayoral candidates, and who has also been seen in the black neighbourhoods of L A. Coretta James, a young woman who Easy spent a hot night with, dies under mysterious circumstances. Later he finds Daphne's brother dead at home, and suddenly he is involved in two murders. He is pulled deeper and deeper into an ugly drama, packed with blackmail, racial conflicts, murder, corrupt police and political plots. In the middle of all this is the glamourous Daphne who tries to manipulate Easy for her own reasons. Easy gets the trigger-happy Mouse, a friend from the past, to help him. Mouse means well, however he may be a bit too eager to use the same brutal methods as the criminals they are forced to fight against. Devil in a Blue Dress is based on Wa Iter Mosley's acclaimed novel of the same title. Central Avenue, at the heart of black L.A. - circa 1948 - plays an important part in the film. The director Carl Franklin has managed to stage a world seldom depicted by Hollywood. It has a myriad of black people, in those days pilgrims from the West Coast, white people from the posh parts of town and country-people from the South. One of the great merits of the film is the meticulous portrayal of the environment with its barber shops, record stores and famous nightclubs such as Zanzibar and Club Alabam, as well as illegal speakeasies where celebrities such as Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker performed at the time. Devil in a Blue Dress could be described as a mix between Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled style and Richard Wright's social realism. Denzel Washington plays Easy, the man who is trying to find the real American dream behind the fragile middle-class facade he has tried to create so far. Franklin is flirting with '40s detective novels and film noir movies, without making it an end in itself. The original and realistic depiction of the characters and the environment adds another dimension to an old and reliable genre. EE