So what do we have here? A 1993 Austrian film concerning James Ellroy. At this point in his career Ellroy has just completed the L.A. Quartet and is thinking about the Kennedy book (American Tabloid) which will initiate the Underworld U.S.A. trilogy. The misleading box cover art makes it look as if Ellroy is coming off of a two-week bender, desperately in search of a coffee maker. Actually, he has just been playing on the floor with his beloved bull terrier, Barko. His life is coming together with his second marriage and he is in his writing room. When the credits roll at the end, we see him with his second wife, Helen Knode, smiling and talking to one another.The 90-minute film includes an account of his personal life as well as his writing life, the two of course being intimately intertwined. We also see a succession of personal images: the apartment building where he lived with his father, his mother’s house, the precise location in El Monte, where his mother’s body was found, the homes in Hancock Park that he once burgled and (though not, of course, so identified) the apartment building near Hancock Park in which he currently lives.We see him playing the ‘demon dog’, reading from White Jazz at a book signing and we follow him to the site at which Elizabeth Short’s body was found. For a brief moment we see him at the L.A. landmark, the Pacific Dining Car, his favorite hangout. Much of the film is unnarrated. Ellroy drives the mean streets of south central L.A. and along Hollywood Boulevard, watching hustlers follow their varied pursuits. We see City Hall and famous images of the past as Ellroy flips through the book The Badge by Jack Webb which so influenced him as a young man. We see stacks of paperbacks with pulpy covers and feel the vibe. We see a clip of Mickey Cohen being fingerprinted and sneering at the cameraman recording the event.In some ways the film is designed as an introduction for European audiences who are not familiar with Los Angeles in all of its details—smog, traffic, neon, mountains and flatlands. For the Ellroy fans, however, there are some very special details: Ellroy discussing the manner in which he outlines a novel (200 pp.+ for L.A. Confidential; 160+ for White Jazz) and we see his hand, writing the outline (actually ‘lettering’ it, not ‘printing’ it, a distinction favored by my old plane geometry teacher). He talks about the origins of his staccato style; L.A. Confidential was too long; when he cut it the style resulted.In short, this is filled with interesting information and compelling images. Grab one while they’re still available and hang on to your VHS player. And if you’ve never been to a signing and watched JE write unexpected things to surprised buyers . . . you can see him do it here.