Ask the Dust

Ask the Dust (2006) is a period love story you can watch online on iFILM. Robert Towne, the writer behind Chinatown, directed it from John Fante's 1939 novel. The setting is Depression-era Los Angeles, a cheap rooming house up on Bunker Hill, home to a young would-be writer named Arturo Bandini.

Bandini dreams of a great book and a blonde American on his arm, until everything tilts when he meets Camilla, a sharp-tongued Mexican waitress chasing her own way up through marriage to a rich man. They pull together and shove apart in the same breath — pride, poverty and the racial prejudice of the era get in the way at every turn. Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek lead, with Donald Sutherland quietly stealing scenes as a fellow lodger.

It's slow, sun-bleached filmmaking about vanity and loneliness, with the City of Angels itself acting as a character. Best for viewers who love literary adaptations and old Hollywood told without the gloss. Stream Ask the Dust (2006) online on iFILM.