Abstract
This chapter begins with a discussion of the film Ask the Dust in terms of cinematic hybridity (being at once a novel adaptation and a transgeneric film, with many references to genres such as noir and melodrama) and with background information on both the literary source and its author John Fante, and on the film director (and screenplay writer) Robert Towne. Afterward, the chapter focuses on the two main protagonists of the narrative: Arturo Bandini (who must be considered Fante’s alter-ego) and Camilla Lopez. The former is seen struggling with his Italian Americanness. On the one hand, he wears with great pride his Italian last name and is obstinately loyal to it—he wants to keep it as it, without anglicizing it (not even when he is asked to do so by his love interest). On the other hand, he is also ready and willing to play what the authors call the ‘assimilation game’. Yet, the only way he knows how to play it is by inflicting on other minority members the same verbal abuses he suffered as the son of Italian immigrants. Hence Camilla—acting effectively as the protagonist’s ‘ethnic mirror’—is crucial in making him embark on a journey of self-discovery that will culminate, at the end of the film, with an open-hearted apology to her that demonstrates how Bandini has turned from wiseacre to an honest writer, and how he has finally been able to accept his Italian Americanness.
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Notes
- 1.
In truth, the legal controversy was between Stackpole Sons and Houghton Mifflin (which had an agreement with the book’s original publisher, Franz Eher, who likely had an agreement with Hitler). Houghton Mifflin claimed that theirs was the only edition validly copyrighted in the US, and sought an injunction to prevent the Stackpole edition’s sale. In turn, Stackpole Sons declared that Mein Kampf was in the public domain and that Hitler’s US copyright was illegal. However, in 1941 after several appeals, their defense was ultimately rejected in District Court and they were forced to pay damages.
- 2.
For an overview of the reviews received by Fante’s novel and more comments on Bantam Book’s reprint and the failed radio adaptation, see Cooper, Stephen, and Donato, Clorinda. “Introduction”, in John Fante’s Ask the Dust: A Joining of Voices and Views, edited by Stephen Cooper, and Clorinda Donato, 1-14. New York: Fordham University Press, 2020.
- 3.
German-American novelist, poet, and short-story writer Charles Bukowski was influenced by the culture of L.A.
- 4.
To put these four novels in a linear sequence within the ‘Bandini Quartet’ ensemble, Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1938) would be ‘Quartet 1’, The Road to Los Angeles (1936, but published posthumously in 1985) ‘Quartet 2’, Ask the Dust (1939) ‘Quartet 3’, and Dreams from Bunker Hills (1982) ‘Quartet 4’.
- 5.
This project did not pan out, as detailed in Di Tanna, Giuliano. “John Fante’s typewriter in Pescara” https://www.italyheritage.com/magazine/john-fante/en/reviews/20070808.htm (accessed November 16, 2021).
- 6.
As Towne recalls in an interview in which he explains his attraction to Fante’s writings: “I had not ever read anyone who had captured the Los Angeles that I remembered as a child—the look, the ambiance of the city, really right down to the dust in the air. There wasn’t a lot of foliage then, and the sun would beat down. L.A. was right on the edge of a desert, and its impermanence was much more apparent then. I had forgotten that that Los Angeles really existed until I read Fante. His novel really threw you into the idea that Los Angeles is, basically, a state of mind” (Ross).
- 7.
In his interview with Nathan Rabin, Towne recalls that “He was a very angry little man who felt that he had been roundly ignored by life. He was pissed-off and not very happy to see me. When I told him I wanted to make a movie out of his book, he said to me, ‘What the hell have you written? Can you even write a screenplay? What are your credits? I’ve written screenplays. Worst fucking job in the world.’ And that was what his attitude was: ‘How would you know how good my book is?’ It made me laugh, because he was just like Bandini” (Rabin 239-240).
- 8.
For more details on the Orange Empire (and on how oranges became a symbol of everything that California promised to migrants) see Boulé, David. The Orange and the Dream of California. Santa Monica: Angel City Press, 2014.
- 9.
As a case in point, one may just consider the prologue of Shrek (Andrew Adamson, and Vicky Jenson, 2001).
- 10.
To name a few, the film does not show Camilla going to the hospital to cure her marijuana addiction, nor insists on how the protagonist struggles with his masculinity when it comes to having sex with Camilla (Arturo only mentions to Vera that he verbally abuses Camilla because he fears he cannot make her happy). Speaking of Vera Rivkin’s character, in the book at one point she just disappears; whereas in the film, there is a closure to her narrative arc, given that she dies in an earthquake. Another notable difference lies in the way in which Fante and Towne develop the relationship between Sammy and Camilla. While on the written page the Mexican waitress loves Mr. White instead of Mr. Bandini, on the screen version she is unquestionably in love with Arturo and gets involved with Sammy mostly because she covets his last name.
- 11.
One of Pan’s characters, talking about life’s enigma, says: “Ask the winds and the stars. Ask the dust [emphasis added] on the road and the leaves that fall. Ask the mysterious God of life; for no one else knows” (Astrup Larsen 111).
- 12.
These symbolic ‘dust jackets’ are to be intended synecdochically about Fante’s and Hamsun’s books, and metonymically concerning their oeuvre as writers.
- 13.
To push this interpretation one step further (and into the realm of music), one can also suppose that Towne’s use of the ‘dust and wind’ imagery could have been influenced by a 1977 song by Kansas titled precisely “Dust in the Wind”, famous for its nihilist approach and its emphasis on how little what we hold onto really is. To conclude the reflection upon the director’s (supposed) nihilism and the music references, one may add that in his interview with Ross he states that, in his film, L.A. is as much a character as any of the leads, and that actually “It is the character that informs all of their actions. It’s a place of illusion and hope and, as that old Dr. Demento song ‘Pico and Sepulveda’ says, where nobody’s dream comes true” (Ross). Through this pessimistic light then, even the initial reference to oranges (as a symbol of California’s promise to immigrants) acquires a new meaning because, in truth, what we see in the prologue are not oranges, but only orange peels.
- 14.
The concept of a primordial Eldorado is further discussed in note 19 of this chapter.
- 15.
In this dialogue between the two characters Towne retains the punch of Fante’s irreverent prose, complementing it with visual images. Arturo’s voice-over precedes the flashback with a sarcastic description of Mrs. Hargraves, “She was the kind of woman who increased her height by rising on tiptoe and peering at me over her glasses.” Then the tight dialogue starts, and the firecrackers begin to ignite. Bandini: “I’d like a room.” Mrs. Hargraves: “Do you have a job?” Bandini: “I’m a writer.” Awkward pause, followed by the man showing a copy of The American Mercury magazine and saying “I wrote that.” Soon adding “Here, what’s your name?” The landlady: “Mrs. Hargraves, why?” Bandini: “For Mrs. Hargraves…” while writing a short dedication that continues with the words “…a woman of ineffable charm, with lovely blue eyes, and a generous smile.” The lady’s expression, however, is unfriendly and grim, yet somewhat interested (see Fig. 3.6). As it happens, this flashback is preceded by another example of Fante’s self-loathing cynicism carried by Towne into his film. In another voice-over, Arturo mentions the various notes Mrs. Hargraves slipped under his door reminding him to pay rent and says “It was her sixth note in six weeks. Pretty humiliating. My landlady was getting more writing done than I was.”
Fig. 3.6 
Ask the Dust (Robert Towne, 2006)
- 16.
The protagonist’s preoccupation with last names emerges in another interaction between him and Camilla, in which he criticizes her for wanting to lose her Mexican last name (Lopez) in favor of something that would make her blend in more easily, like ‘Lombard’ (which she admits to using for work) or, even better, ‘White’ (which does not only refer to her aspiration to ‘whiteness’, but also happens to be Sammy’s last name—the man Arturo initially perceives as his rival).
- 17.
As part of the process that will make him evolve (at the end of the film) from smart-aleck to an honest writer, Arturo realizes that by insulting the woman he loves “not only has he redirected the epithets hurled against him as an Italian American but his abusive language has been a futile attempt to exorcize Camilla’s erotic power over him” (Scruggs 235).
- 18.
Indeed, despite the way he treated her at the café the first time he met her, while going to bed that night, Arturo’s voice-over reveals: “All I could think about were those huaraches.”
- 19.
When the protagonist goes to Long Beach to visit Vera Rivkin, he admits to the Jewish lady his love for Camilla both as a woman and as a Mayan princess, that is as a representative of the primordial Eldorado corrupted by the arrival of Europeans. In his words: “She’s perfect. Like the weather. Air and fog, eucalyptus, dusty sunlight. A perfect place to live. Then we come along. Dig for gold, drill for oil, get into the movies, build these crappy hotels and dirty streets. We don’t even come here to live. We just dig it up, mess it up and grab whatever we can get. This is her home. If God had any sense or decency, he’d blow us all to hell, and leave her home the way it was. Pure and perfect. Like her.” The protagonist concludes this open-heart confession highlighting his incapacity to say the same things to Camilla because if he did, “It would sound like an insult”—because, ultimately, Arturo acknowledges that: “No matter what I say to Camilla it sounds like an insult.”
- 20.
The discourse on ‘names’ is deepened in a close dialogue taking place in the protagonist’s hotel room between him (AB) and Camilla (CL), during which the woman openly admits that her willingness to be with him is only held back by the Bandini last name. In her words: “I don’t wanna go from Camilla Lopez to Camilla Bandini. It’s not much of an improvement.” To which AB replies: “Who asked you to go anywhere?”; and CL: “You’d ask me.” AB: “No, I wouldn’t.” CL: “Yes. You would.” AB: “I wouldn’t.” CL: “You would.” AB: “I wouldn’t.” And, finally, CL: “I know you like the palm of my hand, Arturo, and I’m telling you, you would.”
- 21.
When this little skit is over, Bandini manages to humiliate Camilla one more time before he abandons the establishment. After leaving a nickel on the table, he pours coffee over it and says: “You want the nickel? Then mop it up.” By climbing once more on the shoulders of another minority’s member, Arturo believes he has reinforced his fictional identity, and somehow elevated himself to an Anglo status based upon a presumed idea of superiority towards minorities.
- 22.
The dialogue then continues with her trying to hide her Mexican self by stating: “I am just as American as you are. Or at least I will be as soon as I pass my test”; and with Arturo insolently remarking: “Sure you will. Just as soon as you learn how to read.” Once again, Bandini humiliates her, this time to establish his educational superiority.
- 23.
Towne does not engage with the concept of ‘Italian Americanness’ in his film. In Ask the Dust, Arturo either refers to himself as ‘American’ (when he wants to fit in, or when he tries to affirm his presumed superiority towards Mexicans) or just as ‘Italian’, in a couple of interactions with Camilla and Vera. During the first one, when the protagonist goes to the café to inquire if Camilla has read “The Little Dog Laughed”, which he—Arturo Bandini—autographed for her, she is struck by his first name and, using her mother tongue, asks him: “Te llamas Arturo? Arturo? Hablas español. Eres mexicano?” The protagonist understands her questions, which could perhaps be an indicator that (given the proximity between the two languages) he speaks some Italian, even though he does not pronounce a single non-English word in the whole movie. He then replies opening himself up to the woman and uttering: “Bandini. It’s Italian.” A remark immediately followed by the need to shift the focus of the conversation from his ethnic background to his writer persona, which Arturo does by saying: “Did you read the story?” The second occurrence takes place when Vera, impersonating Camilla to exorcise the protagonist’s inner fear of not being good enough for the latter, tells him: “You are like a great conquistador. You are like Cortés.”—referring to Hernán Cortés, the Spaniard who conquered the Aztec empire in 1521 and claimed Mexico for Spain. To this remark, the protagonist ironically responds by saying: “Only I’m Italian.” Bandini is also ‘labeled’ as Italian by a young librarian (evidently, more knowledgeable than Mrs. Hargraves) and by Camilla, when she forces him to face his insecurities about marrying her and, most importantly, towards his heritage. This happens when, during the fight they have after they go to the movies toward the end of the film, she bluntly tells him: “You’re too ashamed of being Italian to marry a Mexican.” The woman also insults him by using the word ‘dago’ when he questions her desire for ‘Americanness’ in the scene where she is wearing white pumps. In this interaction between the two characters, Arturo begins by establishing his position of power by telling her: “You are just the same little Mexican princess charming and innocent.” Then, after Camilla’s reply, “I’m not charming and I’m NOT [emphasis added] innocent”, he continues by pushing her even more to the margins by saying: “To me, you’ll always be a little peon flower girl from old Mexico.” Feeling downgraded, the woman can only try to imitate Arturo’s strategy, insulting him with a ‘label’ often employed against Italian immigrants. Her usage of an ethnic slur in the sentence she utters—“You dago son of a bitch! I’m just as American as you are”—is aimed at blocking Bandini’s attempt to symbolically climb over her shoulders, while allowing her to elevate herself to an equal status with him. However, her attempt is not successful, given that the protagonist quickly ends the conversation by reminding her that she still has to pass the citizenship exam (and that to do so she has to learn how to read).
- 24.
After a physical fight, the two go back to the city and continue sparring verbally. In response to knowing where Arturo lives, Camilla utters: “Bunker Hill. Old women and weak men. Perfect place for you”; a comment followed by the man’s sharp response: “Couldn’t be better, in my hotel they don’t allow Mexicans”—which again confirms that the racism permeating society infiltrates (and informs) their relationship as well.
- 25.
Just like the albatross from Charles Baudelaire’s eponymous poem, Bandini is great with words when he flies high in the sky (that is, when he is in a fictional world, writing), but he is incredibly clumsy when he has to use the same words in real-life situations and interactions. This poem ends with a stanza that appropriately sums up this comparison: “The poet resembles this prince of cloud and sky / Who frequents the tempest and laughs at the bowman; / When exiled on the earth, the butt of hoots and jeers, / His giant wings prevent him from walking” (Baudelaire 18).
- 26.
The adjective Chicana is used to define an American woman or girl of Mexican origin or descent.
- 27.
For a more detailed discussion of Anzaldúa’s personal experience as a Chicana see Nasser, Anna. “Borderlands as a Site of Resistance in Gloria Anzaldúa’s Political Thought.” US Abroad. Journal of American History and Politics, Vol. 4 (2021). https://usabroad.unibo.it/article/view/11796/12361 (accessed November 16, 2021).
- 28.
In this context, Emily Hicks uses a symbolic holographic image to describe how the interaction between ‘self’ and ‘other’ is created: “A holographic image is created when light from a laser beam is split into two beams and reflected off an object. The interaction between the two resulting patterns of light is called an ‘interference pattern’, which can be recorded on a holographic plate. The holographic plate can be reilluminated by a laser positioned at the same angle as one of the two beams, the object beam. This will produce a holographic image of the original object. A border person records this interference patterns produced by two (rather than one) referential codes and therefore experiences a double vision thanks to perceiving reality through two different interference patterns” (Hicks xxix).
- 29.
The term mestiza is usually referred to a woman of mixed ancestry, especially of Native American, European and African descent. This word has come to signify a new Chicana consciousness that straddles cultures, races, languages, nations, sexualities, and spiritualities, indicating how an individual can live in ambivalence, managing to balance opposing powers. For more details on mestizas and mestizaje, see Delgado Bernal.
- 30.
In the Italian American context Anthony Julian Tamburri, reflecting upon the hyphen often put between these two terms, considers it an emblem of the dominant culture’s hesitancy to accept newcomers (or better, to keep them at a distance). He affirms that the hyphen in ‘Italian-American’ creates a division between these two adjectives (and what they represent) that, more than symbolic, is also physical. To turn this (ultimately) ideological gap into something less static and more in-progress, Tamburri proposes the use of the hyphen forty-five degrees: ‘Italian/American.’ See Tamburri, Anthony Julian. To Hyphenate or Not to Hyphenate?: The Italian/American Writer: An Other America. Montreal: Guernica Editions, 1991.
- 31.
To exemplify Bandini’s awareness of the ‘assimilation game’—besides the already discussed scene between him and Mrs. Hargraves—one may refer to the protagonist’s voice-over during a walk in the neighborhood, in which he openly states: “We are all strangers here”, adding soon after that, at the end of the day, the only thing “that makes you a Californian is a pair of sunglasses and a four-bit polo shirt. Suddenly you belong.” While he finishes uttering this sentence, the film shows us a young Californian male being greeted by a cop, implying that white individuals not only belong but that are also respected (and protected) by the authorities.
- 32.
The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) signed by President Arthur prohibited the immigration of Chinese workers.
- 33.
For a more detailed discussion of immigration restrictions in the 1920s and 1930s, see Gratton and Merchant.
- 34.
Repatriation trains were funded by the Los Angeles County Bureau, taking more than 2,300 people back to Mexico. For more details on immigration raids and repatriation, see Hoffman.
- 35.
For further information on repatriation, deportation, and intimidation against Mexicans see Balderrama and Rodriguez, and Gratton and Merchant.
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Anzaldúa, Gloria. Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro. Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality. Edited by Keating, AnaLouise. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015.
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Films and TV Series Cited
Ask the Dust (Robert Towne, 2006)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
Dinky (Howard Bretherton, and D. Ross Lederman, 1935)
East of the River (Alfred E. Green, 1940)
Frida (Julie Taymor, 2002)
Full of Life (Richard Quine, 1956)
Going My Way (TV Series, 1962–1963)
The Golden Fleecing (Leslie Fenton, 1940)
Insight (TV Series, 1960–1984)
It’s All True (Orson Welles, 1943)
Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre (TV Series, 1955–1958)
Jeanne Eagels (George Sidney, 1957)
Lux Playhouse (TV Series, 1958–1959)
Maya (John Berry, 1966)
Mon chien stupide [My Dog Stupid] (Yvan Attal, 2019)
My Man and I (William A. Wellman, 1952)
My Six Loves (Gower Champion, 1963)
Il re di Poggioreale [The King of Poggioreale] (Duilio Coletti, 1961)
The Reluctant Saint (Edward Dmytryk, 1962)
The Richard Boone Show (TV Series, 1963-1964)
Shrek (Andrew Adamson, and Vicky Jenson, 2001)
Something for a Lonely Man (Don Taylor, 1968)
Wait Until Spring, Bandini (Dominique Deruddere, 1989)
Walk on the Wild Side (Edward Dmytryk, 1962)
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (TV Series, 1958–1960)
Youth Runs Wild (Mark Robson, 1944)
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Peralta, C., Orsitto, F. (2023). Ask the ‘Dust Jacket’. Robert Towne’s Film Adaptation of John Fante’s Ask the Dust. In: Fioretti, D., Orsitto, F. (eds) Italian Americans in Film. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06465-4_3
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