Tonight I've got a real classic for you, the 1974 film titled "Chinatown."
I actually just wanted to watch it again, so I might as well do this too!
"Chinatown" is a beautifully shot, complicated and compelling movie that I have no desire to tell you much about, except to go see it yourself!
Jack Nicholson is in fine form as private investigator Jake Gittes, and "Chinatown" is actually my favorite of Jack's films!
Diane Ladd is Ida Sessions posing as Evelyn Mulwray, and she wants Jake to get some dirt on her cheating husband who is really not her husband!
You might remember Diane Ladd from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." She's sill working these days too!
You might remember Diane Ladd from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." She's sill working these days too!
Hollis Mulwray is the chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and one of the most boring people on the planet, and the last person you'd expect to be having an affair. Hollis's speech is so riveting, this guy is reading the funnies instead of listening.
Jake doesn't get it either!
Jake follows Hollis around trying to come up with something!
This shot is fantastic! You'll probably have to click on it make it larger to see what Jake's seeing through the camera lens.
What a great headline!!
Hollis Mulwray meets an untimely demise, and everything starts getting ugly pretty fast!
This scene is not pleasant to watch!
Director Roman Polanski is a whole story unto himself and plays the perfect sleazy weasel with the knife that slices Jake's nose!
After that, Jack wears a bandage on his nose for about half the movie!
Faye Dunaway done away with her clothes for this scene. She is the 'real' Mrs. Mulray!
Here's what renowned filmologist Horton Richards has to say about this movie!
"Not only is it a classic on so many levels (complex plot, great acting, attention to symbolism), I also consider "Chinatown" the beginning of the Neo-Noir movement.....
......It was when Hollywood once again started taking seriously the movies of the '40s (in particular), but they approached noir with some new sensibilities that had been introduced in the Sixties & Seventies counterculture, including no longer relegating them to B-movie status."
"It's Chinatown!"
That's all you really need to know!
That's all you really need to know!
Without question, "Chinatown" is a classic. Everybody was in top form -- Jack Nicholson, of course, and Fay Dunaway before they started taking roles which they became caricatures. And the supporting cast was inspired -- John Huston & Roman Polanski, particularly, plus a bunch of"old reliables. And one of the best scripts in Hollywood history. Damn. I long for these kinds of scripts again. And that film historian you quoted, does he have any books on the subject?
ReplyDeleteOhh...and that haunting music score by the late, great Jerry Goldsmith...I can hear it in my head right now!
ReplyDeleteLove this movie! But my wife won't watch it anymore. Once was enough for her, she says.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you just gotta watch stuff by yourself! At least I had to!
ReplyDeleteI watch a lot of stuff by myself! She only likes feel-good stuff. I like a lot of noir. Sometimes after I've watched a movie she will ask if I liked it, and I say, "It was great! Everybody dies!"
ReplyDeleteEverybody dies? Yikes! Glad I don't know you!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a sadist, I don't want that in real life! But I love movies like Asphalt Jungle and The Killing where... everybody dies!
ReplyDeleteLOL! Yeah, I was kidding. But I must say, I've always felt a little cheated at the fadeout of "end of the world" movies that they ALL didn't fade out!! It's usually either an "adam and eve" type ending, or the girl and the monster survive together! No wait, that was something else...
ReplyDelete