Chinatown (1974) - Roman Polanski's masterpiece

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Irresistible German poster for Roman Polanski's Chinatown

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Private detective J.J. Gittes is first taken by his nose on a job of revealing a powerful water board scientist's possible adultery. He then learns that he's got a risky and much bigger, complex case before him.
Chinatown is a masterful film treasure that can be watched again and again to equal pleasure and stupefaction each time. It is a film noir mystery plot with many twists, full characters, great scenes, great lines and fascinating localities. A sophisticated masterwork through and through that marks Polish master director Roman Polanski's (Rosemary's Baby (1968)) only return to film in the U.S. following the brutal murder of his pregnant wife actress Sharon Tate by the Manson Family in Los Angeles in 1969. (Polanski was in Europe at the time.)
You get the sense that, besides the great script by Robert Towne (The Two Jakes (1990)), - which is what brought Polanski back to painful Los Angeles, and, outrageously, is the only Oscar-winning aspect of Chinatown, - in the direction there's no fooling around, no playing about: The tone is so consistent, the general feeling so deliberate, so controlled and elegant, all leading up to the overwhelming finale that still is a heart-stopper. The plot moves forward without pause throughout Chinatown as in steps that each of them reveal some more of the truth of the corruption for us; right until the finale in, where the structural code of the film is broken, so to speak, and all the ghouls come out of the closets in a rush of drama and violence and horror. If you let yourself be immersed in the film, the result is quite shocking, and it was the personal insistence and brilliance of Polanski that gave us the ending that we all now know and treasure so, (Towne's script SPOILER had a happy ending.) You feel Polanski's personal involvement in making this film and that is why Chinatown is his best film. He is there in the flesh throughout, (not only in the scene in which he's actually there and cuts open Jack Nicholson's nose), required by a profound personal wound to get this one right down to the letter.
Nicholson (The Shining (1980)) is great and gives one of his career's best performances as the smart, cheeky, ambitious Gittes. Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde (1967)) is perfect as the mysterious femme fatale with a horrible secret. And John Huston (The African Queen (1951) director) is a great villain, the leather-faced master sinner, Noah Cross, whose religious-symbolic name seems to contribute to Polanski's fantastically dark, gloomy commentary and world view that suits this great noir perfectly and will make you shudder.
Chinatown also has an Oscar-nominated Jerry Goldsmith (Mulan (1998)) score which is recognized as one of the greatest of all time.
If you haven't seen Chinatown yet, you've got a hell of a movie in store, so take your time to sit down with some good coffee and perhaps a pack of cigarettes to watch it in one stretch. - You'll thank me later!

Related review: 

Roman Polanski: The Ghost Writer (2010) - A master at work

Great German poster for Roman Polanski's Chinatown

Another great poster, this one Spanish, for Roman Polanski's Chinatown

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 29.2 mil. $
= Big hit

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Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - Penn and Beatty's true-crime classic marks a turn in American film

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The wild, lawless allure of the subjects attract on this poster for Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker are young and aimless in Texas in the doldrums of 1931's Depression-era US, but they find each other and discover a new kind of freedom, - based on robbing banks.

 
Bonnie and Clyde is written by Robert Benton (What's Up Doc? (1972)) and David Newman (Still of the Night (1982)), with uncredited contributions by Robert Towne (Tequila Sunrise (1988)), and directed by Arthur Penn (The Left Handed Gun (1958)). It is a heist/road movie/drama-romance based on the historical figures.

The film is a very entertaining, albeit perhaps a bit overrated, American classic, first and foremost because it is also very funny, which it seems to be with a charming ease. One example from the film could be Clyde's brother Buck's cow joke. Often the film blends comedy and crass violence for the audience to digest with some ambiguity. 

Gene Hackman (The French Connection (1971)) is Buck, and Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)) debuts in a supporting role. Warren Beatty (Reds (1981)) produced and co-stars; he is great as Clyde. Faye Dunaway (Chinatown (1974)) is beautiful and lost as Bonnie.
Beatty and Dunaway's scenes together are wonderful. The language and the images of Bonnie and Clyde contribute to its distinguished magic. It is a good, oft cited and distinctive film.
But in the outlaw couple sub-genre, I find that both Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973) and David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990), both, however, inevitably influenced by Bonnie and Clyde, are greater films.
Bonnie and Clyde was very trendsetting, and served as an indicator for the arrival of the New Hollywood era with young, strong-minded directors like Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, William Friedkin and Martin Scorsese, who revitalized American cinema. It also marked a change in the depiction of violence; a change for the more boldly realistic, explicit and transgressive.
Bonnie and Clyde is heavily influenced by the French New Wave, and the direction of the film was, in fact, offered to both François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, the two most famous directors of the French New Wave, before it ended up with Penn. SPOILER To those who have seen Bonnie and Clyde and wondered at Clyde's sexual problem in the film, it was originally the idea for the character to be portrayed as bisexual, but for reasons of censorship and possibly Beatty being against the idea, Clyde, in the film, is instead meant to be impotent.

 

Related post:

 

Arthur Penn: Top 10: Best heist movies

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.5 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 70 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 28 times its cost)

[Bonnie and Clyde premiered 4 August (Montréal Film Festival) and runs 111 minutes. Truffaut passed on directing the film in favor of his Fahrenheit 451 (1966); Godard wanted to shoot in New Jersey (not Texas) and was not hired as a consequence; Penn was reportedly asked several times to direct by Beatty before accepting. Beatty's deal with Warner Bros. secured himself 40 % of the film's profits (if it would make any); and 10 % for Penn; eventually netting the two more than 6 mil. $ (Beatty) and more than 2 mil. $ (Penn). Dunaway was paid 60k $ for her performance in the film; Estelle Parsons (Diane (2018)) 5k $. Shooting took place from October 1966 - January 1967 in Texas, including in Dallas, and in California. Warner Bros. were unsupportive of the film, which ran over budget, and tried to give it a small release without marketing it, but its impressive reception (and Beatty's threat to sue) made them change their tune, and the film became their 2nd highest-grossing film up to that point, only beaten by My Fair Lady (1964). It was in the North-American top 12 for 22 weeks, becoming one of the 5 highest-grossing films overall in 1967.The film was nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 2: For Best Supporting Actress (Parsons) and Cinematography (Burnett Guffey (The Split (1968)). It lost Best Actor (Beatty) to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night; Supporting Actor (Hackman; Michael J. Pollard (Forever Lulu (2000))) to George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke; Actress (Dunaway) to Katharine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; Costume Design to Camelot; Director to Mike Nichols for The Graduate; Picture to In the Heat of the Night; and Original Screenplay to William Rose for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. It also won 1/4 BAFTA award nominations, 2 David di Donatello awards and was nominated for 7 Golden Globes and a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Penn returned with Flesh and Blood (1968, TV movie) and theatrically with Alice's Restaurant (1969). Beatty returned in The Only Game in Town (1970); Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Bonnie and Clyde is certified fresh at 91 % with an 8.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Bonnie and Clyde?