Comments on: The Devil In The Detail: Thoughts On ‘Chinatown’ On Its 40th Anniversary

By: TheoC

TheoC — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:30 +0000

Great stuff, I want to instapaper stuff like this. Excellent.

By: GERARD KENNELLY

GERARD KENNELLY — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:30 +0000

directed by a peado

By: G A Martin

G A Martin — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

The script for âGittes Vs Gittesâ is about mass transportation in LA. The replacement of the Red Car Line with GM buses, using Goodyear tires and Texaco gas and the conspiracy of those 3 companies to control mass transit. This also led to the LA freeway system.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

Great Piece. This movie has had me for the last 22 years and I still cant get enough of it. Its part of my being. I fell in love with bungalows, old neighborhoods with sidewalks, smoked pall mall cigarettes without inhaling for 2 years (I was 22), enjoy wearing button down pajamas when going to bed..etc..etc… It calmed me like nothing ever before and still does. I was lucky to have found the first CD printing of the CD when it first was released and is one the best soundtracks ever…. It created the wonder and the mystery in the film…. I have to wonder what Ali Mcgraw would have been like. Also, I read that the 3rd story "Gittes vs Gittes" was about the highway system in L.A. in the 1950's.

Thanks again for the great piece…I think I'll put on the Blu-ray tonight…

By: Xian

Xian — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

Nice analysis.

By: Brian Johnson

Brian Johnson — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

I guess we're all different: Once was enough "Chinatown" for me. It's a well-made movie, it's just not the kind of movie that makes me want to watch again and again.

By: Sanker from India

Sanker from India — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

O Jessica! Your love for this movie is so infectious and beautifully expressed! Gets to the heart of why we love art of any kind! As much as we are all united in our appreciation for this film, no one will feel exactly as you do! We all have our Chinatown stories and favourite moments. It's such an incredible achievement!

By: peter

peter — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

This was beautiful, thank you.

By: Michael in Toronto

Michael in Toronto — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

My favourite movie of all time. Thanks for making me love it even more. Something to look out for on your next viewing: the glint of Evelyn's emerald ring as she cleans Jake's wound.

By: Casey Fiore

Casey Fiore — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

Great piece, really enjoyed it and agree wholeheartedly. For what it's worth, which may well be nothing, I think you could make a really good case that Chinatown is the most "perfect" film ever made, in the sense of it's utterly immaculate execution down to, as you eloquently pointed out, every little detail. I think the idea of "perfect" films is reductive and silly but somehow I feel it's a meaningful distinction in this case.

Also I feel like I remember reading somewhere that Gittes vs. Gittes was intended to be about land, as in real estate.

By: Brian Allan Cobb

Brian Allan Cobb — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

There's a bad cut, after Jake and Evelyn make their escape from the retirement home and are pulling into Evelyn's driveway, in which five seconds of Goldsmith's theme is jump cut.

Otherwise, it's the perfect film, and I've watched it enough times (perhaps a dozen) to catch that bad cut.

By: Robb

Robb — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

I was watching the nose cutting scene on Youtube and noticed that Polanski cuts agitates' right nostril. However, during the rest of the movie, he wears a bandage on the left nostril and later has stitches on the left nostril. Is the Youtube video reversed? I searched the web about the switch but could find anything. I find it hard to believe no one ever noticed this inconsistency.

By: Chris Perry

Chris Perry — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

Excellent job on this, so well written. One of my favorites as well. I remember that $2 bill when I was a kid as well. There are so many moments in this film…the boy on the horse in the dry LA river (a perfect match of surrealistic imagery and subtle background score), the petulant guy in the Hall of Records, the kiss between Jake and Evelyn that is both passionate yet uncomfortable, since you can't take keep your eyes off the wound on Jake's nose. A perfect movie, oh yes.

By: Johan

Johan — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

I recently watched this film for the first time. And im sorry to say that it was just ok for me.
The ending was pretty exciting but that was like 2 hours into a slow paced bore. I love a good Noir as much as anyone else but stuff has to happen sometimes. I dont see the masperpiece-thing at all sadly.

By: Sage

Sage — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

Yes. So much yes. This movie carries a similar weight for me. I'll never forget the first time I watched it. I was just blown away. Blown away by the detail, the richness of the acting, the artful commingling of deep and simple themes. It remains my favorite movie since I saw it for the first time almost two years ago.

By: Curtis24

Curtis24 — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

Such a great movie (and I'm not really a Polanski fan, for more reasons than one). My favorite line:

"Can you believe it? We're in the middle of a drought, and the water commissioner drowns. Only in L.A."

By: Brandon

Brandon — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

Does anyone else think that the B&W closeup of of Nicholson looks strangely like Jean-Claude Van Damme?

By: PG

PG — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

Well, I guess we have to put up with this, seeing as the film is 40 years old.

"Chinatown" is not a great movie. It simply isn't. It's a nice, well made movie. It's L.A. film noir in color, re-created in the 1970s with 1970s leads. It's a nice detective movie.

What it ISN'T is a classic or a cinematic experience on par with few others. For nearly 40 years (I didn't see it until it came on TV in 1977 or 1978) I have been baffled why and how this film has such a reputation. I find it to be just a matter-of-fact detective story. Yes, it's "really" a story about big, bad corruption that's much larger than the few dead bodies Jake finds.

So what? Is that really so hard to execute or conceptualize? I would say….NO. The tech credits (photography, production design, wardrobe) are all uniformly high. But then this was a big budget studio release, so they had the best people and enough money.

The first two "Godfathers" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" tower over "Chinatown." But then I've found Polanksi to be usually over-rated, from the pretentious "Repulsion" to the pedestrian "Rosemary's Baby."

By: JamDenTel

JamDenTel — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

I'm with those who don't quite get what makes this film a masterpiece as opposed to a solid film (granted, I also have the same issue with Casablanca). I definitely need to see it a second time, but I confess, it didn't click in that magic way for me.

And really, I think the final scene is pretty badly staged (he's maybe 6 feet from her–HOW DOES SHE MISS?!). I'm almost ready to side with Robert Towne and say the film should have had a happy ending. A dark ending can work brilliantly, but I think the 70s had a few films which ended unhappily for the sake of ending unhappily, as if the BS happy endings of the decades previous had to be purged (another example is The Hospital, which ends on a rather downbeat note for no real reason).

By: STEERS

STEERS — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

You people don't get this film, because you are not seeing it as it was intended. This is filmed cinema. The same thing applies to Casablanca. It was not designed for you to watch it on a TV, or a computer, in your house, or for f**ks sake, streaming to some tablet. Trust me you don't 'get' why the Mona Lisa is a masterpiece either, until you actually stand in front of the real painting and stare at it.

Sadly for most people, they will not in the future get the chance to see these pieces of art in a cinema, on 35mm as they were intended. This is the fate of the art form formally known as "film".

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 13 May 2016 07:16:29 +0000

I can't believe you didn't mention the nose cutting scene! That special effect was crazy good and shocking!
Oh, and you mentioned what the third one would be about. Apparently (I can't say with certainty but I've heard it multiple times) that the plot for the third script is what the plot for Who Framed Roger Rabbit was based on, which sounds ridiculous but makes sense because the highway scheme fits into the theme of big progress in LA being corrupt.