I Finally Watched Chinatown (1974). I Don't Understand Its Acclaim
It's a Hollywood classic that I've never watched, so I decided to sit down and have a look. Good lord, what a dull film. I will say that Polanski nailed the look and feel of 1930s LA - the clothes, the hair, the cars, the shots of the art deco buildings. But the pacing of the movie was agonizingly slow, and it seemed like every line of dialogue spoken by the actors was unnecessarily drawn out.
Nicholson was great in it. Faye was...well...Faye. And who thought making a noir about water rights in LA would be compelling viewing? Plus, the movie's called "Chinatown," but absolutely no action takes place in Chinatown except in the last five minutes of the movie.
What do fellow DL movie buffs think of this one?
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 252 | August 15, 2025 11:44 AM
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The whole bit with Faye's daughter/sister seemed like it was thrown in at the last minute to try and add some spice to an otherwise extremely boring movie. It really didn't make any sense. And Faye's late transformation into a gun toting murderess also seemed like something out of left field.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | August 11, 2025 1:46 PM
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R2 Speaking of, it's "stupidly," not "stupid."
by Anonymous | reply 3 | August 11, 2025 1:51 PM
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Disagree, OP. Now I will give you the fact that the water scheme plot doesn't really add up - Goldman's script went into excruciating detail, Polanski (and his brilliant editor O'Steen) wisely cut it all out But the film is a slow burn atmospheric, mood piece - more like a foreign film that typical Hollywood; and it is fine if that's bit your particular cup of tea.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | August 11, 2025 1:58 PM
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"Chinatown" is an object lesson about how the power of ruthless greed enabled the explosive growth and development of Southern California, which transformed the ecology and economy of a giant part of the US West via the exploitation of water rights. The existence of SoCal IS all about water.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | August 11, 2025 2:00 PM
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It’s about the atmosphere, not the plot.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | August 11, 2025 2:01 PM
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R 4 Robert Towne wrote Chinatown. Not Goldman. OP did you see it in a Theatre on a Big Screen? This why it was made. Not for you to sit on your fat ass, half ass watching it, while playing on your phone and watching on a Television, probably constructing your Review simultaneously. You must think you are the Pauline Kale of DL. You aren't
by Anonymous | reply 7 | August 11, 2025 2:06 PM
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It's a good movie but not as great as some film buffs would have you believe
What is a great movie? LA Confidential. So much better than Chinatown.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | August 11, 2025 2:10 PM
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Aside from Bonnie and Clyde, Faye Dunaway seems to play the same character in every movie. There were times during Chinatown where I expected her to say, "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at the dirt!"
by Anonymous | reply 10 | August 11, 2025 2:11 PM
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Watching the scene where Nicholson confronts Huston, I couldn't help but draw parallels to Trump. "How much money is enough for you?" Asks Nicholson. "It's not about money. It's about power," says Huston.
Trump in a nutshell.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | August 11, 2025 2:15 PM
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Chinatown is a landmark film of the American Renaissance / New Hollywood period, combining classic film noir with French New Wave sensibilities. The downbeat ending perfectly encapsulated the mood of the time, against the backdrop of the Watergate scandals, Vietnam, Kent State, etc. Government and the authorities couldn't be trusted and things weren't going to get better.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 11, 2025 2:16 PM
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Why was this thread FFed? Was a Chinatown aficionado offended?
by Anonymous | reply 15 | August 11, 2025 2:16 PM
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[quote]Plus, the movie's called "Chinatown," but absolutely no action takes place in Chinatown except in the last five minutes of the movie.
According to wikipedia: [Towne] took the title (and the exchange "What did you do in Chinatown?" / "As little as possible") from a Hungarian vice cop, who had worked in Los Angeles's Chinatown, dealing with its confusion of dialects and gangs. The vice cop thought that "police were better off in Chinatown doing nothing, because you could never tell what went on there" and whether what a cop did helped victims or further exploited them.
For those who've seen the film, the title makes perfect sense.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | August 11, 2025 2:21 PM
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As does the immortal line, “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown”
by Anonymous | reply 17 | August 11, 2025 2:24 PM
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Yes, r15. A perfect illustration of what is destroying this site. Muriel wants us to self-police, but we’re overwhelmed by thugs who can’t abide differing opinions and have learned how to manipulate the system to censor.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | August 11, 2025 2:28 PM
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I actually love this movie and I have most things!
by Anonymous | reply 19 | August 11, 2025 2:28 PM
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[quote]Plus, the movie's called "Chinatown," but absolutely no action takes place in Chinatown except in the last five minutes of the movie.
That's because the film's title is a literary metonym. Simply put, Chinatown is a concrete proper noun (a place) that stands in for a broader, abstract condition (systemic corruption and moral bankruptcy). As others said, the various references in the screenplay to the neighbourhood and Jake's backstory are deliberate scaffolding for that metonym.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | August 11, 2025 2:30 PM
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I admired the movie more than I liked it. As other posters here have said, it's about the mood and the atmosphere, and Polanski wonderfully captured that.
Plot wise, it was a slog. And I had to laugh out loud when Nicholson followed Faye to her sister/daughter's house and peered through the windows. Because if you're trying to hide a dirty secret about your past, you never close the curtains!
by Anonymous | reply 21 | August 11, 2025 2:32 PM
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Looks like the grey-out has been reversed. I guess Muriel’s awake.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | August 11, 2025 2:42 PM
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It's a movie that would never get the green light from a major studio today. No explosions or fireballs.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | August 11, 2025 2:44 PM
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[quote] systemic corruption and moral bankruptcy
I interpreted more as a complex system of power and relationships that is unknowable to anyone on the outside and is best left alone.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | August 11, 2025 2:44 PM
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We did get a brief glimpse of Nicholson's fine 37-year-old ass in it. That was nice.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | August 11, 2025 2:44 PM
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R4 Who's Goldman? It was written by Robert Towne.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | August 11, 2025 2:52 PM
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[quote]I interpreted more as a complex system of power and relationships that is unknowable to anyone on the outside and is best left alone.
That works too, particularly with Evelyn Mulray and how sealed off she is from the outside world. But I do think the idea of duplicity, corruption and sin, in its most nuanced, non-moralistic sense, is woven into the fabric of the script. The most depraved character carrying the names of both an Old Testament patriarch and a Christian symbol isn't a mere coincidence or irony.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | August 11, 2025 2:57 PM
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Helps if you can do more than watch a movie for the surface plot.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | August 11, 2025 2:59 PM
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A guy who thinks he's hip and has seen it all peels back the layers on real evil and corruption and it floors him. And then we find out about the father sleeping with the woman and the girl is her sister and her daughter...I think it hits like a ton of bricks.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | August 11, 2025 3:01 PM
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But using Chinatown as a symbol of corruption and immorality would be pretty fucking racist. Inscrutable to outsiders is something of a cliché, but it is less offensive than that.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | August 11, 2025 3:02 PM
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How old are you OP. Today’s whippersnappers don’t have the attention span for older, slower-paced but brilliant movies. Also, watching it at home rather than in a theater doesn’t help. I see this in myself as well.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | August 11, 2025 3:04 PM
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A lot of 70’s films seem slow now. It doesn’t diminish their quality but modern audiences may not have the patience to sit through them.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | August 11, 2025 3:07 PM
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I wish Jane Fonda had played the female lead. She’d have brought some nervous energy to it, Dunaway just brings nerves.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | August 11, 2025 3:11 PM
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The poll choices are pretty awful.
It's a really good movie but it is very flawed. I love it but I can see where some might not.
But I love The Lion in Winter too so what do I know?
by Anonymous | reply 34 | August 11, 2025 3:16 PM
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Did anyone see Chinatown when it first came out in 1974? I did, and loved it. Maybe I wouldn’t looove it as much if I first saw it in 2025.
Btw, I will never forget John Houston’s response to Nicholson’s question about what could all of this money buy him. It was NOT power, R13, it was “the FUTURE.”
by Anonymous | reply 35 | August 11, 2025 3:23 PM
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Another thing-the parts that were SHOCKING in 1974 and gave the film its edginess may not be so shocking now.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | August 11, 2025 3:32 PM
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It’s very good but it’s not a movie one wants to watch again and again.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | August 11, 2025 3:44 PM
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[quote]A guy who thinks he's hip and has seen it all peels back the layers on real evil and corruption and it floors him.
Noah Cross: You may think you know what you're dealing with here, but, believe me, you don't.
[Gittes grins]
Noah Cross: Why is that funny?
Jake Gittes: That's what the District Attorney used to tell me in Chinatown.
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................
Jake Gittes: Evelyn, put that gun away. Let the police handle this.
Evelyn Mulwray: He owns the police!
by Anonymous | reply 39 | August 11, 2025 3:52 PM
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Don’t fret OP, go back to clipping your coupons, and be grateful Chinatown doesn’t resonate.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | August 11, 2025 3:55 PM
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R36, I, nor anyone I knew didn’t find anything shocking about Chinatown in 1974, though the nose cutting scene was unexpected. Bonnie & Clyde was a SHOCK, the violent end. Today? Meh.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | August 11, 2025 4:01 PM
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I think Chinatown is a beautiful movie with a good score, but I've always found the plot a little boring.
I prefer The Long Goodbye.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | August 11, 2025 4:06 PM
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The incest subplot was absolutely shocking in '74. Today it's been done to death in a million and one LifeTime-type movies.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | August 11, 2025 4:09 PM
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R33 Apparently, it was Nicholson who lobbied to have Dunaway play the lead. I agree that Fonda would've been better.
Faye can't approach a role without being DRAMATIC and playing to the cheap seats.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | August 11, 2025 4:33 PM
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I think Faye's highly dramatic acting worked in this movie because Evelyn was a very affected person. She had this elegant and controlled facade but underneath she was a mess because he father raped and impregnated her. I don't think Jane Fonda had the acting skills to pull that off.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | August 11, 2025 4:41 PM
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One thing that confused me and I couldn't figure out. Was Dunaway's sister/daughter having an affair with Dunaway's husband or not?
by Anonymous | reply 46 | August 11, 2025 4:44 PM
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The first thing I noticed when I saw it was it felt like a 1970s movie TRYING to feel like 1930 and failing miserably. The hair styles, sets, and costumes were dreadful and greatly detracted from the era they were attempting to capture.
Paper Moon, on the other hand captured the 1930s PERFECTLY.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | August 11, 2025 4:48 PM
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Mulwray = Mulholland = water
by Anonymous | reply 48 | August 11, 2025 4:50 PM
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R47 Really? I thought that was the one aspect of the movie that was done well.
I also agree that Paper Moon captured the 30s perfectly.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | August 11, 2025 4:51 PM
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R41 The nose cutting scene was shocking indeed. Yikes. It looked real.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | August 11, 2025 4:55 PM
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[Quote] Plot wise, it was a slog. And I had to laugh out loud when Nicholson followed Faye to her sister/daughter's house and peered through the windows. Because if you're trying to hide a dirty secret about your past, you never close the curtains!
R21 Of course, Faye didn't realize that she was being followed so there would really be no reason to close the curtains just because her sister/daughter is upset.
btw did you ever see Rear Window where the murderer doesn't ever seem to turn his lights out or draw his blinds, allowing Jimmy Stewart or anyone else a clear view into his apartment from across the courtyard.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | August 11, 2025 4:56 PM
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I did like the way the movie started with poor schlep Burt Young, then he ended up popping up again toward the end and becoming somewhat of a hero.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | August 11, 2025 4:57 PM
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R51 It seems that if Dunaway's character was as intent on keeping this part of her life quiet, she'd have the foresight to draw the curtains. Also, the exposition in that scene was way too much. Faye looks at the newspaper, does a dramatic "Oh, my stars!" flourish, then dashes off to the bedroom where the sister/daughter is wailing and flailing on top of her twin bed.
And who said anything about Rear Window? Last time I checked, this thread was about Chinatown.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | August 11, 2025 5:00 PM
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It’s a fantastic movie in the Hollywood film noir style about how personal moral corruption inevitably leads to civic, corporate and political corruption. And that one kind of corruption thrives on the others.
It’s also a love letter to classic Hollywood and classic Hollywood movies.
Yes, I’m an ‘elder gay.’ I was a gayling when I saw it in the movies on its initial release, and loved it. We all did, we realized (as did most of the critics of the time) that we were seeing an instant classic.
No American film before had been as accurate as CHINATOWN in recreating a period. And we boomers had all grown up watching old film noir and detective movies on TV, so we understood in our bones the movie traditions it was drawing on.
As for you finding it boring — well attention spans keep shrinking along with intelligence and sophistication, so I wouldn’t be so quick to advertise that fact, OP. People might think you’re a cretinous moron. Not me, you understand. But people.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | August 11, 2025 5:01 PM
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To westerners, Chinatowns became symbols of all that was mysterious and inexplicable. No one knew what was going on in the backrooms of people who didn't look or talk like western people. By using this title metaphorically, Polanski foreshadows that this will not be a straightforward typical Hollywood story, culminating in the realization that, sometimes, evil does triumph.
[quote]I don't blame myself. You see, Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place, they're capable of ANYTHING.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | August 11, 2025 5:02 PM
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It probably would have won Best Picture had The Godfather Part 2 not been in the running.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | August 11, 2025 5:02 PM
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R55 Yeah, it was kind of a bummer that Dunaway ended up being the sacrificial lamb in all of this and that the sister/daughter she was trying to protect was about to become another victim of her father/grandfather.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | August 11, 2025 5:06 PM
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[quote]Yeah, it was kind of a bummer
Noirs tend to be, r57. did you think it was going to end with a freewheeling patio number?
by Anonymous | reply 58 | August 11, 2025 5:10 PM
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R58 Noirs don't always end on a down note. A lot of noirs had the good guys triumphing over the bad guys.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | August 11, 2025 5:11 PM
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I've always liked it. I don't think it's the best movie ever or anything, but I can understand the acclaim.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | August 11, 2025 5:18 PM
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As I recall, there was dispute about the ending, and Polanski insisted on the triumph of evil.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | August 11, 2025 5:20 PM
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R45, have you seen Fonda in anything but exercise videos? Doesn’t sound like it.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | August 11, 2025 5:40 PM
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I’m with R49, the look of the movie was perfect and captured the time beautifully, R47. Most other movies struggled with it. Catch Robert Redford’s hair in The Way We Were. Streisand is wearing all of these period wigs, Redford’s hair contribution is cutting off his sideburns and advanced hair coloring.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | August 11, 2025 5:45 PM
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[Quote] And who said anything about Rear Window? Last time I checked, this thread was about Chinatown.
R53 Being a hall monitor is pointless here. BTW There is a thread on Rear Window that became more about Eva Marie Saint and Angela Lansbury which is typical of DL Welcome
by Anonymous | reply 64 | August 11, 2025 5:55 PM
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[quote] A lot of noirs had the good guys triumphing over the bad guys.
Not all of them, thank goodness.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | August 11, 2025 6:00 PM
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R64 Is there a point to be made here?
by Anonymous | reply 66 | August 11, 2025 6:00 PM
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[Quote] It seems that if Dunaway's character was as intent on keeping this part of her life quiet, she'd have the foresight to draw the curtains.
Though she didn't Seemed to have a problem with her sister/ daughter being out in public with her husband
by Anonymous | reply 67 | August 11, 2025 6:01 PM
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[Quote] Is there a point to be made here?
Yes, You don't control DL and there's no point in trying R66
by Anonymous | reply 68 | August 11, 2025 6:04 PM
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Since Horace and the servants obviously know Catherine, what the purpose was of having her live at a separate residence?
Why didn't she just live at the mansion as Evelyn's sister?
by Anonymous | reply 69 | August 11, 2025 6:29 PM
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[quote]Plus, the movie's called "Chinatown," but absolutely no action takes place in Chinatown except in the last five minutes of the movie.
The movie FARGO (1996) is mainly set in Minnesota, specifically Brainerd and the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Only the opening scene takes place in Fargo, North Dakota.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | August 11, 2025 6:29 PM
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Seems R68 is the one with control issues here.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | August 11, 2025 6:46 PM
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R69 I think it's because Dunaway's character was trying to hide her from her father/grandfather. If she had lived at Dunaway's house, Huston would have been able to find her.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | August 11, 2025 6:48 PM
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If I have one fault with this movie, it’s that Curly’s wife has a swollen black eye later in the movie where Curly had obviously hit her after Gittes proved she was cheating on him. The theater audience laughed, I didn’t.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | August 11, 2025 6:52 PM
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Yeah! And there WERE old men in “No Country for Old Men” What’s up with that?
by Anonymous | reply 74 | August 11, 2025 6:53 PM
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R73 It's because she was a whore, darlin'.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | August 11, 2025 6:54 PM
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R11 That scene has been the stuff of comic fodder for so many years now, it made me laugh when I saw the movie instead of being shocked.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | August 11, 2025 6:57 PM
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I understand, R76, but I was 15 when seeing the movie in the theater with my mother and sisters and we weren’t shocked - then.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | August 11, 2025 7:00 PM
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[quote] That scene has been the stuff of comic fodder for so many years now, it made me laugh when I saw the movie instead of being shocked.
Yeah, let’s face it, incest is hilarious!
by Anonymous | reply 78 | August 11, 2025 7:01 PM
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R78 No, dear. The histrionics of the scene were hilarious, not the subject matter.
"She's my sister!" SLAP!
"She's my daughter!" SLAP!
"She's my sister!" SLAP!
I'm sure it was shocking to 1974 audiences, but today, it plays like slapstick.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | August 11, 2025 7:17 PM
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Dunaway at the end is all of us living under the Trump regime, helpless to escape.
"He owns the police!"
by Anonymous | reply 81 | August 11, 2025 7:30 PM
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[quote] it plays like slapstick.
No pun intended!
by Anonymous | reply 82 | August 11, 2025 7:32 PM
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[quote]Aside from Bonnie and Clyde, Faye Dunaway seems to play the same character in every movie. There were times during Chinatown where I expected her to say, "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at the dirt!"
One of the worst thing about lauding the more "Technical" approaches to acting is that everything that isn't a full bodied transformation and mimicry is somehow construed as inauthentic or not "real" enough.
Faye has great range. There's nothing similar about any of her work with a career that spans Bonnie and Clyde, Thomas Crown Affair, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, Chinatown, Newtork, Mommie Dearest, to Barfly. Just an amazing ordinary actress who can fit into a role like a well heeled foot slips into a designer shoe.
I mean the woman worked with Brando. Enough said.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | August 11, 2025 7:43 PM
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R83 She seems like pretty much a one-note actress to me.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | August 11, 2025 7:46 PM
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R83 Hi, Faye! Thanks for visiting DL today. I heard Nicholson hated working with you on Chinatown and regretted pushing your for the role. Is that true?
by Anonymous | reply 85 | August 11, 2025 7:47 PM
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R83 Newtork is an underrated, rarely seen Dunaway vehicle.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | August 11, 2025 7:48 PM
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If it plays like slapstick, maybe that's because at that moment, Faye rises to the same vocal tessitura as she later does in Mommie Dearest's kabuki-drag slugefest. But that moment was never meant to be seen out of context, nor seen in the broad context of her career arc. What does not feel in any way false, artificial, or camp is that which follows on from that. The part that everybody forgets. "My father and I…understand? Or is it too tough for you?" So underplayed, so real and thus fucking devastating. THAT'S why Faye is a genius of an actress. That she can, within a hair's breadth, pivot from the theatrical to naturalistic; from the aristocratic mask of Mrs Mulwray to the abused little girl, Evelyn, hiding from her monstrous father.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | August 11, 2025 7:57 PM
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R38- Unlike Tootsie, Working Girl , Devil Wears Prada
by Anonymous | reply 88 | August 11, 2025 8:03 PM
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[quote]A lot of noirs had the good guys triumphing over the bad guys.
That was a bug that came with the Hayes code, but it also applied, to a lesser extent, to the detective fiction from that era. For instance, in Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, the system is crooked, but Marlowe has the choice to walk away. So while there is more moral ambiguity, you won't find anything approaching Chinatown's gutpunch ending.
Remembering that Polanski grew up in Poland and Post-War France, if there's any artistic influence, it's more likely coming from the French romans noirs (literally "black novels") and the darker European detective fiction of that period and earlier, which he may have read as a cynical disaffected youth, from writers like Léo Malet, Georges Simenon, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Marek Hłasko, Leopold Tyrmand etc.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | August 11, 2025 8:09 PM
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Chinatown is a lot of things. It’s also (literally, almost) in the shadow of City Hall and the Civic Center. There’s a lot of layers there.
From a physical perspective—the Valley, the bluff top water discharge, Catalina etc.—it captures Los Angeles perfectly. It missed out only in not using Bunker Hill —which would have been part of that story—because it was long gone by then.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | August 11, 2025 8:22 PM
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R86, Network is hardly underrated. Nominated for nine Oscars, it won four. Just because YOU didn’t know much about it doesn’t mean it was underrated. That is unless you really mean “Newtork.”
I personally do not respond to Faye Dunaway. You can tell me over and over how fabulous she is and all I see is a cold emotionless performance in every movie - with the exception of Bonnie and Clyde and Network. She’s the weak link in Chinatown. God if they had cast an actress with blood in her veins instead of ice, the movie would be perfect. FOR ME.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | August 11, 2025 8:24 PM
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I disagree. That nervous energy plus a WTF is really going with her serves the story well. Her father really did a number on her and she shows it.
by Anonymous | reply 92 | August 11, 2025 8:28 PM
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The fictionalized version of the water wars holds up well. It honors the gist of LA’s “growth story.”
Kevin Starr wrote a great series of books on California, including a deep focus on how and why LA became LA. Also, check out Mike Davis for a different take.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | August 11, 2025 8:31 PM
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R92, presuming that you’re talking to me, how can you disagree with what I said? I am talking to how Faye Dunaway leaves ME COLD. It’s not about how she affects YOU. Clear?
by Anonymous | reply 94 | August 11, 2025 8:49 PM
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[Quote] Seems [R68] is the one with control issues here.
R71 seems like you're the one who has control issues since you felt what someone posted didn't belong on this thread.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | August 11, 2025 8:57 PM
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[Quote] I think it's because Dunaway's character was trying to hide her from her father/grandfather. If she had lived at Dunaway's house, Huston would have been able to find her.
Noah Cross was a powerful man who owned the police. He could very easily find out where his granddaughter is. After all Jake was able to find her.
Also who took care of Catherine?
by Anonymous | reply 96 | August 11, 2025 9:08 PM
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Her mother/sister, her stepfather/brother in law and their staff.
by Anonymous | reply 97 | August 11, 2025 9:20 PM
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[quote] What is a great movie? LA Confidential. So much better than Chinatown.
Oh FFS. No it’s not.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | August 11, 2025 9:21 PM
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R91 I’m not R86, but they were definitely just having fun with a typo…
by Anonymous | reply 100 | August 11, 2025 10:02 PM
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R91 Oh, honey. Please read R86 and R83 again. And this time, read them very closely.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | August 11, 2025 10:23 PM
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R87 You're giving her a lot of credit there. I saw none of that in her performance, just her trademark bellowing and gasping.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | August 11, 2025 10:24 PM
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R95 needs much, much attention.
by Anonymous | reply 103 | August 11, 2025 10:25 PM
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R103 To borrow from one of the numerous posts you have on this thread: Is there a point to be made here?
by Anonymous | reply 104 | August 11, 2025 10:46 PM
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Why can't you be obsessed about positive things?
by Anonymous | reply 105 | August 11, 2025 10:49 PM
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R103 That some people like to come to these threads and just act like a-holes rather than engage in any interesting sharing or discussion.
Any other questions, dear?
by Anonymous | reply 106 | August 11, 2025 10:50 PM
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R89 I liked your post. I have mixed feelings about the film and Pauline Kael's criticisms landed with me. I don't think Polanski was the right director for this story.
"You can feel the conflict between the temperaments of the scriptwriter, Robert Towne, and the director, Roman Polanski. In Towne’s conception, the audience discovers the depth of the corruption along with the romantic-damn-fool detective J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson). Polanski, whose movies don’t leave you anything to hang on to, turns the material into an extension of his world view: He makes the LA atmosphere gothic and creepy from the word “go.” The film holds you, in a suffocating way. Polanski never lets the story tell itself. It’s all over-deliberate, mauve, nightmarish; everyone is yellow-lacquered, and evil runs rampant. You don’t care who is hurt, since everything is blighted. And yet the nastiness has a look, and a fascination".
by Anonymous | reply 107 | August 11, 2025 10:50 PM
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The end was a shock, especially for the 70s, I'm guessing.
I agree with the mood and setting. I think the cinematography was great and I can't tell it was shot in the 70s at all. It looked like a picture that would stand the test of time
by Anonymous | reply 108 | August 11, 2025 10:54 PM
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Movies nowadays don't have the balls to tell the kind of story Chinatown told. They all end happily because Hollywood is afraid audiences will be turned off by dark endings. Chinatown is a masterpiece on many levels, production and costume design being only some of them.
by Anonymous | reply 110 | August 11, 2025 10:59 PM
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No interest in everyman newcomer Jack Nicholson in Chinatown? He was a major reason for the movie’s success, much more than Dunaway. And, yes, Nicholson was a newcomer since most people didn’t really know him other than he’d been nominated for an Oscar or two. Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces were not seen by too many (then, the later numbers add up), and don’t get me started on The Last Detail. Chinatown made Nicholson a new kind of leading man.
by Anonymous | reply 111 | August 11, 2025 11:08 PM
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You guess wrong, R108. At least in New York.
by Anonymous | reply 112 | August 11, 2025 11:09 PM
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R111 I think Nicholson's performance was the best part of the movie. His transformation from cynical tough guy to complete despondency was amazing.
by Anonymous | reply 113 | August 11, 2025 11:10 PM
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r105, you must mean the "Coosta Rica Movie" that she was so brilliant in that was the hit of all Europe and Cannes and not the Lloyd-Weber Stupidity?
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 114 | August 11, 2025 11:54 PM
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I got on a Jack Nicholson kick a few weeks ago and watched it for the first time. I liked Carnal Knowledge, the Last Detail, and many of his other movies. He's a captivating actor and not very predictable.
Btw, when I get on a celebrity kick, sometimes it turns out they kick the bucket within a year. Hope he's ok.
by Anonymous | reply 116 | August 12, 2025 12:01 AM
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Well, R116, he's 88. I'm sure his death will have nothing to do with your celeb kick.
by Anonymous | reply 117 | August 12, 2025 12:09 AM
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R105 = Faye Dunaway. Sorry Faye, no one does, you idiot.
by Anonymous | reply 118 | August 12, 2025 12:12 AM
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Chinatown looms large in the movie, not because it’s the movies location, but because what happened to Jake there is slowly revealed to be happening to him all over again, despite his determination to avoid it at all costs.
I remember when Jake is told, “that’s in Chinatown,” it sent a chill through me because I knew we were going back to Jake’s bete noir for the conclusion.
In a way the movie is set in Chinatown, but metaphorically. Chinatown represented a place where he tried to do good for others, but he really had no idea what was going on, and did them harm instead. And that’s exactly what happens with this case he’s working. He is a wise guy but despite his savvy he just never knows what he’s dealing with.
OP is entitled to his opinion but I think Chinatown is the best film made during the New Hollywood era.
by Anonymous | reply 119 | August 12, 2025 12:22 AM
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It's utterly brilliant. And devastating.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | August 12, 2025 12:24 AM
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Not to insult OP, but I think our attention spans have been destroyed by the digital revolution. This is why adult pictures are no longer profitable and all we get are comic book movies, cartoons and slapstick.
by Anonymous | reply 121 | August 12, 2025 12:24 AM
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Watching it now. It’s on Paramount+
Can someone smart explain the water premise. Is John Huston’s character trying to manipulate where the water goes?
by Anonymous | reply 122 | August 12, 2025 12:24 AM
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[quote]In Chinatown, the water department, under the influence of Cross, is behind a plan to secretly dump water from a vital reservoir in the San Fernando valley at night during a drought, so that the local agricultural land becomes unusable, and is devalued – allowing the department and Cross to buy it off cheaply from those forced out. Gittes finds that the land is changing ownership to random names taken from the residents (some recently deceased) of a local retirement home to hide the insider investors' identity. Handily, too, Cross's desired new dam would solve the problem of the lack of water supply, ensuring a vast profit from the subsequent increase in value of the cheaply acquired land once properly supplied with water again.
[quote]When it came to the real-life water supply project, it quickly inspired disillusionment. "By the early 1920s any hope of shared benefits [from the Los Angeles water department buying up Owens Valley] evaporated with a drought and increased groundwater pumping to maintain the supply delivered by the aqueduct to the city," Walton tells the BBC. "Ranchers and small-town domestic users saw the local water table drop and their wells run dry." This was the situation that was foreseen by the project's opponents, leading to attempts to destroy it. "After many unsuccessful efforts to gain a share of the diminishing supply, local citizens staged a rebellion, initially by dynamiting the aqueduct and in 1924 occupying the Alabama Hills spill gates, which were opened, allowing the city's supply to flow on to the valley floor."
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 123 | August 12, 2025 12:31 AM
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I think Trump is the culmination of EVERYTHING Chinatown was warning us about.
by Anonymous | reply 124 | August 12, 2025 12:31 AM
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R122, powerful people are drying out the San Fernando valley by diverting water from there and secretly dumping it in the ocean.
This makes the valley land less valuable.
Those same people are buying up land in the valley using the names of retirees — once they own all the land, they’ll build a dam to fix the drought THEY caused and then their land, bought for peanuts, will be extremely valuable.
by Anonymous | reply 125 | August 12, 2025 12:35 AM
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You don’t know what you’re talking about, ya dumb Okie!
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 128 | August 12, 2025 1:04 AM
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We knew we were going back to Chinatown because the servants are taking Katherine to their place.
My favorite minor character is the Japanese gardener.
by Anonymous | reply 129 | August 12, 2025 1:22 AM
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That water project still operates today. Hardly a failure.
by Anonymous | reply 130 | August 12, 2025 1:24 AM
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Don’t forget the ladies in the nursing home.
Albacore!
by Anonymous | reply 131 | August 12, 2025 1:24 AM
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[quote] powerful people are drying out the San Fernando valley by diverting water from there and secretly dumping it in the ocean. This makes the valley land less valuable. Those same people are buying up land in the valley using the names of retirees — once they own all the land, they’ll build a dam to fix the drought THEY caused and then their land, bought for peanuts, will be extremely valuable.
I know of the real life Mulholland - but did water dumping and land devaluation occur?
by Anonymous | reply 133 | August 12, 2025 1:35 AM
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Here’s a solid basic resource
Kevin Starr’s volume on LA in that era.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 134 | August 12, 2025 1:39 AM
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Here’s a more sharply political view of the subject
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 135 | August 12, 2025 1:40 AM
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Historical , by far the period of greatest population (%) growth in southern California was the 1920s. That’s when LA was well on its way to leave SF behind and take its place as the most important city west of Chicago. In due course even Chicago was left behind.
by Anonymous | reply 136 | August 12, 2025 1:44 AM
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Actually the conspiracy in Chinatown is fictional.
Were there water supply issues involved in the making of modern Los Angeles? Yes, absolutely. But there was no conspiracy.
To hear a very clear description distinguishing between the movie and what really happened, watch Thom Anderson’s magnificent documentary, “Los Angeles Plays Itself.” He clearly describes the differences, and they are major.
by Anonymous | reply 137 | August 12, 2025 2:09 AM
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OP it is Miss Dunaway to you salad boy not Faye. How dare you?
by Anonymous | reply 138 | August 12, 2025 2:26 AM
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Robert McKee introduces Chinatown
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 139 | August 12, 2025 2:45 AM
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Noir often had plots that didn't entirely make sense--Chandler, himself, couldn't explain the plot to "The Big Sleep". After they saw "Chinatown" people actually talked about the plot points and tried to put it together. The sister/daughter scene was pretty novel then, but has been parodied so many times that it doesn't have the same impact now.
LA Confidential runs too long and is too literal by comparison. It also has more cliched characters.
by Anonymous | reply 140 | August 12, 2025 4:07 AM
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DePalma’s Body Double reminds me so much of Chinatown.
by Anonymous | reply 141 | August 12, 2025 4:50 AM
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I finally listened to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (1824). I don’t understand its acclaim.
It takes forever for the voices to come in.
by Anonymous | reply 142 | August 12, 2025 5:04 AM
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Two factoids, I picked up
1–The movie was supposed to end with Jake walking away from Evelyn in despair. His friends holding him together. Then Jack just looked at an actor playing a friend who blurted out the famous “Forget it…’
2–Cops didn’t like Chinatown because they found it confusing. The lawyer who wrote Perry Mason took on a group of Chinese busted by the police for running a bunch of rackets. This was in the teens or 20s. He switched the defendants around. When each policeman was asked to identify the person they arrested, they could not. Because they couldn’t tell them apart. Acquittal.
by Anonymous | reply 143 | August 12, 2025 6:39 AM
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The movie was supposed to end with Jake walking away from Evelyn in despair. His friends holding him together…
That is how it ended…
by Anonymous | reply 144 | August 12, 2025 7:23 AM
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R91 Chinatown won only one Oscar (original screenplay) from 11 nominations. Quite ironic since now almost everyone agrees there are major flaws in the plot.
by Anonymous | reply 145 | August 12, 2025 8:11 AM
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OP for that matter, WHERE is the literal godfather in the lengrth ofThe Godfather? WHY doesn't the world end in Apocalypse Now? WHERE are the fucking dogs in Reservoir Dogs?? WHY is there only one scene with velvet in Blue Velvet?? WHY isn't Lebowski literally bigger than the other characters??
OP if you don't mind me saying, that was not a very smart post. Personal taste is one thing, but not getting WHY it's called Chinatown is another kettle of fish entirely.
I hope that was a troll.
by Anonymous | reply 146 | August 12, 2025 8:24 AM
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OP will love Jack in 'Cuckoo's Nest', but might lament the absence of eponymous avian shelter.
by Anonymous | reply 147 | August 12, 2025 8:57 AM
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[quote] Quite ironic since now almost everyone agrees there are major flaws in the plot.
Tosh.
by Anonymous | reply 148 | August 12, 2025 9:55 AM
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R137, duh. The movie plot is supposed to be fiction not a documentary.
by Anonymous | reply 149 | August 12, 2025 10:51 AM
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Faye's entrance in the movie, after some time has passed, is spectacular.
by Anonymous | reply 150 | August 12, 2025 11:15 AM
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Kevin Pollack tells a good Jack Nicholson Chinatown story.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 152 | August 12, 2025 12:15 PM
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[quote]I Am Pretending I Finally Watched ________-- (date). I Don't Understand Its Acclaim (no punctuation)
There, asshole-cunt! You can use this as your template for the next dozen filmic "provocation threads."
You're welcome, worthless.
by Anonymous | reply 153 | August 12, 2025 12:36 PM
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[quote]That is how it ended…
You must have missed the fabulous closing dance number featuring Sandy Duncan and Sammy Davis, Jr. doing a lovely Fox Trot around Evelyn's car to " I Only Have Eyes For You."
by Anonymous | reply 154 | August 12, 2025 1:14 PM
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[quote] R92], presuming that you’re talking to me, how can you disagree with what I said? I am talking to how Faye Dunaway leaves ME COLD. It’s not about how she affects YOU. Clear?
Boundaries stated!
Not r92, but your couching your opinion about a performance in personal terms does not mean someone can’t express a different reaction.
by Anonymous | reply 155 | August 12, 2025 1:36 PM
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R145 there’s a long history of fine movies whose major honor was the screenplay Oscar—the bad luck of the release schedule pitting them against another heavy hitter. Nashville, for just one example of that same era.
by Anonymous | reply 156 | August 12, 2025 1:44 PM
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[quote] R91] Chinatown won only one Oscar (original screenplay) from 11 nominations. Quite ironic since now almost everyone agrees there are major flaws in the plot.
Also ironic since the writer who made the script great is uncredited: Polanski.
by Anonymous | reply 157 | August 12, 2025 2:02 PM
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It wasn’t as shitty as most movies but it was okay
by Anonymous | reply 158 | August 12, 2025 2:06 PM
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R139 Excellent analysis. He perfectly explains why Chinatown is a masterpiece in 10 minutes.
by Anonymous | reply 159 | August 12, 2025 5:18 PM
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The excellent Chinatown commentary track with Robert Towne and David Fincher is on YouTube.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 160 | August 12, 2025 5:38 PM
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It makes sense that David Fincher loves Chinatown
by Anonymous | reply 161 | August 12, 2025 6:01 PM
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I'm not really a fan of Dunaway but she was PERFECT in this film. I have to laugh at the idea of Jane Fonda in the role.
by Anonymous | reply 162 | August 12, 2025 6:42 PM
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R142 It's so boring! It should've had some beats.
by Anonymous | reply 163 | August 12, 2025 6:44 PM
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I don't understand the acclaim for LA Confidential at all. But Chinatown...god what a great movie.
by Anonymous | reply 164 | August 12, 2025 6:45 PM
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Eddie Muller and Ben Mankiewicz intro, Chinatown:
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 165 | August 12, 2025 6:53 PM
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Eddie and Ben outro...
They mention that the score was composed and recorded by Jerry Goldsmith, and added to the film in 11 days/
The original score, that the film was previewed with, was by Phillip Lambro. At one of the previews, the older film composer Bronislaw Kaper told Polanski that the Lambro score was ruining the film.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 166 | August 12, 2025 7:02 PM
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Please, Ben Mankiewicz is such an asshole.
by Anonymous | reply 167 | August 12, 2025 7:33 PM
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R167 Why don't you like Ben?
by Anonymous | reply 168 | August 12, 2025 7:34 PM
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R156 I wish Nashville had won the original screenplay Oscar!! Guess what—it wasn’t even nominated. It may have been all the press about how much the actors brought to their parts, but this was the giveaway that for all its acclaim the Academy was dutifully nominating it in major categories without really liking it much. It ended up with the song award only, after the score as a whole was ruled ineligible (too many contributors, I think, though it didn’t seem to matter for The Color Purple ten years later).
But Altman would repeatedly try this lots-of-characters-in-a-location format through the years (A Wedding, Health, Pret-a-Porter) and nothing even came close until Gosford Park, because Julian Fellowes provided a strong spine to build the movie around—and that was what Joan Tewkesbury must have done for Nashville, whether she wrote every line of dialogue or character quirk.
It was an egregious omission from the Academy—even if the award ended up going to a worthy winner, Dog Day Afternoon.
by Anonymous | reply 169 | August 12, 2025 7:56 PM
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R167 Well then mute it when he's talking, I guess.
by Anonymous | reply 170 | August 12, 2025 8:02 PM
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Many movies in the 70s were true works of art...unlike today's shit.
by Anonymous | reply 171 | August 12, 2025 8:18 PM
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Oops my bad on the example. But there are others to support my statement.
by Anonymous | reply 172 | August 12, 2025 10:01 PM
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The story was a bit of a hack job but everything else was great.
by Anonymous | reply 173 | August 13, 2025 4:02 AM
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OP missed the point. Go watch your faves with Adam Sandler.
by Anonymous | reply 174 | August 13, 2025 5:19 AM
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You have to be in the right mood. For years, I kept hearing how great Chinatown was. Every time I attempted to watch, I'd fall asleep. Like I couldn't get thru it if my life depended on it.
Finally, in my middle years, after at least 10 more had passed, I guess I was finally in the right mood. I was physically tired, mentally zonked, put TCM on as distraction. Chinatown was just about to start. I thought, "Great, just what I need, It'll put me to sleep".
I finally got it! Something got finally got thru to my perennially damaged attention span. It's a masterpiece! I've watched it numerous times since.
OP, you won't believe me, but maybe try again in 10 years?
by Anonymous | reply 175 | August 13, 2025 5:45 AM
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[Quote] I'm not really a fan of Dunaway but she was PERFECT in this film. I have to laugh at the idea of Jane Fonda in the role.
R162 I agree I can't think of anyone else who would have fit the role so well. Dunaway has that old Hollywood glamor and I can't imagine Jane Fonda wearing those 30s outfits.
by Anonymous | reply 177 | August 13, 2025 4:50 PM
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Nothing blew up and there wasn't a pop soundtrack and there were no car chases or people falling off buildings so it was slow and it sucked.
by Anonymous | reply 178 | August 13, 2025 4:52 PM
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R177 Faye completely lived that character, and the anxiety that went with it. Trying so hard to put up a front.
by Anonymous | reply 179 | August 13, 2025 4:54 PM
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There are quite a few movies today that are nihilistic and cynical. There's a lot of hip irony. There's a also a huge amount of fantasy. Movies about characters facing moral dilemmas and having relationships that are within the bounds of reality, where you live the story along with the characters...we have some, but that used to be the norm, in dramatic films.
by Anonymous | reply 180 | August 13, 2025 5:11 PM
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R177 — Well, Jane Fonda wore ‘30s outfits in “Julia” and looked good doing it as well as giving a good performance.
by Anonymous | reply 181 | August 13, 2025 5:42 PM
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R181 R171 She also wore '30s outfits in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and looked wonderful in them while giving an outstanding performance.
by Anonymous | reply 182 | August 13, 2025 5:44 PM
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[Quote] Dunaway has that old Hollywood glamor and I can't imagine Jane Fonda wearing those 30s outfits.
R181 R182 I think you both overlooked the word glamor in my post And I was referring specifically to the outfits worn by Dunaway in Chinatown.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 183 | August 13, 2025 6:23 PM
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and let's not forget what a style icon Lillian Hellman was
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 184 | August 13, 2025 6:28 PM
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She pulled off period roles quite well. I could see her as Evelyn, as much as I think Faye was so good—she and Jack had “it” in Chinatown.
by Anonymous | reply 185 | August 13, 2025 6:34 PM
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One of the big problems with Dunaway in Chinatown is that the romance part with Nicholson is bad, it’s perfunctory. That’s because she’s so cold.
by Anonymous | reply 186 | August 13, 2025 7:33 PM
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R186 Agreed. The whole romantic aspect seemed forced and a late attempt to add a little spice into what's really a rather dull storyline.
by Anonymous | reply 187 | August 13, 2025 7:40 PM
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R186 that’s a feature not a bug
by Anonymous | reply 188 | August 13, 2025 8:12 PM
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It’s part of the story..,
by Anonymous | reply 189 | August 13, 2025 8:12 PM
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[Quote] Also who took care of Catherine?
[Quote] Her mother/sister, her stepfather/brother in law and their staff.
And I assumed that she was home schooled as well
by Anonymous | reply 190 | August 13, 2025 9:11 PM
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Both Robert Evans and Roman Polanski have made it known that Jane Fonda was their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice for the role of Evelyn Mulwray. But when Fonda declined (something the actress denies), Chinatown gained Faye Dunaway…the jewel in Chinatown’s crown and the only ‘70s actress in my eyes to possess the combined intensity, inscrutability, aristocratic bearing, neurotic edge, old-fashioned movie star glamour, and grown-woman gravitas required to bring Evelyn Mulwray to life as something more than just another vaguely-drawn film noir femme fatale cliché.
Click on the article and scroll down to see a comparison of Fonda and Dunaway in photos from Julia and Chinatown
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 191 | August 13, 2025 9:26 PM
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No, Stefanie Powers or better, Suzanne Pleshette should have played her!
by Anonymous | reply 192 | August 13, 2025 9:28 PM
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^^^ Bob Evans would disagree.
Despite his early reservations, in the end, Robert Evans came to praise Dunaway's performance to the skies, albeit in his usual self-congratulatory way: "Dunaway's singular mystery on the screen was among the best casting choices of my career!"
by Anonymous | reply 193 | August 13, 2025 9:32 PM
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Did Jack Nicholson have sexual chemistry with anyone? Not Dunaway, not MacLaine, not Keaton (really), not Ann Margret imo. Who? Cher? Same with Faye. Who did she have chemistry with? McQueen? And who else?
In conclusion, there is no perfect casting for Chinatown. The lovey lovey stuff was not going to come to life. It’s the film’s weak point, and it also part of its center.
by Anonymous | reply 194 | August 13, 2025 9:55 PM
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[Quote] In conclusion, there is no perfect casting for Chinatown. The lovey lovey stuff was not going to come to life. It’s the film’s weak point, and it also part of its center.
The lovey lovey stuff or do you mean the lovey dovey stuff was never supposed to happen. Evelyn was a woman of mystery and Jake's feelings about her kept changing as they did after they bedded and he followed her to the home where Catherine was. They fell in bed together but never fell in love.
by Anonymous | reply 195 | August 13, 2025 10:14 PM
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The lovey-dovey stuff was injected to conform with the noir female - smart, seductive, mysteriously hiding a secret.
by Anonymous | reply 197 | August 13, 2025 10:55 PM
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There was nothing lovey dovey about any of the relationships in Chinatown. It's not a ROM com and I can't think of a noir film in which there was a genuine romance.
The hero usually a loner who never gets romantically involved with the woman of mystery because she might become the very one who stabs him in the back He keeps his emotional/professional distance.
by Anonymous | reply 198 | August 13, 2025 11:00 PM
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“Sue Mengers” talks about Faye’s casting.
by Anonymous | reply 199 | August 13, 2025 11:04 PM
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[Quote] The whole romantic aspect seemed forced and a late attempt to add a little spice into what's really a rather dull storyline.
Since when is sleeping with someone one time a romance. If so then James Bond had many romances
by Anonymous | reply 201 | August 13, 2025 11:27 PM
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[quote] The whole fucking aspect seemed rather forced and a late attempt to add a little spice into what's really a rather dull storyline.
There. Better, R201?
by Anonymous | reply 202 | August 13, 2025 11:30 PM
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No, because it didn't feel forced R202
What felt forced was the tragic conclusion which is really the fault of Jake. Why didn't he wait until Evelyn and her daughter left the country before contacting Noah Cross to tell him he found the girl. It was Jake who led Noah Cross to Chinatown. in response to the movie's final line Forget it Jake it's Chinatown I would like to respond forget it Chinatown it's Jake.
by Anonymous | reply 203 | August 13, 2025 11:38 PM
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In 1974 everyone who saw this film knew what it was about. The word has gotten stupider.
by Anonymous | reply 205 | August 13, 2025 11:46 PM
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R201, Jake once lost it over a woman that ended in Chinatown. He did it again with Evelyn, hence the emotion at the end, hence the film title. He may not have been in love, but he’s supposed to have cared for her. Problem is, she’s so icy, it’s hard to believe it for a millisecond.
by Anonymous | reply 206 | August 14, 2025 12:01 AM
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R205, and the world has gotten stupider also.
by Anonymous | reply 207 | August 14, 2025 12:05 AM
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OP, are you by any chance, the poster who started a thread about not understanding what was so great about REAR WINDOW?
by Anonymous | reply 208 | August 14, 2025 12:10 AM
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R207 The typing has gotten worse, anyway.
by Anonymous | reply 209 | August 14, 2025 12:12 AM
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R208, there’s another one here who explained how Chinatown’s story is not accurate. I belief it’s morons like that who challenge movies like Gone With The Wind for not being “accurate.” Do these youngsters not understand FICTION? Movies are fiction. Fiction = made up, not true.
by Anonymous | reply 210 | August 14, 2025 12:27 AM
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R210 Be careful opining on "morons" when you don't know the difference between "belief" and "believe."
by Anonymous | reply 211 | August 14, 2025 12:29 AM
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It’s an iPad making the decision, dear one, R211.
by Anonymous | reply 212 | August 14, 2025 12:31 AM
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Hemingway was a terrible speller. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a notoriously bad speller. They wrote some great novels though.
by Anonymous | reply 214 | August 14, 2025 12:38 AM
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Make way for R210, America's next Hemingway!
by Anonymous | reply 215 | August 14, 2025 12:43 AM
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Faye is great in this. Evelyn is the kind of tormented mess who would be catnip to someone like Jake. Does he seem like someone who is looking for happiness? No, he does not.
That last image of Noah Cross taking possession of his younger daughter is shudder-inducing, He has what he wants, he has the future.
by Anonymous | reply 216 | August 14, 2025 12:54 AM
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Small-minded, petty bitches are always correcting other people's spelling and grammar.
by Anonymous | reply 217 | August 14, 2025 1:00 AM
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Fonda could not play crazy. Dunaway was perfect because she could let her crazy out for Evelyn.
by Anonymous | reply 218 | August 14, 2025 1:30 AM
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She internalized her crazy as Evelyn….
by Anonymous | reply 219 | August 14, 2025 1:32 AM
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R217 Sanctimonious fart smellers who call others "morons" while not knowing the difference between "belief" and "believe" are always calling other people small-minded and petty.
by Anonymous | reply 220 | August 14, 2025 1:46 AM
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[Quote] [R137], duh. The movie plot is supposed to be fiction not a documentary.
I never said it was, stupid. I was responding to all the people in the thread who were treating the movie’s conspiracy as if it were based on fact.
By the way, if you want a chuckle, ignore r149 and half this thread disappears. She’s usually carrying on about “MISS Dunaway.”
by Anonymous | reply 221 | August 14, 2025 1:52 AM
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I belief you are a fart smelling moron, r220!
A sanctimonious one!
by Anonymous | reply 222 | August 14, 2025 1:53 AM
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R222 Spelling "believe" incorrectly with intention doesn't absolve you, dear.
I admire your efforts to try and cover your tracks, though.
Carry on, darling.
by Anonymous | reply 223 | August 14, 2025 2:35 AM
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I’m just teasing you and I’m not the person you were fighting with upthread, you boob.
by Anonymous | reply 224 | August 14, 2025 2:50 AM
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[quote]Dunaway has that old Hollywood glamor
[quote]I think you both overlooked the word glamor in my post And I was referring specifically to the outfits worn by Dunaway in Chinatown.
No, you said Dunaway has that old Hollywood glamor. You never referred specifically or otherwise, to the outfits worn by Dunaway.
Take the L
by Anonymous | reply 225 | August 14, 2025 2:59 AM
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[Quote] He may not have been in love, but he’s supposed to have cared for her. Problem is, she’s so icy, it’s hard to believe it for a millisecond.
He did care for her after he realized what she had been through
by Anonymous | reply 226 | August 14, 2025 3:06 AM
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[Quote] No, you said Dunaway has that old Hollywood glamor. You never referred specifically or otherwise, to the outfits worn by Dunaway.
[Quote] Dunaway has that old Hollywood glamor and I can't imagine Jane Fonda wearing those 30s outfits.
My bad R225 I thought most people would realize I was talking specifically about the outfits that Dunaway wore in Chinatown when I said those 30s outfits.
by Anonymous | reply 227 | August 14, 2025 3:12 AM
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Dunaway’s Evelyn Mulwray is a cool customer, yes, but she shows vulnerability throughout the film. It’s a very brittle vulnerability but it’s there. She gives the impression of hanging on to sanity by sheer willpower. She hides behind her hauteur and upper class reserve for dear life. She unbends enough to go to bed with Jake but doesn’t trust him enough to share her horrible secret. Finally, when he slaps it out of her, she seems freer. They have a plan of escape for her and Catherine and she is committed to it, and her love for the girl seems real. That’s why the ending is so touching and so awful. Polanski’s restraint in keeping the car far away from the camera as we hear the car horn and fear the worst, and they all start running for the car — it seems like a tense, endless time until we know the horible truth we’ve been expecting.
Despite her hardness, Evelyn was incredibly fragile. And I’m struck by what film noir maven Eddie Muller said above: That the horrible secret behind Evelyn’s femme fatale behavior could be the reason that all the vicious dames in all the film noirs were so horrible to men — because they had been sexually abused by men themselves. And it’s even explicit in a film like Stanwyck’s “Baby Face,” where her father is only too willing to pimp her out to men (when he was through with her?)
by Anonymous | reply 228 | August 14, 2025 3:18 AM
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Dunaway’s costumes in CHINATOWN are period perfect but also classic, lacking the clutter and fussiness of a lot of women’s fashions of the period— and her clothes are all basically blacks, whites and grays — very Hitchcockian.
Jane Fonda, who was tall and had a lovely body, would have looked just as timelessly chic as Faye. But I agree Faye was perfect casting — the intensely brittle, feverish, neurotic quality she brought to many of her roles is perfect here.
by Anonymous | reply 229 | August 14, 2025 3:23 AM
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BTW R225 you can see what I posted at R177 curious you didn't provide the full quote in your post hmmmmmmm!
by Anonymous | reply 230 | August 14, 2025 3:30 AM
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Because they read as two separate, unrelated clauses, R230.
by Anonymous | reply 231 | August 14, 2025 3:51 AM
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^ But what about quoting exactly and fully what I said
by Anonymous | reply 232 | August 14, 2025 4:06 AM
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[quote] I agree I can't think of anyone else who would have fit the role so well. Dunaway has that old Hollywood glamor and I can't imagine Jane Fonda wearing those 30s outfits.
Here ya go. Now read what you wrote and see how unclear you were. I understand in your head you thought you were saying one thing, but that's not at all how it reads. I'm not the only one who thought so.
by Anonymous | reply 233 | August 14, 2025 4:26 AM
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^^^ in high school you were voted most likely to die alone I suspect
by Anonymous | reply 234 | August 14, 2025 4:46 AM
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R194 I thought Nicholson had sexual chemistry with Candice Bergen in Carnal Knowledge.
(and Warren Beatty, later on of course!)
by Anonymous | reply 235 | August 14, 2025 4:58 AM
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^^^ flunked high school English - never graduated
by Anonymous | reply 236 | August 14, 2025 4:59 AM
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^^ I got a 'C'. What business is it of yours?
by Anonymous | reply 237 | August 14, 2025 5:01 AM
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^^^ I don't know what R236 got in English but she is a 'C' and sounds like a 10 year old girl.
by Anonymous | reply 238 | August 14, 2025 5:11 AM
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Sorry, R237 - that was for R234
by Anonymous | reply 239 | August 14, 2025 5:19 AM
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[quote]Did Jack Nicholson have sexual chemistry with anyone?
Plenty of chemistry in 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' with Jessica Lange, and indeed with Angelica Huston (oblique link to this thread).
Rumour had it - publicity rumour perhaps - that Jack and Jessica's first graphic tryst on a table went further than acting.
Rafelson also explored Jack's obvious chemistry with Karen Black in 'Five Easy Pieces', their sex scene being extensive and gloriously wild.
Then there was Jack and Meryl in 'Heartburn' and 'Ironweed' in consecutive years...
by Anonymous | reply 240 | August 14, 2025 6:22 AM
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R240 If you watch the first sex scene in The Postman Always Rings Twice, it certainly appears as if Nicholson has his face deeply buried in Lange's twat. No simulation there.
by Anonymous | reply 241 | August 14, 2025 10:35 AM
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R220, you’re far too sensitive for the Datalounge.
by Anonymous | reply 242 | August 14, 2025 10:41 AM
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R242...says the overly sensitive person who can't admit they made a spelling error. :-)
by Anonymous | reply 243 | August 14, 2025 10:43 AM
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[quote] Rumour had it - publicity rumour perhaps - that Jack and Jessica's first graphic tryst on a table went further than acting.
Only in that they had an affair during production but that should surprise nobody because it's almost a given that actors have affairs with their costars during filming.
by Anonymous | reply 244 | August 14, 2025 5:34 PM
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[quote]If you watch the first sex scene in The Postman Always Rings Twice, it certainly appears as if Nicholson has his face deeply buried in Lange's twat. No simulation there.
Can you imagine if that was shot today? An army of "intimacy coordinators" would be attempting to micro manage every move. Lange and Nicholson would have laughed at the idea back then.
by Anonymous | reply 245 | August 14, 2025 6:49 PM
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[quote] An army of "intimacy coordinators" would be attempting to micro manage every move.
And the placement of every pubic hair.
by Anonymous | reply 246 | August 14, 2025 7:38 PM
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[quote]Only in that they had an affair during production...
Hogwash. I was very busy at the time. When did I have time for Jack?
_____________
Relationships Jessica Lange was previously married to Paco Grande (1970 - 1981).
Jessica Lange has been in relationships with Sam Shepard (1981 - 2009), Bob Fosse (1977 - 1982) and Mikhail Baryshnikov (1976 - 1982).
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 247 | August 14, 2025 10:44 PM
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R200 she only got $75K for Chinatown! I bet she got a lot more for The Towering Inferno also released in 1974 though she didn't really have much to do in that film except be glamorous.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 248 | August 14, 2025 11:38 PM
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The 1974 lineup was one of the strongest in history.
Art Carney – Harry and Tonto as Harry Coombes
Albert Finney – Murder on the Orient Express as Hercule Poirot
Dustin Hoffman – Lenny as Lenny Bruce
Jack Nicholson – Chinatown as J.J. "Jake" Gittes
Al Pacino – The Godfather Part II as Michael Corleone
Love Art Carney, but it still stuns me that out of all them, he won.
by Anonymous | reply 249 | August 15, 2025 1:02 AM
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It was a beautiful performance, the movie was a major critical hit and he was a legend of early tv playing against type. Oscar bait.
Three of those nominees won 1 or 2 or 3 Oscars in due course. Everyone won except for Finney.
by Anonymous | reply 250 | August 15, 2025 1:14 AM
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Finney should have won for Shoot the Moon, a movie he wasn't nominated for.
by Anonymous | reply 251 | August 15, 2025 4:08 AM
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If I were that lightweight Art Carney, I’d have been damned embarrassed when they called my name for the win. Couldn’t believe it as I watched the Oscars in 1975. Pacino was robbed, so was DL fave Miss Barbra.
by Anonymous | reply 252 | August 15, 2025 11:44 AM
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