Films you've seen recently and would unreservedly recommend:

slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
'Chinatown'. I know, a classic...but I watched it again recently after years and really appreciated not just the direction and acting but the cinematography this time...oh...and the superb clothes. Towne doesn't overdo the witty dialogue either, which would have taken it into pastische.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
'The Two Jakes'? Don't think I've seen it. I read that Towne planned a trilogy but because of the second the idea was ditched.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I watched them far apart from each other and couldn't remember the first one that well (and it does matter) but it was fairly watchable. Actually, pretty silly in a lot of parts and Jack has turned into an enormous fat bastard. Hmm, maybe it wasn't that good come to think of it.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
In fact, once this comes out, I'm going to watch Polanski's movies in chronological order (well, up to Frantic, at least).
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
but I watched it again recently after years and really appreciated not just the direction and acting but the cinematography this time...oh...and the superb clothes. Towne doesn't overdo the witty dialogue either, which would have taken it into pastische.

Did you watch the documentaries that come on the DVD? I found Robert Towne to be quite an engaging character. I liked the idea of him choking Polanski with cigar smoke while they hashed out script rewrites in a closed room in the middle of a sweltering Hollywood summer. And his mortification at winning the film's only Oscar.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
Warning - potential SPOILER.

Haven't watched the extras yet. There's also a tale about Faye throwing urine over Polanski, which was raised by an Independent journalist recently, resulting in her throwing him out. I think she was an interesting choice as the female lead...that face close-up is mysterious...strong...quite intimidating. Such a powerful scene when Jake is slapping her for answers..."Sister...daughter...sister".
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
In fact, once this comes out, I'm going to watch Polanski's movies in chronological order (well, up to Frantic, at least).
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That looks good.

"Haven't watched the extras yet. There's also a tale about Faye throwing urine over Polanski, which was raised by an Independent journalist recently, resulting in her throwing him out."
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Yeah, I read that, sounds as though she really lost it.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
slim jenkins said:
Warning - potential SPOILER.

Haven't watched the extras yet. There's also a tale about Faye throwing urine over Polanski, which was raised by an Independent journalist recently, resulting in her throwing him out. I think she was an interesting choice as the female lead...that face close-up is mysterious...strong...quite intimidating. Such a powerful scene when Jake is slapping her for answers..."Sister...daughter...sister".
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That interview was in the Guardian (sorry, feeling pedantic) - the story originally comes from the Easy Riders Raging Bulls book (a must for anyone who likes that era). Seeing Dunaway on Wossy and reading that piece was kinda sad - she's a proper fucking icon, but jeezuz, that facelift.

I haven't seen The Two Jakes either, but Chinatown is so great it leaves me speachless.
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Can't add to that, just absolute perfection.

Two Jakes was too baffling for its own good first time I watched it. Second time I think I got stoned and fell asleep. What Nicholson says about them making 3 movies with the same character over several decades (so they age in time, as it were) was really interesting - pity it didn't work out better.

I always thought Chinatown got the idea for its title from Lady From Shanghai - just that notion of China containing a kind of evil that was impenetrable and unknowable for the average Jack/Orson, something alluded to but never really explained. But they contradict that on the DVD extras - it just stands for the failure of good intentions, or something.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
Yeah, I read that, sounds as though she really lost it.
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I first realised age wouldn't be kind to Dunaway when I saw Barfly - method acting is all well and good, but a woman like her shouldn't have looked so believable as a bag lady.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"I always thought Chinatown got the idea for its title from Lady From Shanghai"
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Is that the one where Wells' accent is so excrutiating that I have erased the film from my memory? Something weird at the end with a load of mirrors maybe?
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
crackerjack said:
That interview was in the Guardian (sorry, feeling pedantic) - the story originally comes from the Easy Riders Raging Bulls book (a must for anyone who likes that era). Seeing Dunaway on Wossy and reading that piece was kinda sad - she's a proper fucking icon, but jeezuz, that facelift.



Can't add to that, just absolute perfection.

Two Jakes was too baffling for its own good first time I watched it. Second time I think I got stoned and fell asleep. What Nicholson says about them making 3 movies with the same character over several decades (so they age in time, as it were) was really interesting - pity it didn't work out better.

I always thought Chinatown got the idea for its title from Lady From Shanghai - just that notion of China containing a kind of evil that was impenetrable and unknowable for the average Jack/Orson, something alluded to but never really explained. But they contradict that on the DVD extras - it just stands for the failure of good intentions, or something.
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I stand corrected re The Guardian. The facelift is bad, but I thought with Ross she came across as rather down to earth and pleasant - strict rules about what not to ask about, obviously, but then a lot of stars are like that.

As for Chinatown, like you I first thought it represented 'the mysterious' and unknowable, but in the bedroom scene he vaguely tells of a woman he was supposed to look after/protect in Chinatown, but failed. The incident had supposedly scarred him for life.

As you probably know Chinatown was a popular location in pulp short stories because of the perceived 'mysteries of the Orient' and racial suspicion in the 30s/40s based on ignorance and some amount of prejudice. The movie seems to reference this pulp/cultural past and uses it again in the famous final line. Having it both ways by using a real incident and utilising the atitudes of the era it represents.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
crackerjack said:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056217/

Best western evah. I may have given away the ending, but don't let that put you off.
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Missed this topic. One of my favourite films, never mind Westerns. I haven't seen a better one that takes on the subject of passive vs aggressive solutions although that's the issue in many Westerns - usually involving the simple matter of a former gunslinger dusting off his gun one more time. Lee Marvin's line to Stewart when he encounters him for the first time and sees the latter's law books is a classic - "I'll show you law, Western law!" - before proceeding to beat him with a whip handle. Stewart and Wayne are magnificant.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I thought with Ross she came across as rather down to earth and pleasant

So did I - very smart and dignified, actually. For a Hollywood Star of this vintage, anyway.
 
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