#Chinatown (1974)

[vibe-stash]

Chinatown (1974)

Director: Roman Polanski DOP: John A. Alonzo Production Design: Richard Sylbert Art Direction: W. Stewart Campbell

[cressida-jayoungr]

One Dress a Day Challenge

October: Black Redux

Chinatown / Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray

This is quite an attractive dress, but between the dim lighting and the fact that Evelyn is mostly in close-up shots in the scenes where it appears, we only really get a glimpse of it onscreen. Luckily, it has been auctioned, so we have some very good display photos. Here's the description from the auction site: "Black silk jersey day dress, fitted bodice, short sleeves, panels with hand fagoting; ankle-length skirt ornamented with self covered buttons; self covered belt with black and grey enameled buckle."

Evelyn wears the dress with a pearl necklace, a pair of gold bracelets, and a watch. I've included a close-up of the belt buckle. You can also see how the white trim is attached with a spiraling stitch in gold.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

THE DIRTY SECRET BETWEEN L.A. AND ITS WATER SUPPLY -- THE HEART OF THE MATTER IN "CHINATOWN."

PIC INFO: Resolution at 1330x1663 -- Spotlight on a "Chinatown" (1974) themed piece from the Atlantic article, "The Lies Los Angeles was Built Upon" -- "Chinatown" is about the secret history of how Los Angeles became a paradise — but it offers a warning for the city’s future," written by Chris Stanton, published July 25, 2024. Artwork by Clay Rodery.

"When Robert Towne sat down to write the screenplay for "Chinatown," he quickly found himself lost in a maze of his own making. He had set out to write a detective story in the tradition of Raymond Chandler, one that would pay tribute to the Los Angeles of his childhood -- a time before industrial smog choked the city, and before the Manson murders persuaded his friends to buy handguns and guard dogs. He wanted it to star his friend Jack Nicholson, whom he had first met in an acting class in the 1950s. And he planned to borrow liberally from a book on Southern California history that his then-girlfriend, Julie Payne, had found for him at the library.

If the movie was to be about Los Angeles itself, Towne wanted to intertwine the characters’ personal drama with some sordid local scandal — and where better to look for inspiration than the actual history of how the city had stolen water from a valley 250 miles away, ravaging the valley in the process? Towne had found an original sin on which to build his story, but the audacity of the crime and the sheer depth of conspiracy required to pull it off seemed impossible to fit into a screenplay. His first draft was about 340 pages."

-- THE ATLANTIC, "The Lies Los Angeles was Built Upon," by Chris Stanton, published June 25, 2024

Source: www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/06/chinatown-50th-anniversary-water-california/678780.

[an-ode-to-film]

Favorite first watches of July 2024

Chinatown (1974) dir. Roman Polanski / Rashomon (1950) dir. Akira Kurosawa / Targets (1968) dir. Peter Bogdanovich / Persona (1966) dir. Ingmar Bergman

[emilylovesdean]

AHHHH HE IS SO FINE

[yougetthegirligetthecoroner]

Hi, I am not very good at art, but I would like to be, so. What do you think of my drawing?

(Psssst, I traced it, but idk art doesn't have rules)

[jwood718]

Gittes: Mulvihill, what are you doin' here?

Mulvihill: They shut my water off. What's it to ya?

Gittes: How'd y'find out a bout it? Y'don't drink it; y'don't take a bath in it; they wrote'cha a letter--but then y'd have to be able to read.

Mulvihill moves in on Gittes doing his best to look intimidating.

Russ Yelburton, Claude Mulvihill, JJ "Jake" Gittes

Gittes: Relax Mulvihill, glad to see ya'. To Yelburton: Y'know Claude Mulvahill here?

Yelburton: Well I hope so, he's working for us.

Gittes: Doing what?

Yelburton: Well, frankly there've been some threats to blow up the city reservoirs.

Gittes: Any particular reason?

Yelburton: Well it's this darn drought; we've had to ration water in the valley and the farmers are desperate--but what can we do? The rest of the city needs drinking water.

Gittes: Well, you're in luck Mr. Yelburton.

Yelburton: How's that?

Gittes: When Mulvihill here was sheriff of Ventura County the rum runners landed hundreds of tons of booze on the beach and never lost a drop; he oughta' be able to hold on to your water for ya'!

[cosmonautroger]

Jack Nicholson, Chinatown, Roman Polanski, 1974

[coolthingsguyslike]

[affiches-cinema]

Chinatown, 1974.

Artwork by Jim Pearsall.

[thezombiegeekinthehawaiianshirt]

Faye Dunaway before filming her final scene for Chinatown, 1974

[letterboxd-loggd]

Chinatown (1974) Roman Polanski

June 30th 2024

[velveys]

Chinatown (1974)

[sesiondemadrugada]

Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974).

[harrison-abbott]

The scene towards the end when Faye Dunaway admits who her daughter is involves a real slap from Jack Nicholson. They had tried several takes and it wasn’t working with the fake slaps – so Dunaway told him to actually hit her, because she was getting annoyed.

Jack Nicholson was actually dating Anjelica Huston whilst the film was being shot – the daughter of John Huston. This made the scenes rather awkward for Nicholson when shooting with Noah Cross, especially during the table scene when he asks him, “Are you sleeping with her?”

The whole movie is shot from the main character’s perspective. Polanski said this was an ode to Raymond Chandler’s detective stories. Gittes is also present in every scene of the film. The camera is often pitched behind Nicholson, so that we learn the clues and see the sets as he does.

Off set, Nicholson would watch LA Lakers basketball games, and this tended to interrupt shooting. Polanski and he had already been arguing across the production, and at one point Polanksi lost his temper entirely and smashed Nicholson’s television.

Robert Towne wrote the screenplay with Nicholson in mind to play Gittes.