Roger Deakins and Steven Soderbergh on "Chinatown" (Roman Polanski, 1974)
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- Опубликовано: 24 май 2020
- Cinematographer Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, CBE, directors Steven Soderbergh and Kimberly Pierce, and composer James Newton Howard take turns extolling the virtues of the film over the course of half an hour, taking a more technical guide to the movie's many accomplishments of filmmaking and storytelling than often seen on these sorts of praise-heavy features.
For educational purposes only. Non-commercial purposes.
Surprised no one mentioned the car horn blaring out in the final scene before the camera shows us what’s happened. I remember how sinking that feeling was when I first saw the film. Beautiful bit of sound design that’s actually foreshadowed in an earlier scene when Faye Dunaway accidentally leans her head against the horn.
Excellent observation of the foreshadowing. I certainly didn't catch that...
Wow great observation!!
The quality of light in LA shows up so much richer in these ‘70’s Paramount films.
The score. The score. The score.
Was awesome. And a big part of the movies success.
@@matthewschwartz6607 ...and it was cobbled together last minute, when the original score was trashed, making it all the more amazing, to me.
Only only, only?
The score
One of the greatest scores of all time!
What a score. GodDAMN what a score.
Huston deserved a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
Houston wasn't nominated.
@@curtisrobinson7962 I think that is his point.
One of the best films ever made. 🎥
Absolutely
I live in LA and constantly see Chinatown all around me, both figuratively and literally.
Only Jerry Goldsmith can create such a masterful score in only two weeks after the prior composer was fired.
Why was he fired?
@@matthewschwartz6607 They trashed the score cause Polanski didn't like it, and had to start new, right before the deadline.
@@Jimmy1982Playlists Well technically, Polanski had nothing to do with it because he went to Italy to direct a play. It was mostly Robert Evans' call to get Jerry Goldsmith.
My favorite Nicholson movie hands down. And. perhaps, the greatest PI movies ever made.
No argument here
mine as well
I first saw Chinatown in 1975. It is still probably the finest film I have ever seen. From cinematography to the score, via art direction, performances, costume and of course direction, there isnt a misstep.
THE SOUNDTRACK
@@francescotenerilli8252 I often have the, sadly all too brief, theme playing to remind me how good everything about that film is great.
And it's a film that if you stumble upon it while mindlessly channel surfing cable, you find yourself almost instantly committed to watching to the end. Every single scene is compelling, and yet you always feel as if you're chasing a story that continually withdraws from you, even with many multiple viewings.
It is beyond compare.
This movie is based and grounded on one of the best, if not THE best script ever conceived.
There are a bunch of analyses of Chinatown on the internet. I think this 26 minute one is the best of the bunch.
One of those few films that if you stumble across it, no matter what time of day, you must watch the rest of it-even though it hurts. It is its own “world”-music, writing, acting, cinematography, etc..
Absolutely... like a Kubrick film, if I run across it on tv, I gotta watch the rest. Even though I own them all...
A game-changing film. Holds up incredibly well to this day.
And will continue to do so for decades and decades to come.
@@dameinoferrall2400 Definitely!
What was Polanski’s last movie?
@@matthewschwartz6607 The Palace.
A perfect movie in every department.
Finally. A review of my favorite film. To hear the appreciation of the complexity and beauty of this movie. So delighted to have my experience echoed in these film experts’ responses. What a treat. I’m 71 years old and I remember when it came out and how it blew me away.
One more aspect of the film for me is that to it closes the circle for John Huston. The first film that Huston directed was The Maltese Falcon one of the great noir films of all time, and here he is at the end of his career this time acting in a one.
Great Film, great Actors and a milestone Soundtrack by genius Jerry Goldsmith…!
Greatest movie of the 1970s, and one of the greatest ever. Just so goddamn brilliant.
clockworg orange is gr8er... somehow... büy bing möre simplistic.:?
maybe you need tv vvatch some scenes agäin ^^ how come v?v
hard tv get like kubricks stuFF ^ ^ yes r237 ist möstlie reel... pröducers do pack that kinda stüFF in. itz us mönkeeyce zedd dönt c ;P
they all couLD c. jc ^ ^
It was actually awarded the prize of being the "Film of the 1970's" - which is staggering when you consider that the 1970's was probably the best decade ever in cinema and just how many exceptional films were made during the decade.
Easy. You're gushing.
That’s a bold statement for the 1970’s, last great decade of movie making.
I’ll watch it tonight
Very impressed and I can understand the high regard for it. My favourite movie is Jaws but when I think about it most of them were made in the 70’s.
I don’t even have to mention the huge hits, movies like Silent Running, The man who would be king, rollerball, China syndrome, network, josey wales, dog day afternoon, slap shot, close encounters, life of Brian.alien,
It’s endless, a totally insane decade with brilliant maverick directors who seemed to make whatever they wanted. Oh the days before the investment companies and franchises screwed it all up.
It's hard for a cinephile to pick a favorite film (so many greats), but for me this is it. Perfect screenplay, gorgeous cinematography, acting, direction, costumes, soundtrack; the movie has it all.
All true things, but for me it comes down to the ambition of the premise because it really sounds like something that won’t work. A neo-noir screenplay about the Los Angeles water system and its development as an inroads to exploring about power, corruption, and depravity.
For a guy who was Polish by birth and more familiar with Britain than the US, Polanski does an incredible job of capturing Southern California in a specific way that often gets missed and is a really hard thing to do. I think you could argue that one of the major projects of both PT Anderson and Tarantino’s careers has been a preoccupation with making Los Angeles feel truly legible onscreen.
It's even better than Godfather... Godfather is not a re-watchble flick
@@aniket385for you it’s not rewatch able but not for others
@@mitchkroener I think it often takes a foreigner to envision a true image, or "feel", of a particular Country. Other great examples of this are John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" and Carol Reed's "The Third Man".
@@aniket385well the Godfather for me is definitely re-watchable, theres only a few like that where if its on im watching till the end. Definitely Goodfellas, Jackie Brown is another for me because its on Starz a lot, the Ninth gate, which is another Polanski flick, There will be blood, i could watch that anytime. Thats a few and im leaving out others but Chinatown is on top
This movie is about power and betrayal, but it's also a very objective study of evil. It is the best dramatic film I have ever seen. It has stayed with me my whole life, and is the standard that I compare other films to in my mind. It is a true masterpiece.
This pairs fantastically with David Fischer/Robert Townshend’s commentary here on to youtube
" One of the finest films ever made"
An absolutely perfect movie, start to finish. Every aspect absolutely perfect. One thing I noticed after half a dozen viewings was the performance of Faye Dunaway. If you watch her face every time her father is mentioned, before we find out what her father really is, she has a facial tick or stutter that hints at her revulsion. The film is a work of genius.
I agree, Dunaway was great and if you watch carefully, you see something is not right with her relationship with her father.
For me, Chinatown and Miller's Crossing are movies you have to watch many times in order to understand the story, but they are very satisfying and get better each time you watch them. I love that there are people out there that are able to conceive of these complex plots. Just think of telling the same story from Evelyn's point of view or Noah Cross's.
Millers crossing! The most underrated classic movie of all time, absolutely love it ❤️
LOVE Miller’s Crossing, and very true, as being needed to watch many times. The dialogue in that movie is great, while subtle information is constantly being given to the viewer. A classic, like Chinatown.
‘I know Mink is Eddie’s boy…’
What a combo! Touché
Absolutely! I'm surprised every time I see/hear someone mention that incredible film (Miller's Crossing).
The best movie ever made. No question.
It’s a perfect film
For me, it's either Chinatown or Fellini's Amarcord.
Is The Wild One any good? I’m. It sure if 60’s movies still hold up.
@@patryan2458 Ahhh, you struck on a goldmine, there... Fellini is among my two or three favorite artists. I'd personally pick _8 1/2,_ but _Amarcord_ is definitely among his films that reach perfection.
@@matthewschwartz6607 Oh man, I love _The Wild One..._ No, I wouldn't put it on the same level as these films but it's so damn entertaining. I could watch Lee Marvin's scenes over and over again, especially the sequence he first appears, and fights with Brando... _"Oh, the shame of it all... oh, the shame of it all!"_
Great Documentary. One of my all time favorites. We always laugh at the scene where Jake tears the ledger book with a cough. I still do this sometimes.
Or the watch under the car wheel trick.
As soon as I see that sepia paramount logo, and goldsmiths music, I just can't explain it, it just penetrates straight through me. Please release a 4k disc.
Great to see an honest assessment of an artist's work not polluted with discussion of his moral failings in his personal life.
and yet here you are mentioning it. Why?
This film changed my life, it has turned me to film fanatic! They did everything perfectly from the first to end, I really couldn't guess what would happen in the end? Normal Conventional Hollywood crime film will give us the usual "everything will be fine in the end" cuz everything went smooth after we'd known the real bastard and the bastard would get what he deserved but...once the film finished and that brilliant score playing, I question myself, shyt we live in the real world not in the movie, the reality must be told as what it is.. Thank you Towne, Thank Polanski, Jack, Faye, Huston and everyone who involved in it.
I must say this is my top 10 favorite movies ever..
Good selection
Soderbergh's so right when he talks about satisfaction in the ending. It hits you with an utter truth of how hopeless Jake's efforts played out, but you're not offended by the delivery of it because you're so vested in all of the characters you're no longer just a passive observer. In a formulaic Hollywood ending, you would expect to be paid-off by the hero saving the girl, but in this movie with all of the unraveling corruption with Jake the only arbiter of truth and the only guiding light to help Evelyn and Catherine escape you feel the loss that Jake feels and the horror of Catherine's fate.
Jake Gittes is not an arbiter of truth; HE is the reason for Evelyn's and Catherine's fate, as he admits at the end of the film; like Soderbergh said, it's a revisionist detective film.
Mike Nichols saw Nicholson in Easy Rider. He commented, "You wait, he'll be the biggest thing since Brando."
I watched this when I was 17. I don’t know what it was but the script just kept me hooked. I rewatch this at least once a year. It’s one of my favourites ❤️
The way Nicholson says "No, really?" to that lady always makes me laugh
_"... I _*_am_*_ sorry."_ 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Same here.
People watching this are cinephiles, so I don't need to elaborate. The artists in this video nail it. It had every element of film production, at a peak. The costumes, the camera work, the script, that actors, the director, the editing, the music were all at a high, high level. Hard to say, 'perfect', but..... I'll call it perfect, before the next thing comes along.
This content deserves millions of views honestly,Steven Sodenberg and one of my fav cinematographer Roger Deakins on Chinatown
Surely one of my top five films and surely my top film of the 1970's.
Polanski had a genius for the sordid. Certain actors, directors, are born to create particular films.
He’s not dead!
Guessing by all that has happened in his life, he does have a knack for the sordid and also the distasteful!
Thanks RUclips for making this a free movie. I could go to sleep every night to the sound to this lulaby.
The Third Man and Chinatown are my favorite movies. This was a great breakdown of the movie.
Such a glorious and flawless film.❤
Two masters talking about a masterpiece
I saw this film when it came out. I saw it twice. As much as I wanted to, I could NOT recall Jerry Goldsmith's main theme until I bought the album soon after.
So perfect, haunting, elusive was his elegant score for this film.
You're right. And, though the film is nowhere near a classic, the music for "Internal Affairs" is a soundtrack I've loved for a long time.
Really impressed with Kimberly Peirce’s assessment of Chinatown. She knows her movies and structure. Very impressive.
I've seen it multiple times, but watched it again recently with my mum so got to experience it through new eyes, and I was choked up by it's power and beauty at times. Especially, that scene where Gittes dresses down Evelyn while the valet gets the car, such great acting from both Nicholson and Dunaway. I had to quickly compose myself and try to forget it, it's Chinatown.
I love this film. Most cinephiles agree that this is a masterpiece. If you are getting into film, or wanting to be a filmmaker in some capacity, it is a must see. There are so many great moments in this film, but one of my favourites in terms of performance and script was the exchange between Escobar and Gittes at the aquaduct.
Escobar: I have a cold I can't seem to shake but other than that, I'm fine
Jake: Summer colds are the worst.
Can't ever resist watching this film. Brilliant from beginning to end.
The greatest American film ever made. Period.
Good lord, when it all comes together like that, yes including the score, it's film as a true modern work of art.
One of the best films...ever.
We here thought that the best single thing from CHINATOWN was the haunting music from Jerry Goldsmith; who gently hypnotizes the audience into thinking that 1930's period music is being played whilst the actual acoustics and musical form is more from the early 1950's --- a reflection of the works of Montovani and Jackie Gleason with a dash of Bernard Hermann.
The best film ever made. Period. I watch it every six months and have been doing so since I first bought it on video (!) around 1984 (now replaced with DVD). This business requires a certain finesse... and Chinatown has it in spades.
Spades? How dare you!
The blu ray is worth buying, big improvement over the dvd
Why on earth do smug people say "period" as if it adds weight to an ignorant opinion? As if you've seen even a quarter of the films that have been made. But presumably you at least know all the films by Bergman, Kurosawa, Kieslowski, Fellini, David Lean, Sergio Leone, Tarkovsky, Truffaut, Goddard, Herzog, etc.
"C'mon Jake, it's just chinatown." What a great summation of the movie. So "Film Noir". Reminds me of "The stuff that dreams are made of." from "The Maltese Falcon".
Ouch
It's "Forget it, Jake..."
Saw it in '74 on it's release. Didn't fully understand it like many, but was overwhelmed by the visual impact and the Score.
Now it's considered a Classic, with good reason, hitting all the highs in all Craft areas of Film making.
Like Citizen Kane, it gets inshrined with the passing of time.
This would be by pick for best film ever made. It has everything I want to make in a story in the future. Especially the screenwriting and the structure of the movie.
I took the AFI list of top 100 films and corrected it for my friends. Chinatown is my number one now and for about 20 years.
ONE OF MY TOP FIVE MOVIES OF ALL TIME ITS ONE YOU CAN GO BACK TO AFTER A FEW YEARS AND IT STILL LOOKS GREAT
Amazing to hear the thoughts of some of the masters on yet anothers masters masterpiece - thanks a billion for making this video
The Great American Film.
This overview provided me insight that I hadn't considered before. If a story should be driven by the protagonist's choices, then that ending is great. How after she dies, there is only one obstacle left for Gittes, and that's if Escobar is going to punish him for all he's been involved with. He says 'as little as possible' and he almost doesn't overcome the obstacle. But after watching this video, I realise it could be said that Gittes' silence in response to 'what's that?' is a choice. And it's the first time he has actually chosen to do nothing. And it might be the first time he's finally made the choice to do nothing as the correct choice. And in the end, it serves as being the correct choice, having him overcome the final obstacle. Escobar lets him go. 'Cos he chose to keep his mouth shut and take no action.
Mesmerizing movie. One of my top ten.
“as little as possible” … beautifully tragic
Thank you for posting this!!! Just read the screenplay for the first time, so incredible
Me too! It’s brilliant on the page and brought to life by masters. Great to learn from
One of the most deserved Oscars ever given. Robert Towne wrote a perfect screenplay here.
Pick any movie shot by the legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, it will be a a kaleidoscope collage of visual masterpiece, from Pascali's Island to Skyfall! And he never repeats his vision from one movie to the next one.
_The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford_ is the one I'd put in the time-capsule. His photography, with Nick Cave & Warren Ellis' music, gives me chills...
Thanks for the Book Reference on Film EDIT ing Steven 👊
Dont know if you've already read "Blink Of An Eye" or "The Conversations" from Walter Murch, film & sound editor. I've probably read "The Conversations" about 5 times... both musts for filmmakers. He did film and/or sound editing for so many greats (Godfather 1&2, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The English Patient, the restored Touch Of Evil, and many more)
It’s a dessert topping! It’s a floor cleaner! It’s a dessert topping! It’s a floor cleaner!
It’s a dessert topping AND a floor cleaner!
That score .
The first time i watched Chinatown - I held off for years because I wanted to see it uncut on a big screen - I was blown away by every aspect of it. But the second time I watched it, I was blown away by how much was hinted at and foreshadowed. You just couldn’t see it because you didn’t know what you were watching.
She's not kept around for very long, but Diane Ladd might be my favorite thing in this incredible film. Someone obviously playing classy, except you don't know she's playing until later - and then it's too late. Her look(s), her tone(s)... she's exquisite.
What a great take-apart of one of the greatest films of all time. All these film scholars are now better at what they do because of their delving into this masterpiece, Its infectious in it's brilliance and how it illuminates it's secrets at every turn. It is one of the films that makes the 70s...well...THE 70s. Could it be made today without 'woke' interference? No way!!
Considering how great the movie is, along with it's great cinematography, and the fact that Roger Deakins is one of the speakers in this, --there's absolutely no excuse for this being posted way down at 360P. --This should be at least 720p, preferably 1080p. --Just fix it, already.
What was there not to understand about that film? I was a teenager and I got it. What I didn't realize was how the filmmakers totally drew me in and I was back in 30s LA - terrific use of 1970s locations that still evoked that feeling of the past, neighborhoods that I knew.
The Men that built that Los Angeles ( well the floors anyway taught me Terrazzo trade!) They remember when City Hall was the Tallest building in Los Angeles sadly I think they are all gone now ...
They were still alive and working when we installed the 12000 foot lobby in that 75 story building downtown!
Eric Underwood Class of 81 Downey High school CA ✌️
@@jamescoleakaericunderwood2503 Damn you're a part of LA, mate, when it was growing up Awesome! You're one of the few who could wear a shirt that says *We built this city*
If you think you got it right away, then you didn't get it.
Did you get the Oedipus reference?
the commentary is masterful as well.✅😎✌️👍🔥
BRILLIANT FILM
Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown
Do you know how many times i have used that line?
My favorite film talked about. Hey, thanks.
Some major changes in this film to obtain that perfection,veteran genius Stanley Cortez replaced by John Alonzo( Seconds Farewell my lovely Scarface),Polanski's friend composer Bronislaw Kaper said the film needed another soundtrack,Evans allowed it and Jerry Goldsmith was brought as replacement and made a beauty in only 3 weeks !! (the Philip Lambro's rejected score is quite good though), then the famous ending put by Polanski, way more darker i believe, i would like to know the Towne version.
Pierce makes a point in the Final Thoughts about Giddes overestimating himself, and suddenly I am thinking about a double feature with Night Moves.
I forced myself to sit down and watch Chinatown, because I'm on the never ending quest to watch the top 25-50 film classics. Disappointed? Hardly! It is a film noir masterpiece
I liked the characters who functioned like ghosts, Hollis Mulwray whose brief moments onscreen established an ideal that Jake tried to inherit, Noah Cross the common enemy; its an effective contrast - the hero Mulwray, stalked by Jake yet remote, unreal, unattainable.. Cross is visceral, real, omnipresent, creepy. "...its Chinatown" also refers to the attempt to do the right thing and making things worse for the effort, the tragic flaw of not just Jake but of Hollis Mulwray, and perhaps the US, whether Vietnam or Iraq.
🎯
Such a great, great movie.
They mustve shot the catalina scenes during winter - love seeing the island in these old films.
Total epic
One I would like to see on the big screen again. Film projected and NOT digitized.
Agreed. The trumpet theme is hauntingly evocative.
It's like not understanding abstract art. But that's what makes it fascinating.
Roger Deakins, KIMBERLY PIERCE, and Steven Soderbergh on "Chinatown" (Roman Polanski, 1974)
Burt Young wins the Deion Waiters award
Polanski is in the same league as Fred Zinnemann, with whom Sam Mendes is catching up. Neat and stylish film making to the last.
It is the such a perfect film ... I can’t understand why everyone doesn’t see it, xx
Some modern people might have an innate animadversion towards the film's director for his "problematic" behaviour, to say the least. But I like to separate the art from the artist and I think Chinatown is indeed a fine good movie, plus diminishing it just because of the directors criminal behaviour takes away from the great work the rest of the cast and crew made on the film.
What do you mean "everyone doesn't see it"? This movie is universally acclaimed and often considered one of Polanskis best films. This movie literraly get's praised everywhere lmao
"Chinatown" played in a theater in San Jose a few years back. I cut work to go watch it. Amazing to this movie on the big screen - there's things you see down at the cinema you don't see on a TV set. Loved this movie before, loved it even more after my day at the theater.
Watched it last night. It will stay with me for a long time. Very disturbing and sad at the end.
Robert Towne had a "happy" ending, but Polanski insisted on the ending we have now.
In fact, the studio insisted on the happy ending, but Polanski would not back down.
Polanski was right. It wouldn’t have been as haunting.
What makes it even darker was Polanski wanted this ending because it was metaphorical to how he felt about his girlfriend And child being brutally slain by the Manson family…
Nobody knows better than Roman that a happy ending is not an assumed entitlement. Sometimes the most awful things occur.
I'm still traumatised by the end sceen.
Favourite.
Well, I guess that’s just Chinatown
This is tied with "The Godfather" as my favourite all-time movies.
Anyway, the only other actor who might have been perfect for the role of Gittes is Paul Newman.
Good thinking, he would have done it well.
Newman nah Bogart yes
@@randywhite3947 Redford could have done this as well
Both Newman and Redford lacked the cynical character Nicholson had in spades. Newman and Redford wanted to be admired by men and women, Nicholson played almost exclusively anti-heroes and men who wanted to be left alone.
Newman and Redford were too handsome for that part.
For me, Nicholson was the perfect combination of slightly scruffy, sardonic and sly.
have a look at The Long Goodbye, also a great movie
That's my other fav. PI movie of that decade. Also, Robert Mitchum in "Farewell, My Lovely" from 1975.
Classic film almost perfect film
Brilliant
Perfect
Criticism at its best: you see more and want to re-experience it.
My #1 🔥
...and in how many movies would a minor character like Walsh get to say the most memorable line in the film?