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Do you live in the L.A. area, Steven? I'd be honored to oblige. Why not send an e-mail to me c/o Sheriff Joe?
So nice to read that CHINATOWN as well as your humble scribe is getting so much support. Thanks, guys.
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Do you live in the L.A. area, Steven? I'd be honored to oblige. Why not send an e-mail to me c/o Sheriff Joe?
So nice to read that CHINATOWN as well as your humble scribe is getting so much support. Thanks, guys.
Well, reasonably close, I live in Phoenix, Az., more specifically, Tempe. I can always Fed-ex it to you and provide an account no. for you to return it. My e-mail is klaatu77_16@hotmail.com. Thanks.
"Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."
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"Middle of a drought and the Water Commissioner drowns...only in L.A., huh?" says the coroner with a cigarette and a hacker's cough.
(I've tried to keep the following spoiler-free for those who haven't seen it, but....hell, if you haven't seen it, just skip my message)
Goldsmith's amazing achievement in the score is a wedding of the obvious (the "Chinatown" love theme-it's solo horn evoking both love and loss) and the obscure (the inventive tones he uses...to denote water (a water-phone simultaneously evoking human moans or those brushed piano strings that sound like an enveloping surf) or a stalking sense of dread (Goldsmith's many percussive devices, but especially the hammered piano strings).
I deeply love "Chinatown," and consider it perfect, even down to the minutiae, like the rueful head-shake ("...happens every time")of the door-painter removing a name from a door, which only plays for a couple seconds, but seems TRUE, or the way a given name pronunciation or MIS-pronunciation has profound significance.
You CAN'T watch this movie on TV, especially broadcast television, because the dialog is clipped into near-incomprehensibility at certain points along with the pan and scan issues, as previously mentioned, that rather clumsily hide certain details.
"Chinatown" stays in the head, and, if you are, indeed, watching it closely, creates deep reverberations in its text and sub-text. For instance: Hollis Mulwray. Does anyone else who loves this movie have the same sense that I do...that he was the most decent man in the movie...and is the most forgotten?
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Do you live in the L.A. area, Steven? I'd be honored to oblige. Why not send an e-mail to me c/o Sheriff Joe?
So nice to read that CHINATOWN as well as your humble scribe is getting so much support. Thanks, guys.
Well, reasonably close, I live in Phoenix, Az., more specifically, Tempe. I can always Fed-ex it to you and provide an account no. for you to return it. My e-mail is klaatu77_16@hotmail.com. Thanks.
"Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."
And those folks in Arizona are stealing our water!
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Do you live in the L.A. area, Steven? I'd be honored to oblige. Why not send an e-mail to me c/o Sheriff Joe?
So nice to read that CHINATOWN as well as your humble scribe is getting so much support. Thanks, guys.
Well, reasonably close, I live in Phoenix, Az., more specifically, Tempe. I can always Fed-ex it to you and provide an account no. for you to return it. My e-mail is klaatu77_16@hotmail.com. Thanks.
"Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."
And those folks in Arizona are stealing our water!
LOL! AND YOUR ELECTRICITY, TOO!
"YOU SEE, Mr. Gitts- most people never have to face the fact that at the right time, and the right place, they're capable of ANYTHING-"
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"It's a f-f-flaw in the iris."
Can you imagine trying to even quote two lines of dialogue from any movie of recent vintage?
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"It's a f-f-flaw in the iris."
Can you imagine trying to even quote two lines of dialogue from any movie of recent vintage?
Nope- there are a handful of movies I can virtually quote every line from, and this is one of them.
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What an interesting discussion that I missed from so many years ago.
Regarding Elmer Bernstein and Hoodlum; I haven't seen the film, but Bernstein had worked with Bill Duke before, and his scores for their collaborations A Rage In Harlem and Hoodlum are fantastic albums and should on no account be missed.
The thing about the Chinatown score that always gets me is that the music is telling you all of the secrets of the film, but in a way that doesn't make it apparent when watching the film for the first time. The opening of the main title is pleasant notes when you first see the film, upon future viewings, the WATER theme is clear, and front and center. The scenes with Evelyn Mulwray and Noah Cross are similar… the music is revealing aspects of the story that are hidden from Jake's perspective (which is our perspective). It's part of why the ending feels so satisfying despite how bleak it is; the elements building to it were always there, and the construction leading us to it was perfect. Every time I see the film, the score helps draw me deeper into the story for that reason.
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What an interesting discussion that I missed from so many years ago.
Regarding Elmer Bernstein and Hoodlum; I haven't seen the film, but Bernstein had worked with Bill Duke before, and his scores for their collaborations A Rage In Harlem and Hoodlum are fantastic albums and should on no account be missed.
The thing about the Chinatown score that always gets me is that the music is telling you all of the secrets of the film, but in a way that doesn't make it apparent when watching the film for the first time. The opening of the main title is pleasant notes when you first see the film, upon future viewings, the WATER theme is clear, and front and center. The scenes with Evelyn Mulwray and Noah Cross are similar… the music is revealing aspects of the story that are hidden from Jake's perspective (which is our perspective). It's part of why the ending feels so satisfying despite how bleak it is; the elements building to it were always there, and the construction leading us to it was perfect. Every time I see the film, the score helps draw me deeper into the story for that reason.
Wonderfully done.
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