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jaggedwolfChinatown
Watched this on a sunny afternoon, which one would think would ruin the noir vibes but no, for Los Angeles is nothing if not painfully bright, even when mired in moral muck. Thought there would be more of well, Chinatown, than some mentions and a final scene. Did go “oh, it’s James Hong” when the butler answered the door. Spent time wondering if it was the 50s, only realized it was the 30s afterwards, and wondered if I should’ve been able to tell from the technology levels alone.
Enjoyed the P.I. vibes a lot - Gittes doing quite well for himself on the cheating spouses business but still unable to resist the nagging water man mystery, getting beat up as he pokes his nose into everything, stealing a scrap of property records, the shots through mirrors and lenses.
Unsurprisingly, my favourite bit was when Gittes just rants about being the only person who seems to care that Hollis was definitely murdered and that it definitely has something to do with the dam.
The movie went downhill after Gittes found the spectacles in the saltwater pond, in that only big bad Noah Cross seemed to have retained a brain cell. The ending is dark and works for me as a natural conclusion of everything we’ve learned, but the way we get there...meh. I found the slapping scene too inappropriately comedic for it or the incest-rape kid revelation to land emotionally, and what was Gittes’s objective with calling Cross supposed to be? That he’d roll up with no muscle and stick his hands out for handcuffs???
Anyway, forget it, jaggedwolf, it’s Chinatown.
Speedy
Watched the original silent version of this, without any of the talkie bits that were added later. Did not expect actual Babe Ruth. Physical comedy was pretty entertaining, favorite gag was the live crab sliding into the guy’s suit pocket and proceeding to pinch and steal from everyone around him. Did spend the whole Coney Island section thinking, (1) wow, Coney Island rides used to be real wild (2) and people were riding all of those in nice suits and outfits?? Our dude shouldn’t have been worried about the stuff happening to his suit from mishaps alone, he was going down a water log ride in that suit!
The unifying narrative is our main guy making sure his (soon-to-be) father-in-law gets his money’s worth for his horse-drawn streetcar line and doesn’t get bullied out of it by the big railroad boys. Love that one tradesman who is like, well, I fought in the Civil War, let’s use my codewords from back then to signify when to attack.
Strangers On A Train
Another Hitchcock aka once more watching Farley Granger get pushed around by a guy who wants to fuck him and wants him to do murder.
Though unlike in Rope, here both desires are thoroughly unconsumated. Bruno sure does try his darndest, though! Seeing him murder Guy’s wife in dead silence and through the reflection in her fallen glasses was sick, loved that. Other obvious shots I appreciated: Guy stepping behind bars with Bruno, Bruno’s creepy staring ahead as the rest of the spectators follow the tennis match.
Also enjoyed the distressing manner of his sudden appearances, much like Dr Watson in that one Sherlock Holmes game. Found it really funny that Guy’s fiance recognizes Bruno from earlier not because she recognized his face but because she recognized his tie with his name on it.
Barbara (the kid sister) was the best side character, what with casually stating the most macabre shit while handing her dad a drink, and then getting tangled into Bruno’s creepy post-murder strangulation obsessions - very glad nothing actually happened to her. Guy’s fiance caught on to shit much faster than I expected, despite my crack about the Bruno tie.
The carousel ride here ends up being scarier than any of the rides featured in the previous film, with the tension of an old guy crawling under the whole contraption and pausing to wipe his face. It stopped so violently that some of those kids definitely died off-screen lmao.
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Date: 2024-05-20 02:46 am (UTC)