the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney and this week with special guest Phil Bagnell, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This time, Roman Polanski’s Chinatown.

When a seemingly routine investigation into spousal infidelity evolves into a political scandal, private investigator J.J. Gittes finds himself navigating the dark underworld of thirties Los Angeles. Sinister conspiracies, local politics, private ownership of public utilities. As Gittes digs deeper and deeper, he uncovers the rotten foundations upon which the city was built.

At time of recording, it was ranked the 127th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 12th August 2017.
• Chinatown at The Internet Movie Database.
• Read Phil’s reviews at Scannain.
• Robert Towne and Robert Evans discuss the genesis of Chinatown with The New York Daily News, February 1999.
• Kirik Jenness at The Underground on the peculiar details of the early investigations into the murder of Sharon Tate, April 2016.
• Jeffrey Toobin at The New Yorker on Roman Polanski and “the celebrity defense”, December 2009.
• Jeff Turrentine at Pacific Standard on the water wars and the land grab as Los Angeles’ original sin, June 2013.
• David Colker at The Los Angeles Times on the development of the San Fernando Valley, December 1999.
• R.D. Heath at The New York Times discusses how Chinatown portrays a version of Los Angeles that earlier film noir could only hint at, June 2002.
• Robert Towne writes at The Los Angeles Times about trying to capture the spirit of the city in Chinatown, May 1994.
• D.J. Waldie at KCET discusses the portrayal of Los Angeles in Chinatown in the context of Thom Anderson’s Los Angeles Plays Itself, October 2014.
• Peter Moysaenko at BOMB Magazine discusses Los Angeles on screen in the context of Los Angeles Plays Itself, December 2009.
• Neal Gabler at Reuters on the overlap between Chinatown and Watergate, June 2013.
• Stephen Marche at Esquire on Chinatown as the end of film noir, June 2014.
• The Los Angeles Times‘ gallery of Jack Nicholson at L.A. Lakers games “through the years”, May 2014.
• Terry Teachout at The Wall Street Journal on the majesty of Jerry Goldsmith’s Chinatown score, July 2009.
• Douglass Fake talks to the BBC about restoring Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic Chinatown score, July 2016.
• Jerry Goldsmith’s Chinatown on Spotify, December 1973.
• Mikael Carlsson at Film Music Magazine on the recording of Phillip Lambro’s original score for Chinatown, May 2006.
• Phillip Lambro’s Los Angeles, 1937 on Spotify, November 2012.
• The IMDB 250 as it appeared at time of recording.
• Follow The 250 on Twitter.
• Subscribe to The 250 on iTunes.

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: chinatown, cynicism, Film noir, jack nicholson, los angeles, noir, phil bagnell, roman polanski |