Chinatown DVD Extra: Retrospective Interviews (part 1 of 2)

At this time, in private life, Roman Polanski lured a 13 year old girl over to Jack's house with promises of making her "a star like Sharon Tate."

At the house, he gave her a drink laced with alcohol and barbituates. As soon as she was off balance, he raped her vaginally, then raped her anally.

The police arrested him and he fled the US.

Recently, he was caught in Switzerland.

Now the press writes how unfair the child rape/sodomy laws are to Roman.

Biased Jewish press?

MJ?

if you notice, that inteview from the first man, is the same as the one they did for the dvd of ROSEMARY'S BABY, because they're both chinatown and rosemary's baby films by roman polansky

Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson were undoubtedly brilliant, but it angers me that John Huston's superb villain often goes overlooked. His performance is stunning, he was a great director and a great actor.

Totally agree. Great comment.

That's what I thought when I saw it... I often wondered, while watching the movie, if he was nominated. I thought for sure he would be, especially kind of like a sentimental favorite.

Don't be angry. There's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world.

lol

I hear you. His character is one of the most evil of movie vilians.

One fact that kind of gets lost in the origins of Chinatown is the influence of John Fante's novels. Robert Towne free admits to mining the novel 'Ask The Dust' for historical background and period grammar.
Of course, Towne later adapted the book into a motion picture.

I likd the movie a lot, but the extras on the 30th anniversary DVD could have been more. Maybe on the 35th or 40th, they could add:

Commentary with Roman Polanski, Jack Nicholson, and Faye Dunaway (assuming she's willing to collaborate with Polanski on commenting on the film)
Commentary with Polanski, Robert Towne, etc.

Background on the book Ask The Dust

Making Chinatown
The Nose-slit Scene
Scoring the Film
Impact of Chinatown

Chinatown at the Oscars; Towne wins Best Screenplay