excellent excellent excellent

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2008)

What is it about this movie? Is it the excellent storytelling? Is it the excellent acting? (Nicholson!Dunaway!Huston!) Is it the beautiful California 40's scenery? Is it the grim atmosphere, the drought, the sweat in 'orange county'? Of course; a combination of all of these ingredients. In this beautiful 70's film noir Nicholson doesn't just deliver a Humphrey B.-rip-off performance, but something darker, more cynical even. Faye Dunaway delivers a glorious two-faced femme fatale and John Huston is both subtle and blunt: evil incarnated. Polanski's filming and his pace are both sublime; cool, distant and reminiscent in every way of the noir-era. Watching the movie makes you feel sort of guilty, as though the filming-crew has washed its hands in blood. 70's movies will do that to you (Taxi Driver, the Godfather, etc). I don't want to be a cynic, claiming this type of film couldn't possibly be produced today. But it is a fact that Spielberg and Lucas and, heck, the eighties with their 'smooth cinema' corrupted the industry in a way, that makes this type of film something of a different era. Let's be thankfull for that era and go watch it one more time. And if you haven't yet: take pity on yourself or haste!