It should be said immediately that I have no great love at all for the 1970s as a cinematic decade. In fact, were I forced to have to wipe out an entire decade of films, the 70s would probably be my first choice as a few new fresh American faces did not make up for what had been lost from the two decades that preceeded it. Nevertheless, the 1970s did give birth to one of my favourite films. I don't do best ever lists or things of that nature, but if I did then Chinatown would always be at the forefront of my thoughts and I got to see it on the big screen this weekend.
I've owned the dvd for years (I believe I originally saw it on cable, but it's possible I bought it blind as was my custom when I was at university) so none of the story was any surprise to me, but seeing it in the way it was originally intended did bring out a few things I noticed as being better than I remember (and this is a film I think is almost flawless anyway). Firstly the cinematography was more striking on the big screen, the composition of shots is more apparantly excellent and it just "fits" better. Secondly the sound design is notably impressive as usually it's hard to get beyond that incredible Jerry Goldsmith score. Lastly though, Faye Dunaway's performance comes alive even more on the big screen, all those tiny half glances and checks and pauses are magnified and the sense of vulnerability and confusion is even more heightened in the cinema - she gave easily the best performance by an actress I've seen that year.
I also, over the course of the final half an hour, felt a palpable sense of distress about the end for the first time. This was a film that made not putting a happy end on this kind of Hollywood film okay but I think I connected with the characters (well, especially Dunaway's Mrs. Mulwray) more than ever before and knowing how this turns out was actually quite a melancholic experience. I've seen one of my favourites on the big screen before, namely Rear Window and I would thoroughly recommend seeing re-releases or one-off showings of classic films you love because there is nothing quite like seeing them in their intended environment and you can gain an even greater appreciation for them (even if you didn't think that was possible).
So another 70s film I saw in the cinema is one without a dvd release in this country, so the BFI periodically re-release it (the last did it in the mid-90s) and I took full advantage in seeing Bernardo Bertolucci's Il Conformista (The Conformist). We begin the film seeing a man in bed awaiting a phone call, he gets it and then leaves a naked woman (later, we find out, his wife) to get in a car and go after someone. Then we see flashbacks of how he (Jean-Louis Trintignant) got to this point.
I think this film takes a while to get going but when it does, boy does it get going. People collaborating/conforming with facism is a very interesting topic for a character study and it was very much en vogue in late-60s and early 70s cinema (Melville's Army of Shadows showed the effects this had, later Malle's Lacombe Lucien would tackle the subject more controversially, like Bertolucci, from the side of the collaborators). The control of time is masterly from Bertolucci, he has flashbacks within flashbacks, only occasionally does the tone slip but you can forgive him that because he's done such a fine job with everything else.
The cinematography by Vittorio Storaro is astounding, especially the scene in the woods which even Sven Nyqvist would have been proud of. Trintignant excels, it's the best I've seen him, he has so much going on because his character (an abused child, former idealist turned facist through necessity rather than conviction) is so layered. Either we never know who this man is, or we know *exactly* who he is, the ambiguity of the character lends itself perfectly as this type of behaviour is never answered easily with black and white explanations. So, an incredibly stylish, extremely interesting film with some memorable moments and fascinating characters.