Word: chinatown
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...even have a schlong! Woo woo! So that's why he came to America (penis envy.) Otherwise you wouldn't know. The movie is beautifully filmed and sometimes stands on the verge of not only showing intelligent life but also being the most cleverly wrapped political package since Chinatown. And then all of a sudden whap!--it's the dumbest one since The Day the Earth Stood Still. An article in last Thursday's Times about the Rugoft theater chain in New York congratulated the owners for handing out a plot booklet explanation with the price of admision; I wish...
...comedy tipped with poison. As in Rosemary's Baby or Cul de Sac, laughter comes as much from astonishment, even outrage, as it does from humor. Polanski has a carbolic wit and discovers unplumbed depths of amusement in emotional deformity, physical abuse and psychic shock waves. If Chinatown found Polanski in a slightly more mellow mood -owing probably to the keyed-down romanticism of Robert Towne's screenplay-The Tenant shoots him right back to the center ring of his absurdist circus...
...city contains a variety of neighborhoods almost cloned from the originals: Chinatown, just below Manhattan's Lower East Side, with its more than 200 often excellent coffee shops and restaurants, its shops selling salted fish, smoked duck and preserved eggs. Or Little Italy, next door, where one can sit at a side walk café with a cappuccino and time-warp 50 years back to some Neapolitan atmosphere. Ninth Avenue from 38th to 53rd streets is a rapid collage of Italian, Greek, Philippine and African shops and stalls. Yorkville around 86th Street and Third Avenue is somewhat homogenized...
After these, and beyond hope of cataloguing, everyone has his own favorite, relatively inexpensive bistro (one might be Chez Napoleon, 365 W. 50th St.). Chinatown almost requires a special course of study, in which the thoughts of Chairman Mao will not help, but the best midtown Chinese restaurant is Pearl's (38 W. 48th St.), where the acoustics are so bad you cannot hear yourself talk (but who wants...
...pretty silly, but, against the odds. Sparkle is often pleasant and even funny. This is no small achievement, given the generally barbaric level of the script. Sam O'Steen, a talented film editor (Catch-22, Chinatown) directing his first feature, has photographed much of the film in close, with the light kept low. The intimate style is effective, and it helps somewhat to disguise budgetary limitations. Sparkle was made for lunch money, and it shows. What shows more prominently, though, is the distinctive charm of Actors Thomas, Cara and McKee, and the promise of a new director who managed...