I think there are a lot of elements that could make it his best film.
I think it is certainly Robert Townes best film and one of Nicholson’s
It doesn’t always feel like a Polanski film (as much as say repulsion or rosemary).
Anyone who loves Chinatown I should mention that it was part of a planned trilogy and the second film
The Two Jakes (which Nicholson directed) is very good as well
The film is Polanski’s most popular BECAUSE it’s his best.
Perhaps, my friend just wants to deliberately be a non-conformist
Perhaps, my friend just wants to deliberately be a non-conformist
ONE of his best.
For the record, this friend of mine made the same exact argument about Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, in case anyone here is a jazz fan
well The Tenant is very good as well
I am hopeful that the new will be so good they let him out of prison (unlikely but never hurts to hope)
Kind of Blue is the same kind of thing, very good but the artist has so many other good works that you almost cannot go wrong. Sounds like your friend is distrustful of things that are popular, an understandable position usually
One can go wrong with Polanksi, however. (i.e. Ninth gate
Don’T know about his best but sure his by far my favourite.
Anyone see Pirates? I haven’t, but heard it was hideous. I’m kind of morbidly curious about it.
Pertaining to the argument about being distrustful of popular works of art, I think Animals blows Dark Side of the Moon out of the water
I suppose that works as a good analogy to my friend’s argument about Chinatown
Even Ninth Gate is diverting and not terrible
Pirates is wonderful entertainment Matthau outpirates Depp and the spectacle is a lot of fun
There’s already an on-going discussion here
Interesting you bring up Pirates, Den. I haven’t heard anyone mention that film ever. It’s the film that looks most out of place on his filmography.
ALEX well Pirates has an epic sense to it.
It was a passion project and he really loved it
It took seven years and a massive budget (sometimes I think he wanted to make it to prove he could mount a big production after the scandal) but it still has Roman’s quirks and sense of black comedy doom.
I would say the most out of place film is Oliver Twist. Its not a bad film and it has a lot of Polanski’s darkness but its more lesuirely paced then before and never truly frieghtning, after all he said he made it for his children.
I prefer Knife In The Water, very tense, almost claustrophobic, even with the wide open ocean around the characters. And the ending is perfect. And in second comes Repulsion, one of the best horror films ever made.
Charles DeGaulle,
First of all I’m in complete agreement with your assessment of Pink Floyd’s Animals. I consider it the best album of all time. As far as Polanski goes I can’t stand Chinatown and prefer every other film I’ve ever seen of his including Frantic. I’ve never considered him that good of a director however I feel the last third or so of The Pianist some of the finest filmmaking of all time.
Kenny,
Would you be willing to elaborate on why you can’t stand Chinatown
Chinatown is one of those films I’ve watched repeatedly trying to surmise what is I don’t like about it and I’ve yet to come up with a definitive answer. For starters I never feel sympathetic for Faye Dunaway’s character. I think it’s because shes miscast in the role. I can’t stand John Huston, and I know we’re not suppossed to but I find him completely unlikeable in everything he was in. He should have stayed behind the camera. The original ending in the script wasnt set in Chinatown. Chinatown was supposed to just exist as a corrupt “state of mind” but the studio head Robert Evans insisted the shootout be set there. Also I don’t find Polanski threatening at all. He should have stayed behind the camera too.
Finally, Chinatown is often lauded as a perfect screenplay however I find small things in it like when Nicholson and Dunaway visit the resthome and encounter the elderly woman who’s a victim of a kind of identity theft sitting right beside them working on a flag of Huston’s character’s private club so implausible it’s funny and the type of crappy writing one usually only sees in a Tarantino movie.
knife in the water is still better in my opinion
No but it is close to be his best.
Chinatown is a masterpiece and deserves it’s place on every top 100 best film list ever made, but I personally feel that Polanski worked best in the genre of horror, and I’m not sure if I’ve seen a better horror film from him than Repulsion.
Charlesdegaulle, your friend sounds stupid and I suggest you stop hanging out with him, because Chinatown is a friggin’ masterpiece ;)
Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby and The Tenant are all terrific films that better exemplify Polanski’s chief interests in paranoid, claustrophobic psychological horror, but Chinatown is in my opinion one of the most perfect constructions to ever come out of Hollywood. I agree with those who say it’s Robert Towne or Jack Nicholson’s triumph as much as Polanski’s, which is maybe why some Polanski fans prefer the aforementioned three films, but, as someone who often feels a bit of a so-what shrug after watching many of the so-called canonical classics, I think Chinatown bridges the gap between high art and pure entertainment better than almost any other film I’ve seen (certainly more so than The Godfather films, in my admittedly unpopular opinion). It’s one of a small handful of canonical films I can honestly say I love everything about, from Jerry Goldsmith’s score to perfectly chosen bit players like Diane Ladd and Burt Young. It’s exciting, it’s romantic, it’s brutally funny… it’s all so lushly entertaining in that classical Hollywood sense that the ending hits even harder, and it’s not really until afterwards that it sinks in how poisonously cynical the whole film is. I watch it a few times a year and it always feels new to me.
Cul-de-sac is another great Polanski.
It’s his only great movie.
He is a pedophile, but this is one of the top 100 movies of all time. A top 10 noir film, and should be studied by any serious aspiring filmmaker.
I hated his Macbeth. Frantic was trash. Oliver Twist was missing something. The Pianist was meh.
Haven’t seen Repulsion or the Tenant.
Knife in the water is meh.
About Polanski: Chinatown is one of his best films of course, but i don’t know if it’s THE best, Rosemary’s baby could be his best too in a different genre (and for me his best is “Dance of the Vampires”, for personal reason and if you look like Sharon Tate in this movie, just send me an e-mail).
About Miles: “A Kind of Blue” is surely his most popular piece, and one of his best, but “In a Silent Way”, “Bitches Brew”, “Sketches of Spain”, “Get up with it” or “ESP” could be considered the same.
When an artist is good, it’s difficult to say he made only ONE masterpiece.
Not seeing his whole output, my point may be moot. Meh.
Rosemary’s Baby is, I think, one of the most spectacular films out there — bringing it in my mind to the top of Polanski’s efforts.
Why? Well…
It does extraordinarily difficult things: I don’t hate any of the characters even tho’ some are pretty/purely evil; it flips and then flips again the whole set of conventions associated with motherhood; its images are fresh in a setting that’s been done to death before and since (ie. New York youngings’ lifestyle). It’s nightmare sequence is so pressing and urgent and well-edited that it doesn’t have to be referenced much or repeated or varied — it stands on its own and sticks out like a skyscraper in the landscape of the film.
It’s each frame of it engaging: again, beautiful images out of practically stageable material.
It has a moment that’s so terrifying and so beautiful I can hardly turn away even though my face is contorted: “Hail, Satan.”
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Chinatown is very very very good. Obviously. But its material is stuff that I’d be happy with seeing if other directors did it. Of course there are ‘personal Polanski themes’ in it; these seem pretty mutual tho’ with other directors’ work.
RB is great and above many other films because like Citizen Kane and Rashomon and Ordet and oh I don’t know Fargo it’s necessary for every bit of it to be in place just as it is — that particular director, that particular time, that particular everything.
His only good movie? I should be distrustful of anyone who feels it appropriate to bring up the legal charges against Roman Polanski in a discussion of his oeuvre.
Chinatown is certainly among his best, both in critical regard as well as in my own opinion. Coining a definitive picture for any director seems to be an exercise in taste above all, but Chinatown is undeniably a masterpiece.
And Kind of Blue is an album so seminal that to chart its influence is an act of futility––it essentially created the modern notion of jazz music, let alone the vast impact it has had over music in general. Your friend is wrong. Critical reassessment is not synonymous with complete dismissal.
no doubt
I personally prefer “Repulsion” over “Chinatown.” I love both, but Repulsion’s cinematic journal of a psychological disintegration has always resonated deeper for me. The shot of Catherine Deneuve wandering down the black-and-white hallway with all the disembodied arms reaching for her from the walls has left a permanent imprint on my mind’s eye since I was a little kid.
Charlesdegaulle
One of my friends who is a huge cinephile and film studies major dismissed Chinatown saying it was merely Polanski’s most popular, which causes it to be mistaken for his best. He seemed to think The Tenant was his best. Do people agree with this assessment. My friend happens to dismiss a lot of canonical works for merely being popular as opposed to being great, such as Schindler’s List, as well. I always assumed Chinatown was pretty much both his best and most popular or was at least considered to be both.