Bonnie and Clyde

 Year:  1967

Director:  Arthur Penn

Screenplay:  David Newman and Robert Benton

Starring:  Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons

Running Time:  111 minutes

Genre:  Crime

Texas, 1930s:  Bored waitress Bonnie Parker (Dunaway) is desperate for some excitement in her life.  She thinks that she has found what she is looking for when she meets charismatic thief Clyde Barrow (Beatty).    Along with dim-witted mechanic C. W. Moss (Pollard), Clyde's tough older brother Buck (Hackman) and Buck's highly strung wife, Blanche (Parsons), Bonnie and Clyde embark on a violent crime spree across the southern United States, robbing banks and shops.  Along the way they become celebrities, as well as the target of every lawman in the USA.

"They're young.  They're in love.  And they kill people."

- Poster tagline for Bonnie and Clyde

Loosely based on the real life exploits of Depression era bank-robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, this became one of the most iconic films of the 1960s.  Heavily criticised at the time for it's then groundbreaking violence, as well as it's glamorising of the ruthless duo, this nevertheless became a smash hit, helping to usher the so-called "New Hollywood" of the 1970s as well as influencing any number of "lovers on the run" films such as Badlands (1973), Wild at Heart (1990), True Romance (1993) and Natural Born Killers (1994).  Screenwriters Robert Benton and David Newman were heavily influence by the French New Wave movement, and their original choice to direct the film was François Truffaut, who passed on the project.  However, Truffaut and the French New Wave influenced several elements of the film, including the changes in tone, the choppy editing, and slow-motion sequences.  Warren Beatty, who produced the film, is perfectly cast as is Faye Dunaway, and the two have real chemistry.  Michael J. Pollard plays naive, moon-faced C. W. Moss, the gang's getaway driver and mechanic.  Pollard, who was pretty much unknown at the time, and was nominated for the Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA got so much attention for the role that he announced a joke candidacy for President of the Unites States, which inspired a novelty song by Jim Lowe called "Michael J. Pollard for President".  Gene Hackman was also Oscar nominated for his role as Clyde's older brother Buck.  Estelle Parsons plays preacher's daughter Blanche, who is married to Buck, and becomes a reluctant a reluctant member of the gang.  Blanche and Bonnie's mutual hatred of each other threatens to undo the group from within.  After viewing the film, the real Blanche Barrow complained about her depiction saying: "That film made me look like a screaming horse's ass!"  Comedian Gene Wilder makes his screen debut in the film as a nerdy undertaker who is kidnapped by the gang.  

While the film is not now as shocking as it was in 1967, it is still a striking film, which has aged surprisingly well.  The tone of the film moves from humour to tragedy, from warmth to cold, stylised violence.  The tone changes in the same scene, the action scenes are often shown as comical slapstick, which then moves into shocking, graphic violence.  Amongst the brutality there are moments of humanity and tenderness, the gang joke around and okay games, take photographs of themselves and Bonnie immortalises their adventures in poetry.  The romance between Bonnie and Clyde is genuinely moving.  The film was released by Warner Bros., who specialised in gangster movies throughout the thirties, and Bonnie and Clyde brings together Old Hollywood glamour, with European experimentalism, to create a new type of American film.      

"I'm Miss Bonnie Parker, this here's Clyde Barrow.  We rob banks."  Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as Bonnie and Clyde

Chinatown

 Year:  1974

Director:  Roman Polanski

Screenplay:  Robert Towne

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Hillerman, Perry Lopez, Burt Young, John Huston

Running Time:  134 minutes

Genre:  Crime, mystery, drama

Los Angeles, 1937:  Cynical private investigator Jake Gittes (Nicholson) is hired to investigate a seemingly simple case of suspected marital infidelity.  However, he soon finds himself drawn into a murderous criminal conspiracy over water rights. As he pursues his investigation, Gittes uncovers secrets far darker than he could have suspected.

Inspired by the real life "California water wars", a series of disputes in the early 20th century over the rights to supply water in Southern California, this is one of the classic American films of the 1970s.  Film noir was a subgenere of American film which flourished during the 1940s and 1950s.  Literally translated as "black film",  film noir featured dark, cynical and bleak stories with often stylish, shadowy cinematography.  Chinatown is an example of "neo-noir"in that it came after the period of film noir, but still hearkens back to it in terms of plot and style, albeit with an updated sensibility. The darkness of the film's content is somehow complemented by mostly taking place in bright sunshine.  Jack Nicholson gives one of his best performances as the cynical detective Jake Gittes, charismatic, tough and sometimes dangerous, but with a moral centre.  Faye Dunaway gives a powerful, complex performance as the brittle femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray, who turns out to be more of a tragic victim.  Legendary director John Huston plays the courtly, avuncular, fabulously wealthy and thoroughly evil Noah Cross, who is terrifying because he is so friendly and polite.  Roman Polanski has a cameo as a henchman who slices Gittes' nose in a memorable scene.  The screenplay by Robert Towne is superbly crafted, with every element fitting together like clockwork, although Polanski apparently rearranged some scenes, and also wrote the film's bleak conclusion.  Polanski, ghastly human being although he may be, was a great filmmaker, and this is one of his finest moments as director.  Despite the title, only the film's final few minutes are set in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles, although it is mentioned in several places that Jake was a policeman in Chinatown, and something terrible happened there which is never revealed, but which made him leave the force and seemingly left him with lasting trauma,  and so Chinatown in the film is less a physical place than a state of mind, as after the devastating climax, which is still shocking even after several viewings, Gittes' partner in his detective agency delivers the film's classic closing line:  "Forget it, Jake.  It's Chinatown."

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown