Chinatown
“In Chinatown, what I was trying to create was this Philip Marlowe atmosphere, which I’d never seen in the movies the way I got it in the books of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler.” Indeed, Chinatown is not only a one of a kind film noir, but a complete film. As James Greenberg says in his retrospective on the director’s work, what Polanski brought “to this quintessentially American material was a European sensibility and an unerring feeling for the darkness of the human soul”. That’s why the difference between a European director working in Hollywood and an American director often shows – the first is more willing and driven to break away from clichés and stay true to a more realistic vision. One other thing Roman Polanski fought for was the tragic ending, which was essential for following the logic of the plot – an ending that takes place in Chinatown, but that also links the story to the metaphorical Chinatown, a place where things go hopelessly wrong, despite one’s best intentions. So many good American movies could have been great if the directors hadn’t been slaves to the Hollywood system and given way to a forced happy-ending.
Continue reading
(1983). That’s the disco glam of the 1970s (the story may be set in the early 1980s, but the clothes carry un undeniable ‘70s and ‘30s vibe), provoking and showing off, meant not to go unnoticed. The costumes were designed by Patricia Norris, but each one of them carries the undeniable mark of Halston. Roy Halston was the designer who had the strongest influence on the American fashion early in the decade, when he helped bury the girly, tie-dye, hippie look of the 60’s and introduced the virtually opposed minimal, utterly simple, modern clothes that women were ready for. He was a master of the art and one of the names who helped acknowledge the importance of the American designs on the world fashion scene.
. She had also designed the costumes for La bête humaine (1938). At its release, the film was denigrated by the public, dismissed by the critics, re-cut by the producers and finally banned by the French government as demoralising and unpatriotic. On the surface, a series of interlinked romantic intrigues taking place in a country chateau during a weekend shooting party compose the basic plot. It’s in fact “a war film, and yet there is no reference to the war”, as its director says in his book, 
, the first James Bond film, established the classic look for the character for the many films that followed. 1962 was the year when James Bond was introduced to film audiences, becoming one of the characters who have most influenced people’s way of dressing. Terrence Young, the director, wanted to suit Bond up based on Ian Fleming’s guidelines, and asked his own tailor, Anthony Sinclair, to create the now well known “Conduit Cut”. Named after the Conduit Street in London, the address of the famous Savile Row bespoke tailors, including Sinclair himself, Sinclair describes the cut as simple, elegant, understated and timeless, reflecting Bond’s taste in clothes intended by its author. A distinctly British look, but one that wouldn’t stand out. It is the simplicity and classic cut of the clothes in Dr. No, which, as it always happens, make them still look fresh and up-to-date today and still worthy of imitation, so much more than, for example, Roger Moore’s Bond suits, which were often too ingrained in the styles of the times.
