I Do Barbara Rush.

I'm not quite sure I understand the allure of Warren Beatty as an uber-sex symbol of the 1970s. I mean, sure, he's not ugly, but why did people fall over themselves to get into bed with him? Power and money would have something to do with it, I'm sure, but still...


Shampoo, produced by Beatty and written by him and Robert Towne of Chinatown fame, is another of the New Hollywood films of the 1970s, directed by Hal Ashby. Beatty also stars as hairdresser George, not gay as one always hopes their hairdressers to be, putting him in a position where he can sleep with pretty much any woman he wants - and he does. He's in a relationship with budding actress and bimbo Jill (Goldie Hawn), and having an affair with Felicia (Lee Grant.) At the same time he is trying to set up his own salon to escape the clutches of his nagging employer, and to this end goes to Felicia's husband, who is interested in investing in the new venture thanks to the support of his wife. While meeting with the man, Lester (Jack Warden), he discovers that Lester also has a mistress - Jackie (Julie Christie.) George and Jackie have previously had a relationship, and Lester's interest in George's business creates some very tricky situations for the younger man, not helped by his rabid sexuality that even sees him bed Felicia and Lester's young daughter Lorna (Carrie Fisher in her feature film debut.)

All of this confusion leads George to begin to assess his sexual looseness and crave the simplicity of stability. After George, Lester, Jackie and Jill all end up at an excessive party together and Lester and Jill catch George and Jackie going at it on the floor, George seems to realise that it is indeed Jackie that he wants, but his proposal to her comes too late - Lester has left Felicia and is taking Jackie away so the two of them can live happily ever after, leaving our protagonist alone and despondent.


The film is set in the late 1960s, and the sexual liberation of the period is front and centre. Everyone seems to be having sex with everyone - it gets hard to keep up. The script is great, not holding anything back as it delves into the desires and beastial urges of both man and woman. Beatty was a little underwhelming, seemingly confused through the entire film, not really allowing his character any strength, instead trying to muster up sympathy from the viewer for his unfortunate predicament whereby he is desirable to every woman who comes across his path - boohoo, poor George. Hawn proves she can play the bimbo, something she has done many times since, and Christie as always is sublime. Grant won an Oscar for her portrayal, which seems a little odd as I think she is one of the less memorable characters, but oh well.


All in all, it's an entertaining little romp with beautiful production design (though maybe that's just a love of the way people and spaces were dressed in the 1960s...) that somehow falls short of being the masterpiece of sexual freedom and the 70s comedown that it so desperately wants to be. 3.5 stars.

You Can't Eat The Venetian Blinds.

Chinatown was Roman Polanski's first foray back into Hollywood after the brutal murder of his wife Sharon Tate by the Manson gang in 1969, and what a return it was. Despite the fact that he was apparently very nervous about the whole experience and returned to Europe to direct a stage play, I believe, whilst post-production was going on, Chinatown has gone on to become a true classic of modern cinema.

Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a private investigator, an ex-cop. Initially hired to investigate the assumed extra-marital affair of LA water magnate Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling) by a woman posing to be his wife, he is then in turn hired by the real Mrs Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to cover tracks. When her husband is then found at the bottom of one of his dams, it turns into an investigation into his murder, which the coroner is initially calling an accident.


All of it comes back to water. LA is on the edge of a desert, and needs a lot of water to grow. The first dam apparently isn't enough - then why are thousands of gallons of water being dumped each night? Apparently it is unavoidable run-off created when some of the water is secretly diverted to orange groves outside of the city to help them out with a crippling drought - but then why is there no water going to the orange groves? And why are all of the groves being bought out very cheaply, ahead of the dam being built?


It's a twisty, turny little story, strangely and interestingly revolving around water - if there is a less likely candidate for being the centre of a fantastic murder mystery, I'd like to know it. But it is all entirely plausible. The finer points start to threaten to give the film away, and will definitely take away from some of the joy of watching it, but let it be said that the screenplay, by New Hollywood wunderkid Robert Towne, is terrific, though he apparently argued for a happy ending (Polanski, still despairing at the loss of Tate, insisted on the tragic ending of the film, something that Towne has said in retrospect is better.) It is a sea of characters, none of whom you want to trust, and with so many interlinking subplots as to make your head hurt. But your head doesn't, actually, hurt, so masterfully is the film crafted.


Nicholson kicks off the character that will suit him many times, ably playing the sleuth almost innocently caught up in it all who then takes a personal interest. Dunaway is superb as the femme fatale of this neo-noir thriller, while John Huston turns up towards the end as Dunaway's father, throwing his weight around.


That the film only won an Oscar for Towne is remarkable, and probably in another year it would have triumphed in some other major categories also (it was up against the juggernaut that was The Godfather Part II... so... it didn't really stand a chance.) Coming at arguably the pinnacle of the New Hollywood period, it is a triumphant and valiant piece of filmmaking. While no one is saying what Polanski did following is excusable, it would have been nice to see him work some more in Hollywood, to see what may have come of it. Regardless, his subsequent body of work from Europe is quite exceptional - again, without trying to come to his defense, here's hoping he does get to make some more. 5 stars.