The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood

Review This is such a fine book it is already being turned into a film, by the Oscar-winner Ben Affleck . . . The making-of story is terrific - how Polanski, Jack Nicholson and various producers battled through sleaze and tragedy to make timeless art. ― Sunday Times 'Books of the Year' Wasson is a canny chronicler of old Hollywood and its outsize personalities...More than that, he understands that style matters, and, like his subjects, he has a flair for it. ― The New Yorker Sam Wasson is a fabulous social historian because he finds meaning in situations and stories that would otherwise be forgotten if he didn't sleuth them out, lovingly. -- Hilton Als Product Description Sight & Sound's #1 Film Book of 2020 Chinatown is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of its most colorful characters. Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston. Here is director Roman Polanski, both predator and prey, haunted by the savage murder of his wife, returning to Los Angeles, where the seeds of his own self-destruction are quickly planted. Here is the fevered deal-making of "The Kid" Robert Evans, the most consummate of producers. Here too is Robert Towne's fabled script, widely considered the greatest original screenplay ever written. Wasson for the first time peels off layers of myth to provide the true account of its creation. Looming over the story of this classic movie is the imminent eclipse of the '70s filmmaker-friendly studios as they gave way to the corporate Hollywood we know today. Book Description A book that will take its place alongside classics like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Robert Evans' The Kid Stays in the Picture. About the Author Sam Wasson studied film at Wesleyan University and at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He is the author of the bestseller Fifth Avenue, 5A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's and the Dawn of the Modern Woman. He is also the author of the definitive biography of dancer-choreographer-filmmaker Bob Fosse. He currently teaches film at Emerson College in Los Angeles.