1968 and all that

There are many stories about Californian water. The movie which captured that experience best, to my mind, was Chinatown where the dark side of the west coast was revealed in all its stark glory. I know that Roman Polanski‘s life has been problematic, but that does not change my response to the film.

I’ve got to the point in Hollywood Bilker where Alex is thinking of getting involved in the water business. Now I am not pretending that this is a major plot point, but it does reflect the way in which crime and politics collide in Alex’s life.

Talking of which, while France was experiencing revolutionary fervor in 1968, America of course reeled from assassinations: Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. I’m not telling you what happens next right now, but maybe I’ll relent in the future. For now, suffice to say that someone is most definitely going to die: but you’d expect that in an Alex novel, right?

Leo

Photo attribution: Photograph by Douglas Jones for LOOK Magazine, in the United States Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LOOK Magazine Collection., Fair use.