Jade (1995)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

William Friedkin

Writer (WGA):

Joe Eszterhas (written by)

Release Date:

13 October 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller | Drama

Tagline:

Some women have secret fantasies. Some women have secret lives.

Plot:

Someone does a nasty hatchet job on a San Fransisco big noise and the Assistant D.A. takes charge of the investigation...

Plot Keywords:

Investigation | Blackmail | Paranoia | Whodunit | Sex Killer

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

David Caruso	...	David Corelli
Linda Fiorentino	...	Trina Gavin
Chazz Palminteri	...	Matt Gavin
Richard Crenna	...	Gov. Lew Edwards
Michael Biehn	...	Bob Hargrove
Donna Murphy	...	Karen Heller
Ken King	...	Petey Vesko
Holt McCallany	...	Bill Barrett
David Hunt	...	Pat Callendar
Angie Everhart	...	Patrice Jacinto
Kevin Tighe	...	Dist. Atty. Arnold Clifford
Robin Thomas	...	Mr. Green
Jay Jacobus	...	Justin Henderson
Victoria Smith	...	Sandy
Drew Snyder	...	Executive

MPAA:

Rated R for grisly afterviews of murder victims, violence, language and strong scenes of aberrant sexuality.

Runtime:

95 min | USA:107 min (director's cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | USA:R (certificate #33482) | Singapore:PG (video rating) (cut) | Singapore:R(A) | USA:Unrated (home video version) | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | New Zealand:R16 | Argentina:16 | Canada:R | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:III | Italy:VM18 | Norway:18 | Peru:18 | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Chinatown, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Linda Fiorentino initially turned down the script because she didn't want to play a prostitute. She changed her mind when her character was changed through rewrites.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When David is chasing the black car you can clearly see his airbag coming out with the second jump. In the next scene the airbag is gone.

Quotes:

Bob Hargrove: [watching a sex tape] You ever take it like that, Corelli?
David Corelli: Is that an offer, Inspector?
Bob Hargrove: You wish.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Ray Liotta/The Donnas (#28.10)" (2003)

Soundtrack:

Where Or When

Sprung Rites

I think this may have been successful in its day, simply because of the sex. There is the appearance of some sex acts on the screen presented in a couple voyeuristic contexts, but I think the target was a much deeper appeal: a whole world driven by insatiable, conventionally deviant female sex drive. The writer had previously cashed in with this idea and Hollywood chose to try again but with a real director.

This formula isn't just about sex, its about turning the noir mechanics on its head. Noir depends on an outside fate that arbitrarily throws strangers together in situations that are designed for and controlled by the values of watching, outside the world of the action.

Here, everyone knows each other beforehand. There are essentially no strangers. The driving force is supernatural as in noir, but it is rooted in and owned by the people we see. Its simple sexual desire, lust.

The story is ordinary, the sex unconvincingly simulated. Even the automotive stunts are limp. There's some craft in how it is put together visually though, enough to keep me engaged.

But there is one remarkable feature. The score is hypnotizing. It is bicameral, both halves based on prototypical themes. The male theme: lustful, uncontrollable and apt to be violent is from (almost directly) Stravinski's Rite of Spring. Its wildly erotic, threatening, dangerous. The female side (until the end that is) is a Celtic anthem, soft, passive, receptive, drifting.

I do not ever recall something so directly cast, so borrowed and yet so effective. I saw this close to a film (Duel at Diablo) where the score was literally canned bits from old movies and the dialog all dubbed). This part is fun, and much more tantalizingly erotic than what you will see.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.