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You know, even Noah Cross answered the questions Gittes posed -- "Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat, what can you buy that you can't already afford?" with an aspirational if power-mad response: "The future!" I don't think today's billionaires have even that much of a lofty if perverted goal.

It's now simply accumulation for accumulation's sake, coupled with a Revenge of the Nerds passion play on a scale so epic normal people can barely conceive of it. They want more money, and they want to be liked/admired. Because they persist in the belief they can buy the latter, they keep avariciously acquiring more of the former to aid them in that fruitless quest. And we all pay the price.

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More easily understood as "I make money make money. It's what I do. Why should I stop doing what I am really good at?"

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At some point, it's impossible to stop. Once it accumulates in large enough quantities, money grows all on its own. It would take an effort to make it stop. Of course, the billionaire believes EVERY SINGLE ADDITIONAL DOLLAR is due to his brilliant efforts. "Huh, I musta done something this morning that was worth $17 billion, I'll try to figure out what it was after lunch."

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Philip Roth has David Zuckerman, author of the Portnoy-like Carnovsky, reflect on his financial success, with something like, "It wasn't enough any more to worry about making money. Now he had to worry about his money making money."

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The worry being...

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Who was the Wall Street guy who said "Money is how we keep score"?

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One a the zeros in the 400?

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Elmo having the software rewritten to specifically boost his posts, and Zuck having the filter on medical misinformation dropped because it ate his posts on his leg surgery.

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Funny you should mention it. At my co-author's suggestion, I'm reading The Big Goodbye, by Sam Wasson, a fascinating account of the making of Chinatown. It focuses on Towne, Nicholson, Robert Evans, and Polanski. Recommended.

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Thanks for this. Our film club is doing "LA Movies" Next month and that is of course one of the nominees...

(Gotta say, tho – I'd focus on Faye to the exclusion of all else, given the opportunity...)

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Maybe OT for your club, but if you haven't seen this, it's well worth checking out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Plays_Itself

List of 211 movies clipped in the doc! https://www.imdb.com/list/ls076751336/

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Thanks!

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Eddie Muller says Chinatown isn't just the best LA noir, it's the best LA film, period.

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I'm amenable to covering that one in the club meeting, but would prefer to do one I have not seen before (and the club boss sent a curated list of candidates, several of which my not-got-round-to self* has not...well, you know...).

So it's kinda wide open.

*Anybody who knows me would agree I am not well-rounded. Edgy, maybe.

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Are you familiar with this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_Danger

It is swell!

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She was "fast, crisp and laconic" – the kinda dame you yearn for, til you get to know her. And if you get to know her too well, she's the last thing you'll ever know.

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Evans autobiography is essential.

My wife and I saw Chinatown on our first date!

Sometimes I like to sit and wonder which filmmaker is the fourth greatest filmmaker of all time Roman Polansky or Woody Allen. One is the fourth best and one is the fifth best I can't decide. Neither would be permitted to babysit my children.

The other night I watched the Western featuring Spade Cooley, the Murdering King of Western Swing and his Band . That band sure could play!

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2 marks for Spade.

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I'd like to think that eventually some of these clowns end up acquiring a guillotine, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

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No matter how you slice it...they come out ahead!

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