Was this supposed to be set in the present 1976?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Alice, Sweet Alice
rockphiler — 14 years ago(June 05, 2011 03:57 PM)
The makes of cars are all mid to late 60s and the apparel is definitely early 70s. Was this supposed to be dated? Or in the present 1976? If the latter, I find it to be off the mark.
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anacamille — 14 years ago(June 13, 2011 12:06 PM)
I was very confused by this myself. But what I found to be the oddest was that in the police station, early on in the movie, there is a calendar on the wall (or on a cabinet) in a detective's office and it's dated 1961!!! I thought maybe it was of some significance, like to show how disorganised, careless and unthoughtful the police/detectives were, but I'm thinking this film wasn't that "deep". I kept my eye out for any other calendars/dates throughout the film but never saw any.
Also, there is a framed print of JFK behind the front desk where the uniformed officers are. In the beginning the mother's hairstyle could have been a late 50's to early 60's style, but then in the scene where her and her ex start kissing, her hair is definitely early to mid-70's. The clothes were pretty much all 70's, I'd date most of them at about 1974 (I took many fashion courses and have studied vintage and antique fashion and furnishings most of my life).
I might be wrong, but I think some of the pedestrian cars were 70's cars whereas the police cars were 60's but that could be because the police cars were just outdated at the time. The mother and the aunt both had on 50's/60's style makeup at some points as well, especially during the beginning. Not many women wore liquid liner in the 70's, in real life, that's for sure. The wall mural in the dining room in their flat was definitely a 70's thing, maybe very late 60's but most likely early to mid-70's, and the striped floral wallpaper in the kitchen was early 70's for sure. I could go on and on, but I'll stop with these observations. I was trying to date everything during the entire movie, and kept coming up with different decades. I apologise for not structuring these thoughts better, but I'm in a lot of pain so please forgive. -
mizhu — 13 years ago(June 17, 2012 11:08 AM)
The first time I saw the movie was on VHS in the early-mid eighties, and there was an on-screen graphic immediately after the opening credits that read, 'Paterson, New Jersey. 1961.' I don't know why that was cut from later prints. I hope it wasn't because the distributors thought no one would notice the time difference.
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jonathanstatsny — 12 years ago(August 20, 2013 06:39 PM)
That big fat landlord with the cats certainly didn't have a style that fit 1961 though. He had sort of a goatee, which no one would have had back then. But yeah, the movie is set in 1961 for sure. Making it all the more rare that there would be a divorced family within the Catholic church at that timeframe.
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zwolf — 11 years ago(February 23, 2015 10:52 AM)
It was set in 1961. Besides some other visual clues (JFK's picture, magazine and comic book covers, cars, etc.) there's also a 1961 calendar hanging on the wall of someone's office. The director based the movie on memories of his childhood, which was very similar other than all the murders, of course.
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urgeking — 10 years ago(January 17, 2016 12:12 AM)
Actually, most of the cars are from the late 1950s. When they bring Alice in for her polygraph they're driving a 1960 Dodge and they stop next to a 1959 Ford. Some of the men's hairstyles, particularly on the younger detectives, seem a
little
bit long for 1961, but not excessively so.