Directed by:
Roman PolańskiComposer:
Jerry GoldsmithCast:
Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Hillerman, John Huston, Perry Lopez, Burt Young, Bruce Glover, Joe Mantell, Roy Jenson, Diane Ladd, Darrell Zwerling (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes, living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one, unforgettable night in...Chinatown. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (12)
The basic structure of the story is quite similar to L.A. Confidential, with mysterious murders, a lot of peripheral characters, a foggy and unpredictable plot, and slowly revealing connections that gradually fit into a complex pattern of the motive of the murder. Roman Polanski brilliantly captured the atmosphere of a classic noir film. Throughout most of the film you can see a constant twilight, which gives it a special mysterious touch.
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I like Polanski’s movies. I have a weakness for noir. And for Nicholson as a young actor, when he hadn’t yet got into the habit of acting himself from various directions. Chinatown isn’t the best noir movie ever. But it certainly is one of the best. I can see just one “serious" negative. That it wasn’t filmed in black and white, as Polanski originally intended.
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I recently saw this gem for about the fifth time, but finally for the first time in widescreen uncut format (shame on our distributors that this, one of the best films of the 70s, has never been released on DVD with Czech support). It's rare that a film draws me into the action as if I were there, but Chinatown has an extremely dense, almost oppressive atmosphere of the sun-baked streets of summer Los Angeles in the 1930s, where the slowly escalating plot begins as a fairly ordinary noirish detective story, only to grow into a drama of antique proportions at the end. I've seen Jack Nicholson in many, many films, but here he plays the role of his life in my eyes, and the same can be said about Faye Dunaway. Jerry Goldsmith's music touches on perfection in places, with the saxophone never sounding sweeter than during the melodically expressive “Love Theme”. There was strong competition at the Oscars that year (Godfather II, The Towering Inferno, etc.), but I still can't shake the feeling that the academics were asleep when they awarded Polanski's masterpiece only one statuette out of eleven nominations - for screenplay. One of my Top 10 films.
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In the mid-70s, director Polanski decided to revive the long-dead noir genre, thus becoming the founder of the so-called neo-noir genre, which found numerous followers and supporters in the 70s and 80s. Chinatown is the flagship of its category, and one must admire the technical aspects of the film even years later, whether it is careful direction, music, or - above all - precise camera work. However, I have a problem with the film itself. The plot and screenplay failed to captivate me. Although Chinatown is considered one of Polanski's best films, I prefer other films in his body of work. Those who enjoy charismatic detectives, fateful women, and dramatic atmosphere will enjoy this film, but I prefer genre classics that are 2-3 decades older. Perhaps I also have a slight issue with the slow pace and the film's runtime. Overall impression: 70%.
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I've heard maybe too much praise for the movie, and perhaps I'm already a bit influenced by the current state of the world, so the major revelation didn't feel that shocking to me. But it's still a great film, which Polanski guides with an incredibly sure hand to the end, and it offers no happy ending, which in this case is a good thing.
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