Roman Polanski's Chinatown Essay

Ngozi Onyema
Film 3000
November 29, 2011
Film: Chinatown
TRT: 130 minutes
Language: English.
Date of film: 1974
Director: Roman Polanski
Award: 1975 Oscar: Best Writing, Original Screenplay Robert Towne,

BAFTA Film Award
Best Actor:
Jack Nicholson
Best Direction
Roman Polanski
Best Screenplay
Robert Towne

Golden Globe:
Best Director - Motion Picture
Roman Polanski
Best Motion Picture - Drama
Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama
Jack Nicholson
Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Robert Towne


The topic in film theory that this film “Chinatown”, relates to is Film Noir. Film Noir which in French means black film is a motion picture with an often grim urban setting, photographed in somber tones and permeated by a feeling of disillusioned, pessimism and despair. JJ “Jake” Gittes played by Jack Nicholson is a private detective with a cynical attitude which is part of what makes this film noir. JJ “Jake” Gittes specializes in matrimonial cases. More examples that this film is film noir is that Chinatown has a sinister preoccupation with it’s relentless close-ups that seems at times almost monomaniacal, always ominously subjective, with Jack Nicholson’s inquisiting profile repeatedly framing the picture to the left or right of the screen. The over-wrought, meticulously compositional style of cinematographer John Alonzo comes to look like a series of deceptive “frame-ups” with evil inhering in the smallest details of scenes – and violence lurking just beyond the peripheral vision we so often share with the hero. The macabre conclusion, despite plot loopholes, is tonally dead right; in retrospect, the movie’s lush serenity is meant to feel obscene.

The article by Garrett Stewart titled “’The Long Goodbye’ from ‘Chinatown’” compares Roman Polanski’s film “Chinatown” with Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye”. The article says that in watching “Chinatown” one can feel “The Long Goodbye” lurking behind it with the latent force of a foregone conclusion. Altman and his screenwriter took a 1953 Raymond Chandler novel, with its famous Philip Marlowe hero, and updated it twenty years in to the glare and barbarity of the contemporary L.A. waste-land, while Robert Towne’s script for Polanski casts its variant detective figure, J.J. Gittes, three decades back in to the complacent luxury of prewar L.A., a leisurely decadent culture primed for destruction. The article expresses the film noir characteristics of Chinatown. The article speaks of how both the film’s main characters are alike in the same ways and cynical. The article titled “Chinatown” by Roger Ebert praises Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” film saying how it works by following the film noir genre tradition perfectly. This article like the other also does a comparison of “Chinatown” and “The Long Goodbye”. Roger Ebert mentions the main character, J.J Gittes, deeply cynical feelings about human nature and the personal code that J.J Gittes sticks to which is characteristic of film noir.

The articles, especially the one titled “’The Long Goodbye’ from ‘Chinatown’” delve deeply in to the details that make the “Chinatown” film characteristic of Film Noir. Everything from the depicted L.A. wasteland to the relentless monomaniacal close-ups to the many scenes with violence lurking just beyond the peripheral vision to the cynicism in Jack Nicholson’s character depicts this film “Chinatown” as film noir. Roger Ebert attests to this and says that Polanski is so sensitive to the ways in which 1930s movies in this genre were made that were almost watching a critical essay. The articles acknowledge all the points in this film that would rightly characterize it as film noir.

Personally I enjoyed the film especially Jack Nicholson’s acting performance. Through the seriousness and drama of the film Jack Nicholson was able to bring some humor as he usually does and he did this without effecting the theme of the film which is film noir. Garret Stewart who wrote the article titled “’The Long Goodbye’ from ‘Chinatown’” did a great job in summarizing and explaining how this film fits in to film noir. I kind of relate to these types of films because I am cynical about some things. “Chinatown” is actually neo noir being that it was done in a time period after the 1940’s. I think some of the films I watch are neo noir but until now I never considered the name. I am happy to have learned this. It makes it easier now to find these type of films now that they are classified as neo noir.

Bibliography:

Ebert, Roger (1974, June 1). Chinatown. Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved November 29, 2011 from http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19740601/REVIEWS/40817002/1023

Stewart, Garrett (Winter 1974 – 1975). “’The Long Goodbye’ from ‘Chinatown’”. Film Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 2 pp. 25 – 32. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from JSTOR