Chinatown, written by Robert Towne, directed by
Roman Polanski
10 out of 10
Notes and
thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E
and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Chinatown is
one of the masterpieces that will remain in history and I have it included in
my top twenty favorites.
It is also
on All-TIME 100 Movies list:
Robert Evans,
the producer of this film and the man responsible for other major motion
pictures, one of which might be the very best of them all, The Godfather,
writes about Chinatown in his book about movies:
-
The Kid Stays in the Picture
We learn
from there how Robert Evans was involved in getting roman Polanski to Hollywood
and how they worked on Rosemary’s Baby.
There is
the funny aspect of Frank Sinatra, his request to have his wife, Mia Farrow,
back soon and how she wanted to pay back.
Roman Polansky
is the magician directing Chinatown, after the immense success and Oscar
nomination for Knife in the Water…
And of
course, the aforementioned Rosemary’s Baby, for which the director wrote the screenplay,
nominated for both Oscars and Golden Globes.
Chinatown was
nominated for all the major Academy Awards and had to compete with Godfather
II, but won for Best Writing, Original Screenplay.
The magnificent
Jack Nicholson was discovered by Robert Evans and that story is included in the
aforementioned book.
He is a
private detective called Jake Gittes and he is asked to work on what seems to
be a usual case, the wife suspecting her husband of infidelity.
Jake and
his associates follow Mr. Mulwray and they think they have found the very young
woman with who he is involved.
The story
gets in the newspaper and Jake is visited by Evelyn Mulwray, who informs him
that he is being sued…
The woman
who had hired the detective was doing so on false pretenses…the real wife is
Faye Dunaway.
Chinatown is
about human relationships, love and betrayal, greed and power, money and fame,
but also about…Water.
It is
notable that a long time after the time of the story, California and Los Angeles
have a huge problem with water.
So severe
that over the past few years, draconic measures have been taken in places where
taking a bath instead of a shower was forbidden, watering the lawn- indeed many
lawns had been painted green.
Hollis Mulwray
is found dead, with salt water in his lungs and it becomes increasingly obvious
that the water is the key to this murder and that the dead man found out that
water had been dumped at night, in the middle of a…drought.
Enter the
stage Noah Cross portrayed with outstanding talent by an actor better known as
director- John Huston.
He is the
rich former owner of the water supply, in partnership with his late son-in-law
and he has concocted a plan to become even richer.
Noah Cross
wants to hire Jake Gittes to find “the girl „who is actually the key of the
investigation and the motion picture.
The hero is
attacked and beaten in various circumstances, his nose is cut- by a hoodlum
played by Roman Polansky.
The detective
is doing an outstanding job, proving to be a real superhero, for he follows the
trace of corruption into the orange groves, in the offices where the registers
are, in an asylum for old people, supposedly owners of huge areas of land that
would make them incredibly rich, onto to the salty pond at the Mulwray house.
This where
he becomes too violent and the aura of superman is disintegrating for he is
very aggressive with the woman he had an affair with and he suspects is
responsible for murder, having the wrong evidence.
The glasses
he holds as irrefutable proof had not belonged to the victim and therefore even
the best of detectives can be wrong.
This is an
exceptional film.
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