WHAT: Chinatown (1974, DCP) 50th anniversary screening!
WHEN: June 12, 2024 1 PM & 7 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
WHAT ELSE: Pre-show music by organist Jay Warren at 6:30 PM; newsreel
HOW MUCH: $12/$10 advance or $10 for the 1 PM matinee
Advance Tickets: Click Here!
Noah Cross: You may think you know what you’re dealing with, but, believe me, you don’t.
[Gittes grins]
Noah Cross: Why is that funny?
Jake Gittes: That’s what the District Attorney used to tell me in Chinatown.
Join us on Wednesday, June 12, when we conclude our tenth season of classic movies at the Pickwick Theatre with a 50th anniversary screening of Chinatown (1974). Starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, this Roman Polanski-directed murder mystery is recognized as one of the landmark American films (#19 on the AFI list of greatest movies). Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, it was released during Hollywood’s New Wave era where filmmakers often broke away from traditional modes of storytelling. Chinatown is also acknowledged as being one of the first modern films noirs, or neo-noir as the style is known today.
I discovered Chinatown for the first time in a History of Film Noir class in 1994 taught by Scott Marks at Columbia College Chicago. Obviously, it wasn’t in a theatre, but it was on actual film stock, and it was one of the movies that made that class such a happy experience. What I remembered most from that film were the L.A. locations and the film’s dramatic ending. Chinatown was the last film shown in that course, and it’s a film that should be studied both for its editing and meticulous framing– the latter of which was all Roman Polanski.
Chinatown is the story of a private investigator, Jake Gittes, who is hired by a woman claiming to be Evelyn Mulwray. She suspects her husband is having an affair. However, the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) turns up in Gittes’ office threatening a lawsuit– while the husband turns up dead. This murder mystery, centered around the California water wars, is a story about power and corruption– and Gittes’ search for the truth.
The Oscar-winning screenplay by Robert Towne is often acknowledged as one of the best, certainly of the 1970s. His story, though a work of fiction, has historical echoes and was partly inspired by real life land dealings involving the City of Los Angeles and its efforts to obtain (or steal) water rights from the Owens Valley and bring that water to the San Bernardino Valley; the valley land would later be incorporated into the greater Los Angeles County.
Robert Towne was also intrigued by the idea of the police being told to do nothing in Chinatown because they simply weren’t able to penetrate that culture. What Towne crafted was something that suggested the period and feel of Raymond Chandler– but with a more modern sensibility. Towne took the approach of a novelist who truly understood character. The film opens like a traditional detective story but soon becomes much more than that when we realize Gittes is being set up. For Towne, he wanted to explore the “the futility of good intentions.” Interestingly, in the original script, there was no actual scene in Chinatown. It was director Polanski who added it later; the final dialogue in the Chinatown sequence was worked out only hours before they were to shoot it.
The film was shot all over Los Angeles by the late John A. Alonzo, who would’ve turned 90 on the date of our screening (June 12). Alonzo pioneered a lot of the handheld camera work that viewers see in Chinatown. Many of the shots help tell the story subjectively, often following the character of Jake from behind and placing the viewer in that world from the protagonist’s perspective. Alonzo memorably brought to the screen the compositions Polanski visualized in his mind. As a result, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. The following year, Alonzo shot Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely (1975), another neo-noir.
Jack Nicholson was always the first choice for the role of the vain, thin-skinned detective who thinks he knows more than he does. Nicholson was actually an old friend of Towne’s from acting school, and it was the two of them who took the project to Roman Polanski. Polanski was reluctant to return to Los Angeles (from his residence in Rome) on account of the memories associated there with his late wife, Sharon Tate, who had been murdered in 1969. But he was convinced by the screenplay and had always wanted to do a story in this genre.
Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway, like Nicholson, would be nominated for her performance in this film. She conveys poise as well as a damaged quality. She’s not the typical femme fatale of noir because she is essentially the victim. Another key member of the cast was John Huston, whose presence suggests old school Hollywood and the classic style of storytelling exemplified in his own film noir classics like The Maltese Falcon (1941) and The Asphalt Jungle (1950). In the film, he plays the ruthless Noah Cross, former business partner of Evelyn’s late husband.
Another element of the film’s overall success is the soundtrack. The Oscar-nominated music was composed by Jerry Goldsmith and sets the tone for the entire picture. Goldsmith is best known for such avant-garde film scores as Planet of the Apes (1968). One can certainly hear that this is the same composer with that penchant for low, discordant piano notes. But the title theme, with its use of the haunting trumpet solo, is a lush, romantic piece that has become instantly recognizable. It is fascinating to consider that Goldsmith scored the film in just ten days after the film’s original composer, Phillip Lambro, had his work rejected by producer Robert Evans.
The ending to Chinatown is jarring and one that gives the audience something to think about. In that regard, it does stay with you longer than if the filmmakers had gone another route. As a whole, Chinatown remains one of the most memorable movies not just of the 1970s but of all-time thanks to an excellent screenplay, a terrific cast, and the creativity of its director. In the film, one of Gittes’ associates tells him, “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” But no one will ever forget it.
~MCH
Chinatown at the Pickwick Theatre: 1974 vs. 2024
