Top 100: Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown"
There aren't too many films which I can describe as perfect, but that's exactly what Chinatown is: Cinematic perfection. Chinatown is an example of everybody involved being at the top of their game. Robert Evans produced, Roman Polanski directed, Robert Towne's original screenplay is sublime, the entire cast is perfect, Jerry Goldsmith's musical score is one of his very best, John A.Alonzo's cinematography is beautiful, same for the production design by Richard Sylbert, the art direction by W. Stewart Campbell, the set decoration by Ruby Levitt, amazing costumes by Anthea Sylbert on and on and on…
Jack Nicholson plays J.J 'Jake' Gittes, a private eye who is hired by Evelyn Mulwray to spy on her husband, who she suspects is having an affair. Sure enough he finds evidence of Mr Mulwray seeing a young lady, and believes his job has been done. However, when it transpires he has been set-up to discredit Mr Mulwray - who happens to be the Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles water department - ingrigue deepens. Things take a turn for the worse when Mr Mulwray is found dead, and Jake suspects 'moider'. Slowly, Jake begins to dig a little deeper into what is really going on.
Robert Towne's script is perfect. He created a realistic portrait of 1930s Los Angeles in the middle of a draught. Water equals power in L.A, not to mention a pipe-load of money. The story itself was actually true… Although the film is set in 1937, Towne's script is based on the great South California Water shenanigans of the two previous decades. Plot-wise, there's an awful lot going on in Chinatown… The story is quite complex, and it requires multiple viewings, which is welcome given its very high quality.
Like Day of the Locust and Mulholland Drive, Chinatown is an ode to L.A. It's not only a terrific character piece, but also a sprawling modern film noir. It's meticulously crafted too, which is really evident on this new Blu-ray release. The sets, costumes and original soundtrack are all spot-on. The editing and camerawork are also top class. Damnit, everything here is perfect, nobody puts a foot wrong.
Chinatown is a bona fide masterpiece made at the creative heights of 1970s Hollywood, where the auteurs had free reign to do as they please. Polanski would take that too literally, and his personal life post-Chinatown is well documented.
Chinatown was released in late 1974, and just the next year Jaws dropped on the general public and changed everything. No more auteurs were allowed free reign, fewer truly independent films were made in Hollywood, just a factory-production line hell bent only on the dollar bill. Star Wars in 1977 was another nail in the coffin, which was well and truly nailed shut when Michael Cimino nearly bankrupted United Artists with Heaven's Gate. Chinatown therefore is one of the last true examples of Hollywood at it's dizzying creative peak.
Interesting footnote: The film was co-produced by Porno empire Penthouse. How very odd.
