Please introduce Roman Polanski's movie "Chinatown"?

The story takes place in Los Angeles in 1937. Jack used to work as a police officer in Chinatown. He found that Chinatown was a place without social and moral constraints. No one cared about criminal activities, and even murder cases were not investigated. So he resigned and became a private detective, specializing in investigations. Love affair.

On this day, a woman who claimed to be Mrs. Morale came to the detective agency and claimed that her husband was having an affair. She didn't care how much it cost, she just asked to find out who the woman was.

Jack accepted the commission and learned that Hollis Molare was the chief engineer of the Los Angeles Municipal Water Services Department and was protested by local farmers because he opposed the construction of dams.

Jack continues to track Hollis and finds him spending his days surveying the suburbs for drought conditions. His assistant brought in candid photos that proved there was a woman with Hollis. Additionally, he discovered that Hollis was having a heated argument with a man named Noah.

The investigation has not yet come to a conclusion, but suddenly another woman who calls herself Mrs. Morale comes to visit. This time it’s the real Mrs. Morale—Eveline. She accuses Jack of investigating Hollis and tells him she has filed a lawsuit. A court summons soon came, and a sudden turn of events made Jack interested in Hollis.

Jack went to Hollis's office to ask questions face to face, but Hollis was not there. Deputy Chief Engineer Russ met him and told him that the newspaper published Hollis's opposition to the construction of the dam. The news made the water department very nervous. As for the affair, he expressed disbelief. Jack went straight to the Hollis house, where he noticed a seawater cistern in the garden. Evelyn told him that Hollis might have gone to Oak Bay Reservoir.

At Oak Bay Reservoir, Jack found Hollis drowned in the reservoir. The police believed it was a suicide. Jack felt that something was suspicious, so he went to the morgue and the accident scene alone to investigate, and found a lot of doubts. At the reservoir, his nose was cut with a knife. The assailant warned him not to meddle in other people's business, otherwise his nose would be cut off. At the same time, Evelyn went to him again and expressed her intention to withdraw the lawsuit. The woman who had pretended to be Mrs. Morale also called and said that her name was Ada, that she was an actress, and that she was impersonated at the request of someone else. This series of strange events made Jack gradually realize the complexity of the case.

Jack accidentally discovered that Hollis and Noah were partners in their early years and both owned the water source in Los Angeles. Later, he fell out with Noah because Hollis advocated using the water for the people. Noah is still the owner of the reservoir, has many connections in the city government, and is very powerful. What surprised Jack even more was that Evelyn turned out to be Noah's daughter.

Jack's investigation made significant progress. He discovered that Lars released water to other states every night, but did not provide any water to the farmers in the suburbs. He found that some people were buying up dry farmland in large quantities, but the people who came forward to register the property rights were the elderly in nursing homes who knew nothing about buying land. In order to find the answer to the mystery, Jack decided to find Noah.

One sentence review:

Godard once said that the only way to comment on a movie is to make another movie, and this is exactly what Polanski did. : He created a model that had never been seen before in this country.

——Chicago Sun-Times

One of the most bleak endings in movie history.

——Observation

"Chinatown", which is ostensibly a genre film, always breaks the audience's expectations at every turn. It never tells clichés, but is committed to harsh surprises. ending.

——Reel Movie Review

Behind the Scenes:

About the Movie

This is a nostalgic detective film with a complex plot and rich drama. It is a classic of American film noir in the 1970s. Polanski's cold style is implemented throughout the film. From the script to the direction, acting, photography and soundtrack, it is all of first-class quality. It caused a great sensation when it was released.

Chinatown is a metaphor in the film: this mysterious, exotic land seems to be a place without social and moral constraints, where crime and murder are rampant without anyone paying attention. The Chinese faces in the film are all cold and expressionless. So the protagonist Jack resigned from his position as a police officer and became a private detective. But the shadow of "Chinatown" is always everywhere. For Jack, it is like a nightmare following him. But in fact, no land in this world is clean. It seems that Los Angeles under the sun is just an extension of Chinatown.

One of the most complex tasks Polanski had to do in this film was to recreate Los Angeles in the 1930s: the film showed the characteristics of Southern California in the traditional American West, where rivers, valleys, Streets and houses are shrouded in a light yellow tone. Polanski made extensive use of indoor low-light environments and night scenes, and through carefully choreographed passages, the entire film brings the audience into the boundless darkness little by little with a calm attitude.

The film won many international awards including the Oscar for Best Screenplay, the Golden Globe for Best Drama Film, and Best Actor.

Screen

"Chinatown", which won the 47th Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, is known as the best movie script in the 1970s, and it is still no less popular today.

Nowadays, if you pick up any American books on screenplay techniques in a bookstore and look through them, eight out of ten of them will definitely mention "Chinatown". Screenwriter Robert Donner has constructed an almost perfect script: no matter its main story, sub-plots, historical background and extremely dynamic visual performance, all of this weaves a complete and charming screen illusion for the audience. , the director made almost no changes when filming based on this movie script.

It is said that Robert Donner and Polanski had a dispute over the ending. Robert Donner preferred a warm ending in which justice was served, but Polanski did not agree with this happy ending, and finally decided to film it first. As the filming of the film came to an end, Polanski persuaded the producer and Donner to give the film an unexpected ending. This ending was firmly remembered by the angry young Americans who watched the film at the time: they finally understood that Hollywood genre films are not always happy.

Actors

The two big stars, Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, both gave outstanding performances in the film. Dunaway's line "She is my sister, no, she is my daughter, no, she is my sister and my daughter" is extremely dramatic. The performance of the two actors in this climactic scene can be described as perfect. The veteran star John Huston played a treacherous, profit-seeking, incestuous profiteer very vividly. Although he did not appear much, he excellently showed the abomination of a heartless plutocrat. Director Polanski also has a small cameo as the man who stabbed detective Jack Nicholson.

Soundtrack

The score for "Chinatown" is film score master Jerry Goldsmith. In a career of nearly 50 years, he has received 18 Oscar nominations. In 1976 He won an Oscar in 2011 for his score to The Omen. Goldsmith's compositions are never superficial, but go deep into the characters' hearts. He is also known for his bold experimentation. For example, when conducting "Planet of the Apes" (1968), in order to achieve special effects, he asked the wind musicians to remove the mouthpieces and play the brass pipes directly. He also gained a reputation within the industry for the incredible speed of his creations. When the work of the first composer of "Chinatown" was rejected, the producers found Goldsmith to put out the fire, and it only took him 9 days to complete the entire film's score, preventing the film from becoming an out-and-out disaster. But such fast speed did not prevent him from creating classics. The soundtrack of "Chinatown" used a rare combination of four pianos, four harps, string instruments, percussion instruments and trumpets at the time. This combination has now become a classic soundtrack combination for "private detective" films.

Great dialogue:

Walsh: Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

Walsh: Forget it, Jake. This is Chinatown.

Evelyn Mulwray: She's my daughter.

Evelyn Mulwray: She's my daughter.

[Gittes slaps Evelyn]

[Gitts slaps Evelyn]

Jake Gittes: I said I want the truth!

Jack Gertz: I want the truth!

Evelyn Mulwray: She's my sister...

Evelyn Mulwray: She's my sister...

[slap]

[Slaps Evelyn again]

Evelyn Mulwray: She's my daughter...

Evelyn Mulwray: She's my daughter...< /p>

[slap]

[Slap Evelyn again]

Evelyn Mulwray: My sister, my daughter.

伊 Flynn Murray: My sister, my daughter.

[More slaps]

[More slaps]

Jake Gittes: I said I want the truth!

Jack Gertz: I said I want the truth!

Evelyn Mulwray: She's my sister AND my daughter!

Evelyn Mulwray: She's my sister AND my daughter!