Chinatown Film Noir

     ChinaTown, directed by Roman Polanski, is a non-traditional hard-nosed detective film made in the 70's. The typical elements of character type are there; J.J. Gittes (a private detective in LA) played by Jack Nicholson is the central character, sharing the spotlight is Fay Dunaway playing the femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray. This film breaks all types of norms when compared to the hard-nosed detective films it is modeled after. The film is filled with allusions to the Big Sleep, especially taken from scenes of Marlowe and Vivian. Chinatown has formal elements indicative that it is going to be in the style of traditional Film Noir hardboiled detective, until you examine the characters' personalities

     Roman Polanski's 1974 film, 'Chinatown', revolutionized the film noir genre. Aside from the absense of voice-over, the film shares all the same characteristics with earlier noirs. That is, of course, except for the fact that ?Chinatown? is

By all accounts, this movie reflects and highlights this interplay that exists between film and American Culture. As the world was riddled with battles and darkness, the movies of this time period reflected this sinister reality. Death was a major reality during this time period in America and it was no less a reality in The Maltese Falcon. The audience watches as the main character, Sam Spade, becomes involved in a grand scheme surrounding a priceless statue. Same Spade and his partner Miles Archer, both private investigators, meet a seductive and secretive woman named Ruth Wonderly who claims she is looking for her missing sister who is mixed up with a man named Floyd Thursby. As the movie continues, Spade receives news that Archer was murdered and is later accosted by a man who demands that he locate an irreplaceable statue (the Maltese Falcon). The story unfolds as Spade finds himself entangled in a dark and dangerous web of crime in which his only option is to find the Maltese Falcon, which is one thing they all seem to want. A dark and realistic outlook and mise-en-scene is not the only thing that linked this movie to the respective time period however. Also reflective of the time period is film noir’s dark, sexual, and seductive portrayal of

Film Noir was extremely trendy during the 1940’s. People were captivated by the way it expresses a mood of disillusionment and indistinctness between good and evil. Film Noir have key elements; crime, mystery, an anti-hero, femme fatale, and chiaroscuro lighting and camera angles. The Maltese Falcon is an example of film noir because of the usage of camera angles, lighting and ominous settings, as well as sinister characters as Samuel Spade, the anti-hero on a quest for meaning, who encounters the death of his partner but does not show any signs of remorse but instead for his greed for riches.

Roman Polanski used every minute of his movie Chinatown to define and redefine J.J. Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson. Gittes is for all intents and purposes a classic private investigator, making a living out of other infidelity. Polanski adds an element of quirkiness to Gittes by utilizing the genius of Jack Nicholson and incorporating film noir traits. With Polanski’s mixture of modern acting talent combined with an updated format of color film he creates a visual curiosity that compels the viewer to stay engaged and intrigued.

Imagine a story that has everything- cheating spouses, secret affiliations, deception, action, lies, and a pretty girl or two on top of it all. Chinatown is the name of this story, and it exists in the form of a Film Noir movie. Chinatown is a film from 1974, directed by Roman Polanski and written by Robert Towne. Chinatown is a story about truth and misinformation, with heavy themes of mystery and ultimately tragedy. With Jack Nicholson as Detective J.J. Gittes and Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray starring in the film the characters in Chinatown are especially memorable. As a whole, Chinatown is a prime example of a movie from the Film Noir genre and is proven to be a well-liked example of it.

The critically acclaimed film, Goodfellas, is a gangster crime drama that features an incredible amount of talent. Household names such as: Robert De Niro (Jimmy Conway), Joe Pesci (Tommy DeVito), Paul Sorvino (Paul Cicero), and promising stars like Ray Liotta (Henry Hill) and Lorraine Bracco (Karen Hill), attracted numerous Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. That type of cast power, linked with the signature talent of Martin Scorsese as a director, made for cinematic gold. Unquestionably, the actors and actresses did an excellent job augmenting the verisimilitude of this film and compelling audiences to empathize with their characters. But the cinematography in this film plays just as large a role in having audiences feel what the characters are feeling at a specific moment. Through the use of freeze frames, we learn of significant moments that shape Henry into the man that he is. By means of first-person narration we are able to know exactly what is going through a particular character’s mind. Finally, wonderful editing made great use of point of view and multiple jump cuts, which added to the sensation that we are undergoing the same experiences as the characters on screen. I will go into further detail and specify scenes that convey these elements as the essay progresses. Altogether, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas effectively depicts paramount scenes and allows the audience to empathize with the characters by virtue of stylistic editing and cinematography.

Film Noir, a term coined by the French to describe a style of film characterized by dark themes, storylines, and visuals, has been influencing cinematic industries since the 1940’s. With roots in German expressionistic films and Italian postwar documentaries, film noir has made its way into American film as well, particularly identified in mob and crime pictures. However, such settings are not exclusive to American film noir. One noteworthy example is Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard, which follows the foreboding tale of Joe Gillis, the desperate-for-success protagonist, who finds himself in the fatal grips of the disillusioned femme fatale Norma Desmond. Not only does the storyline’s heavy subject matter and typical character

Film Noir was a result of it's time - The war had just ended and It was time where prohibition had influenced an abundance in crime and corruption. Film noir serves to highlight the darkest aspects of human beings. ‘Society is making the machinery of it's own destruction.

Tony Garnett’s The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) seems a quintessential film noir. The title suggests a fateful conclusion for the two main characters—a flawed drifter named Frank (John Garfield) and his restless female conspirator, Cora (Lana Turner). Garnett’s crime drama is crafted with the stylish devices usually characteristic of the film noir genre—low-key lighting; a flawed, inept hero; and an archetypal femme fatale. Certain thematic codes are also persistent: psychological conflict, paranoia, fate, and moral ambiguity. Three telling scenes communicate the noir stylistics effectively—where nearly all of the devices converge simultaneously: (1) Frank’s first meeting

The viewer sees a private eye and beautiful client. First thought, "It’s definitely another Hollywood crime drama." On the surface, Chinatown has all the elements of a film noir: the presence of a beautiful but dangerous woman, otherwise known as the femme fatale, a gritty urban setting, compositional tension (highly contrasting light and dark colors or oblique camera angles), and themes of moral ambiguity and alienation. Chinatown, however, is different. Polanski shot Chinatown with color film, and though his colors do appear especially vivid, color film precludes the contrast intensity that black and white film offers. In addition, Evelyn is not the classic femme fatale. Though Jake mistakes her for her husband’s killer at first, Mrs.

Whenever a work of literary nonfiction is adapted by filmmakers for the silver screen it is inevitable that certain truths will be stretched and liberties taken in the name of creative license. This is undoubtedly true in the case of journalist Herbert Asbury's The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld, a seminal piece of investigative reporting weaved with lyrically lurid prose describing the debauchery, squalor and institutionalized barbarism of the era. Published in 1928, Asbury's chronicle of the gangster culture spawned during New York City's turbulent adolescence became a cult classic, one which eventually inspired famed American film director Martin Scorsese to try his hand at breathing life into the words. The result was a sprawling masterpiece of epic proportions, combining tour de force cinematic performances by Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio and expertly deployed directorial vision. Nominated for a slew of Academy Awards following its 2002 release, Scorsese's artistic rendering of Asbury's rigorous reporting was acclaimed by film critics and moviegoers alike, but historians have cast lingering doubts on the film's ultimate authenticity. Accusations that Scorsese and screenwriter Jay Cocks distorted reality in the pursuit of profit abound, but testimonies attesting to the filmmakers' intensive attention to regional dialect, period architecture and social context have muddled this debate. By closely comparing the textual evidence

In Cawelti’s piece, he talks about the “generic transformation” that appears in Chinatown. Most of all, he points at the “myth” of the hard-boiled detective, a well known noir character archetype that appears in both Chinatown and The Long Goodbye. According to Cawelti, the “hard-boiled” detective is an archetype that is meant to portray the “moral ambiguity” theme often seen in classical film noir. These types of characters are licensed by the state as private investigators, but are far from morally upright beings. They follow their own internal code of ethics, and if the law needs to be broken in order for the job to get done, that is just the way things have to go (Cawelti 499-500). Both Jake Gittes and Philip Marlowe are private investigators who do their own thing when it comes to enforcing the law. Mostly because they realize that the system is corrupt, so they invent their own form of justice. To Gittes, that means lying his way in and out of most situations; to Marlowe that means killing his friend who has committed murder.

Roman Polanski's Hollywood film Chinatown, directed in 1974, tells the story of Jake Gittes, a private investigator. The film focuses in on the dark reality of corruption behind power hungry men, making this a true neo-noir film. Chinatown reveals a depth narrative allowing the viewer to follow Gittes and uncover the secrets around the water dispute in California. I chose to bring focus to the significance of the male gaze and how this form of power can change and affect our views. The prominent female character in the film, Evelyn Mulwray, is a wealthy white woman. With her character comes active male attention and desire. Laura Mulvey's Theory of "The Gaze" supports this argument by studying the power and influence of a patriarchal

Chinatown (1974), an American neo-noir film expertly directed by Roman Polanski. The film screenwriter, Robert Towne received an Academy Award for tightly writing the scripts. This film is actually a suspense film, however, some audiences have the illusion that it is a documentary. The story takes place in Los Angeles, a metropolis of the United States. Different from the many detective stories, Chinatown attracted its audiences by its unexpected twists and the exciting plots. It was undoubtedly one of the best films to watch from the 1970s – last great decade on American cinema history.