Chinatown

Roman Polanski, USA, 1974, 131 minutes

This is one of Roman Polanski's most outstanding and gripping films to date. Set in the 30s, Chinatown is like some kind of anti-flim-noir thriller, nothing is predictable or as it seems, bright, shadowless landscapes fill the cinematographic screen. Jack Nicholson, energetic as ever, plays J. J. Gittes, a private detective who is intelligent, charismatic and completely tactless. Set up to investigate a "simple" adultery case, he finds himself lured into an ever darkening world of family intrigue, political and moral corruption on a grand scale.

A wealthy landowner (John Huston) appears to be keeping a city to ransom by withholding its water supply. What develops, after turning naany corners, is a kind of Greek tragedy, a family destroyed, revealing even to a detective a world hidden more carefully than one might expect. A remarkable and unusual work.

Review by John Curtis Estes
Taken from EUFS Programme 1992-93