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Chinatown

-Curly- Off white/ yellowish suit- the light it making it look different
-Contrast between his flashy clothes and casual job
-Image of himself(Dirt that he is doing)

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-There is a woman in the office of the private detective
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At first he says that she is better off not knowing, but
she insists that she needs to know
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-The woman's appearance is very extravagant and over the top
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There is a picture of Franklin Roosevelt present in the room
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-Curly seems to be relaxed and very into himself
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Elbert- Assistant water person- Hollis’s assistant
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-A man was hung
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The man in the suit was Lou Escobar
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-Gedes and Escobar worked together in Chinatown
-Escobar asks his wife questions
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He’s
insensitive
-Morty- We saw Mulray’s body at the morgue (Mulray drowned, and so did a homeless
man who lived down by the river)

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-Curly (Jake) starts investigating this so called drowning because he wants to know what
really happened
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-He then gets stuck at a water fall thing and someone shoots at him, but we do not know
who it is
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a force much larger
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Obviously the sign showed the viewer that something bad was going to happen
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-The man outside the elevator (Mulvahill) He works for the water company
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-The woman who came in the beginning is trying to call Curly
-There was a woman who came in pretending to be Mrs
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-The big boys can control the water department
-The veil makes it look like Mrs
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She claims that she knew
about the affair and did not really care
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-She does not want publicity
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-Metier is ones area of specialty
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Mulray that he does the best matrimonial work
-Even in his vocabulary he is overreaching himself
The man has a very dressy shirt- Dandy Cowboy
Hubris

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Jake Gidess- There were a lot of shots and silhouettes in this movie
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-Why do they go to Chinatown? Gidess was rushing to get out of the house to get over
there
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Mulray and her daughter he decided that
he wanted to help them get away from Noah Cross, but that plan fails when Cross kills
Catherine
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They do not have any personal interest
in the case
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Life goes the way it goes
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Mulray got shot
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There is no rhythm
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The little guy is up against a power
much larger than he, and he can’t beat it
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He’s a disgusting man that gets away
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Catherine almost gets her and
her daughter away from this disgusting man, but she doesn’t make it
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When Catherine gets shot and she's
leaning up against the shot
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Everything contributes
to something else, but not in a manipulative way
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The music at the end is perfect because it totally fits the mood
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At the beginning of the movie we found out that Jake used to work in China
with Escobar
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Chinatown is almost

symbolic of Jake’s struggle and how he can never win
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He hasn’t been too productive with his
time it seems
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If you talk to people then they might not understand or maybe they want
to keep it private from the white people
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His characters
backstory of constantly trying to fight
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The more he fights, the more he loses
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He’s very ambitious but he is not
cautious enough
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He confronts Cross
without any backup, which was a stupid move
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He often shows his rivalry with Escobar and lets that get in the
way of things
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It is in
his character to be like this
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Water and Business- Some of these events are real
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Are there any here in this film that are
repeated? Jake’s nose is repeated- It gets cut, then he has a bandage on it
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How does Jake find out who the murderer is? The
bifocals give us our answer and it’s ironic how they all link/ connect
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What he sees and what he thinks are not always true
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Mulray shows up and he takes the wrong one
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They are searching and looking
at what they see
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) 3 Vivid images (visual and or auditory)
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) 2 Observations about acting
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7 Comments

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China Town -Film Synopsis

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-Jake Gittes is an L
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private eye who specializes in matrimonial strife and infidelity
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-The imposter has Gittes spy on her "husband" to find out if he is having an affair
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(L
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is in the middle of a water shortage as the result of a drought, and Hollis
has become something of a scapegoat for the angry public
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Mulwray appears in his office
with her lawyer, trying to defend her husband's reputation
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A
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Mulwray hires him to find the killer
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The plot is masterminded by
Noah Cross, Evelyn's father and Hollis' one-time business partner, who has a vast network of corrupt city
officials and landowners backing him up
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Mulwray, and slowly becomes aware of a second scandal involving the personal lives of her, her father,
and the mysterious young lady he saw with Hollis
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Mulwray's death at the hands of the corrupt L
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police
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Interesting Reviews

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"Chinatown
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2001
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Accessed 11 March 2002
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Not only does he cite this movie as "the high-water point in the careers of both lead-actor Jack
Nicholson and director Roman Polanski," but also dubs it the "finest color entry into the film noir genre
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In keeping with this same line of thought, Berardinelli's one key disagreement with all three of the
earlier reviews is his statement of how unrealistic Polanski's 1930s L
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is (calling it the "exaggerated stuff of
dreams and movies")
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Background Information

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-Chinatown marked Polanski's 1974 return to the USA, and seemed to foreshadow a promising Hollywood
career in store for him
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(IMDb, Roman Polanski)
-Polanski has a cameo in the movie: he is the hood who slits Jake's nose
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(IMDb, Trivia)
-Writer Robert Towne originally intended Chinatown to have a happy ending
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Polanski won the argument and,
when the picture was re-released in 1999, Towne admitted that he had been wrong
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The association
of the "threat from water" motif with the fragility of human existence is a common archetype in movies
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Here, it is a deeper form of fragility; the whole city is falling prey to a behind-thescenes political/business scandal
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Cross thinks he is doing good in all his
evils; in his mind, he is helping L
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by expanding it into the valley and "bringing it to the water", and he is
protecting and raising Katherine like a good father should
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J
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He appreciates crass jokes, shows a willingness to get violent with both men and women who
cause him trouble, and never lets physical threats scare him off a case
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Though he isn’t scared by physical threats, he is susceptible to them and spends
a good portion of the film wearing a large nose bandage
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Unlike most Hollywood private eyes, Jake tends to be wrong more often than he is right,
missing important information and putting clues together incorrectly
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Nicholson
subtly weaves in this shortcoming as his character develops, mainly through tantalizingly vague references to
Chinatown, where the corrupt stay corrupt and everyone is supposed to look away
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Sadly, this also tends to cause trouble for other people,
especially Evelyn Mulwray
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Evelyn Cross Mulwray
In the classic tradition of film noir women, Faye Dunaway portrays Evelyn Mulwray as a person defined entirely
by the secret she keeps
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It is also the reason Evelyn is so inwardly
focused and distant and explains why she is so quick to take offense at even the most casual of personal
comments
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Evelyn does not hide
her secret as well as she thinks she does, and she occasionally lets her control slip
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At times, she reflects her
fragile, hidden daughter Katherine
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Through their encounters and brief romance she manages to reveal both quick thinking and a sense of humor
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Ultimately, this urge is not strong enough to overcome the secret that dominates her life
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His speech is easy and untroubled, and his
facial expressions remain open and friendly no matter what he’s saying
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As we discover, however, this
harmless, appealing exterior renders the inner, sociopathic nature that it hides all the more frightening
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When asked about the rape of his daughter, he blames his actions on the depths of depravity people are
capable of sinking to, but he gives the explanation with such utter calmness that it’s clear he doesn’t feel that
he’s lowered himself at all
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From the town’s water supply to the profitable valley land to Evelyn’s and Katherine’s innocence,
anything he feels might have value must be firmly in his possession
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The Dishonesty of Authority Figures
Chinatown suggests that the very notion of an honest, trustworthy leader is a myth
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Cross, who has no official power but who has used his money to essentially run most of the city and the
outlying area, uses the people he controls as pawns for his personal gain
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Russ Yelburton, a polite, highly
respectable family man, manipulates the public for personal gain and is involved in the slandering and murder of
his boss
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In the world of Chinatown, anyone with any authority
becomes a mere cog in a machine that maintains corruption
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Water, and the irrigation systems that provide it, first helped the American
West blossom into the rich and thriving area it is it is today
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Cross, however, turns
this approach into an excuse for murder, killing Hollis when he interferes with Cross’s plans for the new reservoir
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Part of the allure of America is its promise of success for the common person, the chance to control one’s own
destiny with the help of available resources
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Chinatown shows the promise of America’s future betrayed by the desires
of its corrupt present
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Unlike what Jake and so many other characters tell themselves, corruption
isn’t confined to just one area
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Evelyn, despite her money and earlier flight from her father, proves unable to run far or
fast enough to escape death
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Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major
themes
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Throughout the movie, Jake remains stubbornly incapable of putting the pieces of the case together properly
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Ida Sessions professes her ignorance to the full scope of the crime she helped
commit and therefore cannot see that she is in deep enough to be murdered
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As Polanski
demonstrates, being ignorant of the crime that surrounds you offers no protection from its ravages
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This inability to see the truth beneath the surface
of things serves only to drag him further into the conspiracy
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Later, he is unable to recognize Detective Loach as the man who tells him to go to Ida
Sessions’ house, a mistake that leads to Evelyn’s death
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Haunted Pasts
Most of the characters in the movie have some dark shame or secret haunting their past, a situation that on a
larger scale echoes the hidden corruption of the world in which they live
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Some past misfortunes, like the dam
Hollis Mulwray built that later collapsed and killed people, show that even innocent mistakes bring about deadly
consequences
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Jake’s past and his inability to protect the nameless woman in
Chinatown repeats itself to show how impossible it is to escape the evil nature, or tendency toward evil, inherent
in many people
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Chinatown
Chinatown, a place where secret organizations rule, the law is meaningless, and good intentions are brutally
suppressed, serves as the symbol for the true nature of every city
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Noble leadership is a lie, civic leaders like Yelburton are willing to do anything to the public in order to line their
pockets, and men like Cross are above the law
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While the typical movie
hero quickly shakes off an attack, Jake wears the marks of his injury throughout most of the film
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Jake deflects questions about the injury with sarcasm,
echoing the way he uses his cynicism and occasional crassness to hide his sense of decency
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The Saltwater Pond
The saltwater pond serves as a symbol of the inherent duality of human existence
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On another level, the pool brings about death, slowly seeping outward to poison
the surrounding grass and any other plant incapable of tolerating the salt
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The duality inherent in the water serves as a symbol for corruption, showing it both as the means by which
a city lives and grows and as a spreading disease that taints everything it comes in contact with
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Ending of Chinatown

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Chinatown’s most innovative scene is its ending
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The night setting
serves as an echo of the city’s pervasive corruption and creates an odd intimacy as the characters gather in the
available light
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Some shots are framed by
characters’ shoulders and the sides of heads, creating the feeling that we are in the middle of the crowd
onscreen
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He is forced to betray the woman he was trying to protect, and
when Jake attempts to fulfill his traditional role as the cinematic private detective and explain the case he has just
solved to the authorities, he is entirely ignored
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Jake’s

arguments are desperate, clearly those of a man who knows he holds the weaker ground, while Cross speaks
calmly and warmly, as if his sincerity and truthfulness are givens
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Even when talking to Escobar, his eyes scan continually for any
sign of Evelyn and Katherine, zeroing in on them almost immediately
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He tells Evelyn that the only way to keep
him from getting what he wants is to kill him, a release that Polanski never provides
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The way Cross finally triumphs is the most devastating part of the scene
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Jake’s mistake, though, becomes
apparent moments later
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Loach, however, fires into the car—intentionally or
not—and Evelyn is killed, shot through the head and eye
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The image of her
destroyed eye is the culmination of the film’s assault on the expectations of the viewer
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MA N WITH KN IFE:   “You’re a very nosy fellow, kitty cat
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They lose their noses
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These lines are a warning to Jake
to stop trespassing at the reservoir, but they serve as a broader warning about looking too fervently for the truth
behind appearances
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Unlike the majority of characters in the movie, Jake cannot ignore all the
corruption around him
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Noah Cross murders Hollis Mulwray because Hollis attempted to unveil
the corruption behind the new dam project
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The police shoot Evelyn Mulwray, who led a silent yet relatively safe
existence during the previous fifteen years, only after Jake intrudes on her life
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I’m old
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Though Noah Cross is talking about himself during his lunch with Jake at the Albacore Club, the line also pertains
to everyone who holds a position of power in the film
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Though the
club is a front for large-scale corruption, the public sees only a gentlemen’s social club of long standing that gives
generously to those in need
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The district attorney in Chinatown, a pawn of shadowy organizations who teaches the police to ignore
the crimes they’re supposed to protect the people from, has become firmly entrenched in a position of power and
respect
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Given enough time and regular exposure, people will let even the most shocking
deeds become a part of their landscape, allowing those who practice such activities total freedom from
interference
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In the final scene,
the police immediately believe the older, well-established Noah Cross over the younger, less successful Jake
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He treats power with reverence, not
questioning Cross and instead warning Jake to leave for his own good because Escobar knows that corruption
has been going on too long for anyone to put an end to it
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EV ELYN:   “She’s my daughter
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GITTES:   “I said I want the truth!”
EV ELYN:   “She’s my sister
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[slap]
EV ELYN:   “My sister, my daughter
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GITTES:   “I said I want the truth!”
EV ELYN:   “She’s my sister AND my daughter!”
This exchange, which occurs after Jake confronts Evelyn with what he thinks is the truth, works on several levels
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Second, it shows Jake’s willingness to use violence against women
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Third, the dialogue shows the complicated nature of truth
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The
near desperation with which Jake pushes Evelyn to confess is an expression of his fears and anxieties about
being completely lost amidst the lies that surround him
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Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and right
place, they’re capable of anything
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This line
suggests there is evil in everyone’s heart and that given the right provocation, anyone is capable of committing a
heinous crime
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The calm and even tone
of Cross’s voice suggests that he sees his actions as reasonable and understandable indulgences—an even more
sinister facet of his character
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Russ Yelburton, a family man with a
good job, is driven to cover up the murder of a man he genuinely liked in the name of greater ambition
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Nonetheless, she helped with the scheme for her own financial gain
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Lieutenant Escobar, who
seems to have as great a dislike for Chinatown as Jake does, helps carry the area’s rules beyond its borders by
not attempting to question Cross
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WA LSH:   “Forget it, Jake
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This line from the final scene, which Walsh speaks in a sympathetic voice as he leads Jake away from Evelyn’s
dead body, sums up one of the film’s major themes
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Chinatown is a place where corruption is the status quo and
where regular people are forced into silence
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The best Jake can do is regret his foolish
mistake and leave as soon as possible
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The city’s subtly treacherous new chief engineer, Russ
Yelburton, is a fair match for Chinatown’s more openly corrupt district attorney
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Historical Context

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Robert Towne based the plot of his script on the 1904 Owens River Valley ”Land Grab,” which took place in the
early 1900s
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The farmers and ranchers who lived in the valley,
however, had their own plans for the river, waiting until the Reclamation Service completed its irrigation project
there before they could use the water
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Mulholland also manipulated Los Angeles residents by portraying acquisition of the river as being vitally important
to the city, when in reality he was using much of the water to irrigate the nearby San Fernando Valley and
increase the return on the land investments made there by several of Eaton and Mulholland’s friends
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Eaton and Mulholland believed that their power placed them and their personal interests above the
law
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The character’s cynicism, world-weariness, and slightly sleazy disposition
and habits were drawn straight from classic film noir detectives and the novels that inspired those films
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In fact, much of Jake’s anger and determination come from his frustrated realization of just how lost he truly is
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The violence of the knife attack is something he can at least understand and respond to appropriately
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His actions in the final scene are startling and powerfully effective, leaving the viewer with affection
for Jake despite his baser tendencies
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Most of her actions and dialogue are
designed to let Nicholson’s character know that she is hiding something from him
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Rather than rely on the distance of cool calculation, Dunaway makes Evelyn’s
reticence that of pure fear: she is a bad liar in a dangerous situation whose only hope of not saying something

dangerous is to say nothing at all
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The
discussion of Jake’s past that immediately follows is a quest for emotional intimacy that neatly bookends the
moment
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The occasional
quaver of her voice and the fragile desperation with which she asks him to come back with her hint at a woman
who believes she is just as lost as Jake has become
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He has less screen time than
Nicholson and Dunaway, but he still succeeds in giving his character depth
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Huston’s care to keep his pleasantly wrinkled face and friendly smile unmarred by any
shades of baser intent makes Cross’s character all the more sinister to viewers as they discover his inherently evil
nature
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Crew
Director: Roman Polanski

Screenplay: Robert Towne, Roman Polanski (uncredited)

Cinematography: John A
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