First time I saw "Chinatown", it looked good and I liked it, the second time, it was even better, and so on and so forth, but there was always a little something that couldn't get me totally 'into the film'. Yesterday, I decided not to 'watch' "Chinatown" but to 'pay attention to it', and I finally got why it is regarded as one of the greatest American films.
As soon as Jerry Goldsmith's haunting score starts, a genre is resurrecting, a private-eye whose cigarette smoke harmoniously draws the hair of a femme-fatale, and a title announcing a haunting presence. Roman Polanski adapted the film-noir genre with a more modern touch : the first frames featuring pictures of very explicit sexual poses show how far we are from the Hayes Code, and the photographer is not the archetypal private eye, laconic, full of debts and booze. Jack Nicholson plays the role of J.J. aka Jake Gittes, a man who made 'private eye' his métier, perfectly organized, with two associates and a secretary, ironically earning his respectable money from the depraved lifestyle of the pre-war Los Angeles.
Strangely, the first client almost disappoints as she's too unbelievably stereotypical. She's apparently a rich woman pretending to be Mrs. Evelyn Mullray, with an exaggerated aristocratic look. She suspects her husband, the Chief Engineer of Water and Power, of cheating her. We're finally reassured when the real Evelyn makes her appearance, but pay attention to the details: she had to trick J.J. and makes him admit that he's never seen her, what could have been compromised if the two associates had warned him when he came. The script needed Jakes to enter with such enthusiasm he wouldn't let anyone talk, hence the hilarious Chinaman joke, and its embarrassing aftermath.
Every detail, every originality, plays a significant role. Jakes takes one card from Mr. Yellburton of the Water and Power office and uses it later, to enter a protected zone. Even the details that are not plot significant, like when Gittes deliberately annoys Yellburton's secretary or asks a snotty office worker for a ruler, so he can tear a piece of paper and cover it with a loud cough, give an extraordinary sense of reality. The film doesn't even deal with an exotic statuette or a jewel heist, but the control of water, an unlikely subject that brilliantly comforted the 'mystery' element of the film as when a Chinese man tells Gittes that the water is "bad for glass", and it takes a second meaning when you hear it again. Everything looks natural and unforced, but the perfectionism demands a concentration from the viewer, for a rewarding pay-off.
The script is renowned for having been written by Robert Towne with Jack Nicholson in mind. Indeed, who else could have embodied such a cynical and apathetic attitude with this appeal, the way Gittes evokes his professionalism makes him even more charismatic as it justifies his insistence to solve the mystery, as stated in Polanski's favorite moment, when Jake and Evelyn appears in profile, face to face, with the famous bandage on Nicholson's nose and the priceless line "I like my nose. I like breathing through it". Faye Dunaway is also perfect as the black widow whose sophisticated mannerisms, finely traced eyebrows and bright red lips, give her a misleading femme-fatale appearance, that couldn't let you guess that she's actually the heroine as the character with the most selfless motives. The whole film is full of illusions and contradictions illustrated by the perfect casting of John Huston as Noah Cross, the powerful mastermind, whose evil scheme is hidden behind his elegant courtesy and the funny way he always call Jakes 'Mr. Gitts'. A perfect casting that also includes Polanski as the 'Kitty Cat' midget.
But behind Polanski's inside joke cameo, Gittes keeping this big bandage in his nose is the unforgettable trademark of the film, an ironic punishment and the warning to a man whose nosiness might cause bigger damages. And that's the power of "Chinatown", the constant feeling of an imminent danger, embodied by this word : "Chinatown". Towne, the Oscar winning writer of the script, asked a policeman what he did in Chinatown, he replied : "As little as possible". If you wonder what kind of law enforcement that is, just listen to Gittes explaining that sometimes during Chinese gang quarrels, with so many different dialects, you never knew when you prevented a crime from happening, or when you were causing one, so the best thing was to do 'as little as possible' and visibly, there is a wound in Gittes' past, as he tried to help a girl, who was finally 'hurt', an obvious euphemism.
"Chinatown" resonates as a resurgence of Gittes' past, with another woman he wants to protect, and the tragic irony is that we get the meaning when it's too late. And this is where I'm glad the movie was made during the 70's when directors were allowed to shock you with a dark ending. Polanski rightfully insisted that the movie needed to end tragically to be memorable and meaningful, he who lost Sharon Tate, in a savage massacre in that very town of Los Angeles. And the fact that Cross doesn't get his comeuppance makes him even more a creepier villain. The tragic ending was foreshadowed by many details that look even more symbolic after several viewings, Evelyn's strange spot in her eye, the moment where her falls on the horn, so we're prepared when he hear the sound again. It's those little details that make the difference.
The movie ends brutally, but thanks to the perfection of Towne's script, Polanki's masterful direction and final personal touch, and a top-notch acting based on Nicholson-Dunaway-Huston triangular force, we understand the significance of "Chinatown", and sure after such an event, Gittes' would probably become more cynical and more apathetic, but will he really forget another Chinatown? We sure won't ...
