Chinatown (film)

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Movie
German title Chinatown
Original title Chinatown
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1974
length 131 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Roman Polanski
script Robert Towne
production Robert Evans
music Jerry Goldsmith
camera John A. Alonzo
cut Sam O'Steen
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
The Trail Leads Back - The Two Jakes

Chinatown is an American crime film directed by Roman Polański from 1974 . It was awarded the Oscar for the best original screenplay and is, according to Polański in the 1970s, “a traditional detective story in a new, modern form”.

action

In Los Angeles in 1937 there is a long drought. Former police officer Jake Gittes owns a thriving detective agency with three employees. After an investigation into adultery is concluded, a high society lady walks into his office who introduces herself as Mrs. Mulwray and assigns him to monitor her husband, Hollis Mulwray, to prove that he is having an affair. Gittes only reluctantly accepts the case. In the following days he shadowed Mulwray, the chief engineer of the waterworks. But he seems to be much more interested in canals and rivers than other women. He spends a whole night alone by the sea. When Gittes caught him with a young girl after a few days, he took photos of the two, which he gave to his client. Shortly afterwards, an article about the alleged affair appears on the front page of the local newspaper.

Evelyn Mulwray then shows up in Gittes' office, who introduces herself as the true wife of Hollis Mulwray. She tells him briefly that she will sue him and disappears again. Gittes wants to contact Mr. Mulwray directly, but he cannot be found in his office or at home. There he again meets Evelyn Mulwray, who drops her lawsuit for no specific reason. A short time later, Hollis Mulwray's body is found in one of the canals. Apparently he had tracked down a fraud by the waterworks. Although salt water was found in Mulwray's body , the police cite drowning in the Los Angeles River as the cause of death .

Gittes wants to investigate the matter and first realizes that the river has almost completely dried up and the waterworks discharge large amounts of water into the sea at night. When he examines one of these canals, two gangsters find him and one of them slits his left nostril as a warning, which is why he has to wear a bandage on his face for a while. Eventually Evelyn Mulwray hires him to investigate the death of her husband. His investigations show that, within a short period of time, a number of sales contracts were concluded for large estates and that the surrounding area is being systematically dried up. During a chase, he escapes with the help of Evelyn Mulwray. A romance develops between the two, but she doesn't tell him the truth. His distrust grows, so that he suspects her as the murderer of her husband.

Evelyn Mulwray's father, the powerful and rich Noah Cross, whom she fears for incomprehensible reasons, gives Gittes the job of tracking down the deceased's missing young companion. Gittes also accepts this job without canceling Evelyn Mulwray's, to solve the death of her husband. He uncovered a plot centered around Noah Cross, Mulwray's former business partner. Cross, who previously owned the waterworks together with Mulwray, has precious drinking water channeled into the sea at various points in order to systematically dry out the surrounding area and thus induce the landowners to sell desperately below value. The land first went to unsuspecting straw men, only to later come into the possession of Cross and his accomplices. After the construction of a dam, which was also promoted by Cross (but rejected by Mulwray), the financing of which is made possible politically from public funds through the artificial water shortage, and the possible re-irrigation of the dried up land, its value increases again, and it could now be with great speculative profit to be resold. Mulwray discovered these connections and was therefore murdered by Noah Cross.

On the other hand, the girl who Gittes had photographed with Mulwrays was Mrs. Mulwrays daughter, whom she had from her own father when she was fifteen - she was raped by him. Gittes wants to help Mrs. Mulwray and her daughter escape to Mexico . Before that, he confronts Noah Cross with the results of his investigation. Gittes had found two-strength glasses with a broken glass in the garden pond at Mulwray's property and initially thought they were Mulwray's glasses, but Evelyn told him her husband had not worn dual-strength glasses. Noah Cross blatantly admits Hollis Mulwray's murder. When Gittes asks him why he, a very rich man, committed these crimes in order to get even richer, Cross replies that the future appeals to him. Then he has Gittes captured by his bodyguard and forces Gittes to take him to Cross' daughter and granddaughter. Due to an unfortunate chain of circumstances, Mrs. Mulwray is shot while fleeing by police officers in her car after she shot her father, but only slightly injured his arm. Your secret daughter experiences the whole thing as a passenger in the car and is traumatized by her father / grandfather hugged and taken away.

The investigating police officer Escobar lets Gittes, whom he believes to be an accomplice of the alleged murderer Mrs. Mulwray, and his staff run. Gitte's 'Notice of Cross' crime goes unheard.

background

Chinatown is considered a successful modern film noir . The screenwriter Robert Towne and director Polański were able to realistically continue the classic role of the private eye in the tradition of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler . The framework plot of this story about sex , crime and politics goes back to events that actually happened in the first decades of the 20th century in connection with the so-called California Water Wars and the rupture of the St. Francis Dam . The Californian hydraulic engineer William Mulholland is considered the model for the figure of Hollis Mulwray. Jack Nicholson , Robert Towne and producer Robert Evans have processed these events with the drama within the family and the typical film noir atmosphere of suspicion and dodgy morals. Towne's script is often cited as a prime example of the successful development of a film plot. The script received an Oscar in 1975 and other awards. Towne had planned a happy ending for the film, however . The tragic end was achieved by Polański, who was later convinced that it was only this finale that made the film a classic.

synchronization

The German synchronization was commissioned by the Berliner Synchron , after a dialogue book and the dialogue director of Ottokar Runze .

role actor Voice actor
JJ "Jake" Gittes Jack Nicholson Hansjörg Felmy
Evelyn Cross Mulwray Faye Dunaway Judy Winter
Noah Cross John Huston Arnold Marquis
Escobar Perry Lopez Joachim Kemmer
Russ Yelburton John Hillerman Rolf Schult
Hollis I. Mulwray Darrell dwarf Wilhelm Borchert
Ida sessions Diane Ladd Edith Schneider
Claude Mulvihill Roy Jenson Hans Schwarz
Curly Burt Young Michael Chevalier
Man with knife Roman Polanski Wolfgang Draeger
Duffy Bruce Glover Klaus Sunshine
Walsh Joe Mantell Peter Schiff
Evelyn's butler James Hong Klaus Jepsen

analysis

The femme fatale as a bad good girl

Faye Dunaway's role as Evelyn Mulwray, like that of the private eye (private detective) Jake Gittes, follows the tradition of film noir . She is the ominous lady with a mission that becomes more and more mysterious as the story progresses and cannot be assessed. Although cultivated as a character, she changes her face again and again in the film. In between, she turns out to be a veritable “gangster bride” when she routinely escapes some shooting pursuers with Gittes, who is standing on the step of her car. In the end, she even dies from gunshots in the car and has a similar ending to Bonnie Parker , who she played a few years earlier in the film Bonnie and Clyde , in whose script Robert Towne was involved.

In the iconography of film noir , the role of Mrs. Mulwray initially appears as a classic femme fatale in terms of appearance and her effect on Gittes , but in the course of history she turns out to be another type of woman in the film noir movement: the bad good girl . Her actions are ultimately guided by a desire to protect her daughter; so their lies to Gittes and others are serving a good cause.

Symbolism of the title

The title of the film ostensibly refers to the real district of Chinatown in Los Angeles, in which the film ends. Above all, however, the term appears again and again as a cipher throughout the film, on the one hand for the ominous past of Gittes, who has already lost a woman in Chinatown, on the other hand as a threat to the future of Jake and Evelyn, as a reference to an unjust, symbolic one Place where the neighborhood actually turns out to be at the end of the film. This closes the circle for Gittes. It is interesting that the Chinese in the film are by no means involved in the corrupt machinations, but rather act as helpers of Mrs. Mulwray. The place Chinatown serves in the film as a symbol for fate. In this context, the motto of doing as little as possible in relation to the quarter and thus surrendering to one's fate would make sense, insofar as any action would be pointless in view of the inevitable blows of fate.

reception

Reviews

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
Metacritic
critic
audience
IMDb

The film received almost exclusively positive reviews and achieved a rating of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 68 reviews and 93% from the audience with around 77,000 votes. At Metacritic , a Metascore of 92, based on 22 reviews, could be achieved. At IMDb , the film received 8.2 out of a possible 10 stars with around 271,000 votes. (As of October 16, 2019)

Prisma Online says: “In the style of Raymond Chandler (even if Gittes is not Marlowe) narrated film noir that demands the highest concentration. The brilliant directorial work, the fantastic camera, the excellent music by Jerry Goldsmith and the great actors ensure optimal entertainment. "

The well-known American film critic Leonard Maltin gave Chinatown 4 out of 4 stars.

The lexicon of international films judges: “Oriented towards Raymond Chandler's detective novels, in style and reality-related representation, however, a discussion of American reality, not only of the 1930s, goes far beyond that. At the same time, an insight into the psychological state of mind of a thoroughly ailing society. "

The American film critic Roger Ebert praised the film, gave it four out of four stars and included it in his list of great movies.

Awards

Trivia

  • Chinatown was Polański's last film made in the United States .
  • Polański himself plays the ice-cold crook in a cameo who slits Jake Gittes's nostril.
  • A tribute to Chinatown is seen in the 2011 animated film Rango .
  • The film grossed around $ 29.2 million in US cinemas . In Germany there were around 2.3 million viewers in the cinema.
  • The film premiered on June 20, 1974 in the United States. In the Federal Republic of Germany the film was released on December 19, 1974, in the GDR on November 26, 1976.

continuation

A trilogy was actually planned . Two more films were to follow, set in the 1940s and 1950s, which should illuminate the city of Los Angeles during this time. A sequel called The Trace Leads Back - The Two Jakes , directed by Jack Nicholson and with the collaboration of Robert Towne and Robert Evans, could not build on the success of Chinatown in 1990, either artistically or commercially . For this reason, too, there has not (so far) been a further part.

literature

  • Angelo Errigo: Chinatown (1974). In: Steven Jay Schneider (Ed.): 1001 films. Edition Olms, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-283-00497-8 , p. 588

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Roloff / Seeßlen: Mord im Kino, Reinbek 1981, p. 245 ff.
  2. ^ Paul Werner: Film noir and neo-noir . Munich 2000, p. 166 .
  3. ↑ a b c Norbert Grob: Been in the cinema… St. Augustin 2003, p. 153ff.
  4. ^ Roman Polanski: Roman Polanski: Autobiography. Bern u. a. 1984
  5. ↑ Chinatown in the German synchronous index , accessed on August 21, 2019.
  6. ↑ To distinguish between femme fatale and bad good girl, cf. Paul Werner: Film Noir and Neo-Noir. Munich 2000, p. 143
  7. ↑ a b c Chinatown at Rotten Tomatoes (English), accessed October 16, 2019
  8. ↑ a b c Chinatown at Metacritic , accessed on October 16, 2019
  9. ↑ a b Chinatown in the Internet Movie Database (English) retrieved on October 16, 2019
  10. ^ Film review on Prisma Online. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  11. ↑ Chinatown. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  12. ^ Film review by Roger Ebert. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  13. ↑ Writers Guilds Announce 101 Greatest Screenplays ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , April 7, 2006  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wga.org
  14. ^ WGA (West): The 101 List
  15. ↑ Kevin Rederick: 'Rango' as watery homage to 'Chinatown'. In: LA Observed. March 7, 2011, accessed June 25, 2012 .
  16. ^ Jörg Taszman: "Rango". Funny animated film shows a chameleon in the wild west. In: Deutschlandradio Kultur . Deutschlandradio , March 2, 2011, accessed on June 25, 2012 .
  17. ↑ Chinatown. Box Office Mojo , accessed October 16, 2019 .
  18. ↑ The most successful films in Germany 1974. In: insidekino.com. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .