Pretty much my first Polanski film... well not really, I saw his rendition of Oliver Twist a few years ago (which I highly recommend if you want a very dark grim version of this classic story). But Polanski or not, I had been meaning to watch Chinatown for quite some time. I love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but it's set at the turn of the century yet the girl has these big 60s false eyelashes! Small things, but they can totally run the timelessness of a film. No such problem with Chinatown, if Jack Nicholson's age wasn't an obvious indicator, it would be very hard to place when this film was made, which is always a good thing. Most of it seemed to have been filmed in that late afternoon early morning light quality giving the movie and all over golden glow which mingles perfectly with the heat and laziness of LA in the 1930s. Nicholson's character, J.J. Gittes (Jake) is a private detective who spies on disloyal spouses who gets tangled up in a twisted plot of deception and murder when the LA water commisioner is found dead. Soon he gets involved with the dead man's wife, and her father, the owner of the water commission.
The end of the movie is not a happy one, it exposes how corrupt the system justice is when there are forces of wealth and power and how hopeless it is for one man to try and change anything. More chilling is the fact that the film is based on historical disputes over water rights in California in the 1920s.
On a more aesthetic note, Faye Dunaway lends an oriental look to the film, in some light it's tricky to judge if she is fact caucasian or asian, and I'm sure she was cast because of this element. She has a very classic "red lips" elegant look, and her beige or black color palate in the costume choices is excellent. There is one scene in near the beginning where she has the most lovely pair of beige riding pants, I tried to find a picture, but the one thing the internet lacks is movie stills!
