Pushing the Boundaries: Chinatown (1974) 4K Restoration – 50th Anniversary
Director: Roman Polanski Run Time: 131 min. Rating: R Release Year: 1974
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicholson, John Hillerman, John Huston, Perry Lopez
Country: United States
Language: English
The 1970s: Pushing the Boundaries
A Film Center retrospective on the most groundbreaking films to come out of the 1970s.
See more Pushing the BoundariesAbout the film:
In 1937 Los Angeles, private detective J. J. “Jake” Gittes, who specializes in adultery cases, is hired by the well-dressed Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray to follow her husband Hollis, chief engineer for the Department of Water and Power. Jake later sits in on a city council meeting, where Mayor Bagby offers his support for a new dam that will guarantee an adequate water supply for the city.
“Chinatown reminds you again—and thrillingly—that motion pictures are larger, not smaller than life. They are, at their best, events calculated to transport us out of ourselves, as Chinatown does.”
-Charles Champlin, The Los Angeles Times
After Hollis emotionally speaks out condemning the project as unsafe, Jake follows him as he inspects the dry Los Angeles riverbed under the Hollenbeck Bridge, then goes out to Point Fermin, where thousands of gallons of water rush through a drainage pipe out into the sea that night. A few days later, Jake and his associate, Duffy, photographs Hollis rowing a pretty young blonde woman around Echo Park Lake. Jake then follows the couple to the El Macondo courtyard apartments, where he secretly takes pictures of the girl embracing Hollis. The next day, one of Jake’s photographs is printed on the front page of the newspaper, accompanied by a story about Hollis’ “love nest.”
About the filmmaker:
Roman Polanski is a French born Director, Producer, Writer, and Actor who has paved his way as an acclaimed international filmmaker. Polanski’s first feature film Knife In The Water (1962) was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He is best known for directing Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Pianist (2002), and The Ghost Writer (2010) to name a few. Chinatown (1974) earned 11 Academy Award nominations in 1975, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
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