Chinatown Film Noir

The genre film noir has some classical elements that make these films easily identifiable. These elements are displayed in the prototypical film noir, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity. These elements include being filmed in black and white, a morally ambiguous protagonist, and a prominent darkness. However, the most striking part of a film noir is the femme fatale, a woman who craves independence through sexual and economic liberation. In his film, Chinatown, Roman Polanski uses many of the classic elements of a film noir, however he twists many of them to reflect the time period. This is particularly evident in his depiction of his “femme fatale,” Evelyn Mulwray.
Polanski’s depiction of his femme fatale differs from Wilder’s femme fatale, Phyllis Dietrichson, in

one major way. Polanski uses the personality traits of a femme fatale in a different context.

This differs from the classic femme fatale displayed in Double Indemnity. Mrs. Dietrichson strives to gain independence and sexual liberation from her current domesticated lifestyle. She achieves this by using another man, in this case Walter Neff, as an accomplice in murdering her husband. However, in the end, her plans go astray and instead of gaining independence, she ends up killed. Polanski, however, chose to portray the aspects of the classic femme fatale in a different type of woman. He chose Mrs. Mulwray, who in the beginning seems ominous and mysterious, but turns out to be a victim who only turns to these traits to deal with her situation. Instead of using a man to kill to achieve independence, Mrs. Mulwray uses a man to try to help her physically escape from her current life. However, while Evelyn Mulwray does not kill someone else to achieve personal independence, she does have many similar features to Phyllis Dietrichson, the classic femme fatale. Mrs. Dietrichson is portrayed to be an innocent seeming woman who, in the first encounter between her and Neff, is During the first part of the film, Mrs. Mulwray is shown with a slight shadow over one half of the face and does not

give straight answers to any question, specifically about her husband. These factors combine to give a creepy feeling to the audience and give the impression that she is a true femme fatale. Additionally, these are masked under a façade of kindness, for example, the first true meeting between Mrs. Mulwray and Gittes. After Gittes has written an article about her husband’s affair without “her” consent, she still offers him a beverage and invites him into her home. However, while both Mrs. Dietrichson and Mrs. Mulwray begin with this façade of innocence masking a sense of evil, their characters diverge in their response to the knowledge of the leading male protagonist. While Mrs. Dietrichson begins to show her true colors as a scheming sociopath, Mrs. Mulwray begins to show more vulnerability. This vulnerability is particularly shown when she has her big confrontation with Gittes and Mrs. Mulwray reveals that her father raped and conceived a child with her. This scene shows her transformation from an ominous character to a vulnerable character. This is not only portrayed by her words, but by the scene itself. As the information becomes clearer to Gittes, Mrs. Mulwray’s face eventually becomes more illuminated from the lantern. Her mask has been removed and her true vulnerability to shown. Her characteristics of a femme fatale have been caused by her circumstances.
The femme fatale is a vital aspect of the film noir genre. While Billy Wilder’s film Double Indemnity portrays every aspect of a femme fatale by the book, Polanski decides to use the characteristics of a femme fatale and put this in a victimized woman in Evelyn Mulwray.