Chinatown is the essence of a neo-noir film, it captures everything a noir film would encompass, just in a different era. By 1974, the year in which Roman Polanski’s Chinatown was released, the era of film noir had long passed. The film is sure to make the relation obvious to past films, including Evelyn Mulwray’s double - Ida Sessions to parallel Miss Wonderly in The Maltese Falcon (1941). In further contrast, Jake may be financially more stable than Sam Spade, but he is not quite so capable at protecting the vulnerable and uncovering the guilty. Chinatown is corrupted from any angle, the streets we see in the film are dark and treacherous, a perfect depiction of film noir. Chinatown is an unblemished example of the lasting effect of the era’s …show more content…
movies and historical impact. The film shows its noir side with (false) femme fatale, film style, and narrative style. Through Evelyn Mulwray’s depiction as a broken character, who manifests as the representation of women in film, the effects of the patriarchal aspects of classical Hollywood are depicted. The overall low lighting that gives the film its noir feel is imperative to its success. Further the narrative style and elements that define the work are crucial to the film’s being noir, as they advance the storyline based on predisposed ideas of movie type. Initially, Evelyn Mulwray does not strike one as the typical female lead in a noir film. This is simply a result of her adeptness of hiding it. Evelyn weaves a perfect lie that is only broken at the end of the movie when she gets shown who’s boss by JJ Gittes. She takes the position of a damsel in distress who is really too smart for anyone to guess the truth. She acts as though she is inept in every way possible, while in reality she is taking care of life and her lies. The classic femme fatale is exemplified here, she is every bit the perfect false femme. Evelyn uses sex to place JJ in her corner right where she wants him, once he’s there she tells him everything she wants him to hear and he believes it. All femme fatale women are helpless and always crying, in response to this, Gittes slaps Mulwray across the face and this snaps her out of it. She is the perfect lie in action. Evelyn Mulwray is the textbook femme fatale in the film as she experiences and represents all that female characters do in throughout the film. The filmmaking styles utilized in this film are that of rain-slicked streets, dark rooms with Venetian blinds, and dark and light contrasts.
Film noir is all about the contrasts and dark lighting that can make a movie mysterious. Because of this, Polanski made his film (though out of character in color rather than black & white) more of a tone based noir rather than a classical stylistically noir film. Throughout Chinatown, there are gloomy scenes, which create an air of suspense. The viewer sees the whole story through Gites, who is a hard-nosed detective in the 1930’s in LA. He gets caught up in the whole ordeal through an investigation of adultery which turns out to be trickery, in reality the man was never with “Mrs. Mulwray” to begin with, the woman who came in was a fake. After this scene, the movie moves to the home of the Mulwrays which is detailed with Venetian blinds, and dark rooms. The rain that comes at the end of the movie helps lead the movie to its finish. The rain comes right when all of the truth is coming out and the loose ends are finally tied. Along with the fact that the water drought is somewhat helped and the advancement of the plot, the rain is a technique that is reminiscent of the noir style. This is a classic noir technique which creates the suspense that leads the film to its surprise finish. The corruption and complication that is prominent in noir films is shown through lighting, details in the set, and rain-slicked
streets. Chinatown presupposes the viewer’s knowledge of noir styles in order to confuse them and lead them down the wrong paths plenty of times. These false leads allow Chinatown to reject the treatment of independent women in film. When JJ meets the real Evelyn, and not her fake, Gittes falls into the web of corruption that encompasses noir, he also begins to fall for Evelyn, which starts us on the path to a noir style film. Directly after JJ and Evelyn’s sex scene he follows her to her stash house (1:29:44), which highlights the difference between Evelyn’s two halves, her victim side and her femme fatale false. A major factor in a noir film is the anti-hero, which is our very own JJ Gittes. His dialog is lies and accusations, he is prideful, insightful and mixes evidence together flawlessly. He takes things personally, and once Polanski(the brute and director) cuts through his left nostril, the film takes a whole turn. He is no longer investigating for someone else, he is now investigating for himself. Because JJ was duped by not Evelyn Mulwray at the start of the film, the entire sequence is about his redemption. All of these classic narrative elements to a noir film contribute to the prowess that is Chinatown. Chinatown’s noir style and narrative theme are reminiscent of the times when noir was just an era. Its stylistic elements, narrative, and femme fatale make it a prime example of what a noir film should look like in the now neo-noir era. The film is a great way to talk about the drought in Los Angeles with historical reference while keeping with the times. The farmers in the valley wanted their water, and the LA officials were out for necks to get it instead, because of this there has been a rift ever since. Because of their power, Eaton and Mulholland found that they could manipulate anyone, and believed in their right to anything. They, therefore, placed their needs and personal interests above the needs of the city and valley. The importance of the film in historical context comes into play because a second aqueduct was instituted in the 1970s, which caused another large rift in the relationships of the valley and the city. Further placing us in an environmental issue and huge wars between towns. Because of this context, Chinatown embodied the time both in the 30s and in the 70s to relate to the public in a commentary on political and economic happenings therefore adding to the noir style and narrative choices. Chinatown is perhaps the best example of a noir film in the modern era, fully encompassing the style and narrative needed to create a successful neo-noir film.
Film Noir, as Paul Schrader integrates in his essay ‘Notes on Film Noir,’ reflects a marked phase in the history of films denoting a peculiar style observed during that period. More specifically, Film Noir is defined by intricate qualities like tone and mood, rather than generic compositions, settings and presentation. Just as ‘genre’ categorizes films on the basis of common occurrences of iconographic elements in a certain way, ‘style’ acts as the paradox that exemplifies the generality and singularity at the same time, in Film Noir, through the notion of morality. In other words, Film Noir is a genre that exquisitely entwines theme and style, and henceforth sheds light on individual difference in perception of a common phenomenon. Pertaining
New Jack City, noted as ‘the crime film of the 90’s’,serves as an important episode for African-American people in America. Set in New York city, the film depicts the story of a success-driven antagonist Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) who builds an empire powered by organized crime, drug trafficking, and Black delinquent young adults trapped in the cycle of crime. Ronald Reagan’s economic policy coupled with the popularity of crack-cocaine in the inner city creates inconsistencies and untapped markets in the poor community which Nino Brown brilliantly capitalizes on and exploits. His empire is able to successfully cut out the middle men in the drug trafficking market and centralize their operation in a single low-income housing complex inhabited
While there are many different ways to classify a Neo-noir film, Roman Polanski’s, Chinatown captures many. The 1974 movie consists of many of these elements, including both thematic and stylistic devices. One of the main themes of neo-noir film that is constant throughout the film is the deceptive plot that questions the viewers’ ideas and perceptions of what is actually happening in the film. Every scene of Chinatown leads to a twist or another turn that challenges the practicability of the film’s reality. All of the never-ending surprises and revelations lead up to the significant themes the movie is trying to convey in the conclusion of the film.
The classic gangster film focusing on a host of norms defined by some of the first gangster films. This genre originated as an escapism from the negative depression era. People would flock to see the gangsters go from rags to riches with their glitzy lifestyle and beautiful women. As Shadoian puts it, “The gangster’s fizzy spirits, classy lifestyle, and amoral daring were something like Alka-Seltzer for the headaches of the depression” (Shadoin 29). Not all this came easily for the gangsters though, bloodshed is defined as a part of business with guns a constant motif. Despite these negative outcomes, it’s easy to see how this genre was such a great elusion from the everyday where the American Dream seemed like it might not even exist anymore.
Janey Place and Lowell Peterson article “Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir” establishes noir as a visual style and not a ...
Did everyone has taken a moment to imagine which neighborhood that you like to live? The Chinatown neighborhood of Chicago is one of the historic neighborhoods. According to Harry Kiang’s Chicago’s Chinatown, “In 1890, 25 percent of the city's 600 Chinese lived along Clark between Van Buren and Harrison Streets, in an area called the Loop’s Chinatown. After 1910 Chinese from the Loop moved to a new area near Cermak Road and Wentworth Avenue, mainly for cheaper rent” (Encyclopedia of Chicago). The Chicago has two Chinatowns at the Southern part of the Chicago. Thus we can know that the old Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood is called the Loop’s Chinatown and located at Clark between Van Buren and Harrison Streets; the new Chicago’s Chinatown located
In film, many times the auteur often uses the medium to convey a moral or make a social commentary. In the case of Howard Hawkes’s original version of Scarface, there is more being portrayed through the characters then merely the story. Hawkes makes a statement about the façade of organized crime, and the farce of the American Dream.
Like most things captured on film for the purpose of being marketed, the richness of gangster life, with sex, money, and power in surplus, is glorified, and thus embraced by the audience. And as a rule, if something works Hollywood repeats it, ala a genre. What Scarface and Little Caesar did was ultimately create a genre assigning powerful qualities to criminals. Such sensationalism started with the newspapers who maybe added a little more color here and there to sell a few more copies, which is portrayed in Scarface’s two newspaper office scenes. Leo Braudy denounces genres as offending “our most common definition of artistic excellence” by simply following a predetermined equation of repetition of character and plot. However, Thomas Schatz argues that many variations of plot can exist within the “arena” that the rules of the genre provide.
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
Adapted from the novella written by James M. Cain, Double Indemnity is a melodramatic film noir that highlights the conflict its characters face through adultery and murder which develops from the dissatisfaction and alienation that arose in the era of modernity as shown in most noir films. Unlike most noir films, Double Indemnity set the bar in terms of structural themes to follow and elements that eventually came to be considered essential in the noir genre. The film was seen to be a full embodiment of what the genre should be. Double Indemnity is an archetypal noir film, which portrays noir elements through its style, the characters, its writers’ backstory and the history of Los Angeles, the city in which it is set. This essay will examine how Los Angeles is integrated not only into the location but also into the storyline of the characters and their motivations but also the filmmakers’ lives. It does this through characteristic noir motifs like “the urban cultural landscape, the lack of rootedness of the characters, and the self-deceptions that center their world” (p. 437) affect the protagonists in the film. Double Indemnity’s use of Los Angeles as its primary location exposes the innate decadence and decay of the city through film noir stylistic elements. Billy Wilder directed Double Indemnity and the film became the archetypal noir film because it embodied all the characteristics of a typical noir film, which include “claustrophobia, paranoia, despair and nihilism” (Place and Peterson, p. 327) course kit source. Los Angeles, the city used primarily as the location in the film becomes not merely a backdrop but a character in the film through its physical and implied characteristics. The context through the stories of Wild...
The film stays in line with classic noir in many ways. The usage of dark sets and high contrast lighting, which creates heavy shadows on the actors faces, makes the movie feel like it all happens at night and in dark alley ways. The story focuses on the inhumane parts of human nature. Each of the main characters experiences some kind of tragedy. For Vargas his tragedy was in dealing with Quinlin who has set out to frame him and his wife. For Quinlin his entire life represented a man consumed with darkness who lives his life with a “Touch of Evil.” Menzies was a hopeful man who looked up to Quinlin but was let down. For the viewer, film noir represents truth, even if it is not a truth that all people would like to hear.
The director Antoine Fuqua vision for this film was to bring that intense love-hate relationship onto the big screen and showcase it for the world to see. To ensure a convincing film setting, Fuqua shot on location in some of the most hardcore neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Fuqua also wanted to show the daily struggles of officers tasked to work in the rougher neighborhoods of cities and how easy it can be to get caught up in a street life filled with killers and drug dealers. Overall the film displayed the city of Los Angeles in a different perspective. One which m...
In the media, prisons have always been depicted as a horrible place. The film, The Shawshank Redemption, is a prime example that supports the media 's suggestions about prison life. In the film we are familiarized with Andy Dufresne, who is a banker that is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. While trying to both remain discreet and find his prison identity, he assists Ellis Boyd 'Red ' Redding, a peddler, and Brooks Hatlen. In his attempt to fit into the rough prison subculture, Andy strategically starts a business relationship with the captain Captain Bryon Hadley and Samuel Norton. The film gives an insider 's look at various aspects of prison life. These aspects include prison culture; explicitly, guard subculture and inmate subculture.
The 1974 film Chinatown directed by Roman Polanski was a drama and mystery movie. Jake Gittes, a private divorce investigator, meets a woman who pretends to be Evelyn Mulwray, the wife of Hollis Mulwray. Hollis Mulwray was the chief engineer of the Los Angeles water company. The woman asks Jake to investigate her “husband” for his disloyalty to the marriage. Jake’s quest of the case slowly uncovers a huge scheme against a water company and management, land, real estate, and dishonesty through the city, as well as murder and deception.
The Godfather is most notably one of the most prolific films of its time. This "gangster" film displayed many transformations of permeating color to give the viewer observable cues in its mise en scene that drew one right into the movie. The dramatic acting set the tone of the film with a score that lifted the viewer right out of their seat in many scenes. The directing and cinematography made The Godfather ahead of its time. The nostalgic feel of family importance and the danger of revenge lets us into the life of the Mafia. Even though no other techniques would have given the viewer a feeling of inside the mob like the mise en scene of the power the godfather held, the characters are reinforced literally and figuratively because the story views the Mafia from the inside out, and the cinematography of the film gives it a dangerous and nostalgic feel.