Andover Film Club

Chinatown

Monday 4th October,  Reel Cinema, Andover 
Start time: 7:45

Release: 1974 (Cert 15)

Directors: Roman Polanski

A cracking good film comes to Andover!  On Monday 4th October Andover Film Club presents Chinatown – starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.  Nicholson plays a private detective set in 1930's Los Angeles.  This Oscar-winning film was directed by Roman Polanski who cleverly intertwines, nuder, mystery, romance and intrigue with a film-noir atmosphere.  If you enjoy a good film come along,, you're in for a reel treat.

It will be shown at The Reel cinema, starting at 7:45 with complementary glasses of wine & fruit juice for the public.

Introduction Given On The Night, By Mark Grainger

All of the key people involved are multi-talented with credits to their name for producing, directing and acting.
Chinatown was scripted by Robert Towne, who won an Oscar for Best Writing & Best Original Screen Play. He is still one of the most sought after writers in Hollywood. He takes such pride in his work, that after he’d seen Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes in 1984 he insisted that they change the credit for screenwriter to the name of his pet dog at the time. Having seen the film myself, I don’t know what he had against the dog.

Roman Polanski needs no introduction, as one of the most successful directors in the film world today. As well as The Ghost (2010) – our film for July two of his better known films were The Pianist (2002) for which he got an Oscar for Best Director and Tess (1979) which won several awards. Perhaps best known for his troubled private life, including the murder of his wife in 1969 by the infamous Manson gang, he takes a very pragmatic view of film making. Like Hitchcock he often appears in his own films and in Chinatown plays the part of the man with the knife. Like Towne & Nicholson as well as directing, he has credits for writing and acting, in addition to various other roles within the film industry.

Faye Dunnaway also needs no introduction having literally shot her way to stardom in 1967 with Bonnie and Clyde. Since then she has had over 100 film and TV credits to her name, although more recently she has tended to concentrate on her TV career. After making Chinatown she also appeared with Jack Nicholson in The Two Jakes its less popular sequel made in 1990.

Jack Nicholson is as well known for his antics off-screen, as those on it, he has won 3 Oscars as well as numerous nominations and other awards. He is brilliant as a comic actor as when he played the Joker in Batman and as McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In Chinatown he plays a more serious part, but the film has its comic moments.
Now about the film itself. On the face of it Chinatown is a straightforward “gumshoe” tale set in the 1930’s – classically a B movie for the 1950’s audience. If you want to view it as such sit back, relax and enjoy it. It is, however, a multi-layered film with more than one message behind it. Yes there are the usual twists and turns of a good who-dun-it, with more than one surprise on the way. There are also the “good guys” and “bad guys”, so feel free to hiss and cheer at the appropriate points if the mood so takes you. There is some violence, but by modern standards you’ll hardly notice it, and it’s certainly not gratuitous to the plot. There is romance, but it doesn’t detract from the tension of the story line.

It is a story – the core of which is based on factual events at the time - about big business in 1930’s West Coast USA, that is as relevant today as it was in 1930’s. Globally the message is even more relevant. Daily people are dying in large numbers, because they do not have access to clean water. Countries are going to war with each other over availability of water. In West Coast USA today water conservation is a major concern.

The sequel to Chinatown is about the Oil Industry and it’s constant chase for profit. Whilst it may be a poorer film technically, put it’s message into the context of the Macondo Rig, Deepwater Horizon & the Gulf of Mexico, and it’s bang on the nail.

Perhaps Chinatown and all of its fellows is really asking us about the human psyche. What is it about mankind that drives us so rapidly towards our own self destruction ? I don’t have the answer. Lets forget the question till after the film.