The Film “Chinatown” Directed by Polanski

The Film “Chinatown” Directed by Polanski

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The Film “Chinatown” Directed by Polanski

Chinatown was a film produced by Roman Polanski that featured several elements of film noir including sexual innuendos and cynical attitudes. Apart from these features, Chinatown also contained elements of mystery and psychological drama. The storyline and character roles played in the film point towards an argument instead of paying reverence to Chandler’s dignity and knighthood. In the film, the main character, Detective Jake Gittes, is drawn into a web of deceit and double-crossing orchestrated by a group of corrupt individuals bent on using government and regular individuals to realize their objectives. As the film progresses, Gittes discovers that he was set up and engages in several initiatives to try to uncover the truth while looking out for his own safety.

The film came out as a production that sought to quell the argument on production styles, main character perceptions and genres. Although Polanski acknowledged that Thornton Chandler was indisputably gifted and experienced in writing American mystery novels as well as using the main characters perspective throughout the film, he differed on the way his main character presented the film. While Chandler used a simplistic approach that showed everything through the eyes of the start actor, Polanski and Towne preferred to divert and present other scenes of the film from different characters. The struggle on the whether to comply with traditional perspectives seen in Chandler’s earlier works or to adopt flexible and contemporary styles is a significant silent argument that occurs between the two influential contributors.

The backgrounds of the authors and contributors also offer the basis for several arguments. While it is common practice for producers and contributors to include strictly professional input in their works, there was exclusion to this rule when it came to Chinatown. This unprofessional way of making films and realizing completion of storylines came out as an argument on the strictness and conventionality of cinematography and directorship. It was as if Polanski and Greenberg sought to dispute and change the rules of making motion pictures. Polanski’s personal experiences and life issues became drawn into the production of the film including the producer’s experiences with Nazis in Poland, his wife’s death and past sexual lawsuits involving minors. This style of exposing personal experiences to the public is also evident in other productions such as Tess and Macbeth.

The dispute over whether to use authentic historical events or fictional elements as the basis for film storylines is evident between Chandler, Towne and Polanski. The film Chinatown is based on true events surrounding the construction of an aqueduct as well as the past injustices perpetrated against the communities and the land they owned. In essence, this film contained accurate historical references including the names and roles of most of the characters. However, a section of authors including Chandler preferred to base their works on fictional ideas, situations and characters. Fiction has long been a major aspect of detective and mystery stories as it serves to add intrigue and excitement. However, not all authors subscribe to this style of writing. Coming from a difficult background characterized by violence, seclusion from the family as well as constant relocation, Polanski was considerably in touch with reality than most writers in his generation. Therefore, he was hard pressed to use real life situations in opposition to the conventional fictional mystery that is common in most detective novels within the United States.