Chinatown is a 1974 film directed by Roman Polanski featuring many elements of the film noir genre, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama. The movie is highly regarded and won several high-profile awards, including an Academy Award in 1975 for Best Writing and Original Screenplay for Robert Towne.
Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston and also features a brief cameo appearance by its director, Roman Polanski.
Chinatown is consistently listed in the top 50 on the Internet Movie Database's top 250 films and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
A sequel, called The Two Jakes, was released in 1990. Jack Nicholson directed and starred in it. The screenplay was also written by Robert Towne.
Plot Description
A Los Angeles detective named Jake ''J.J'' Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by a woman claiming to be Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray to spy on her husband. When Gittes''s photographs of Mr. Mulwray, revealing an apparent affair, are published in the papers, another Mrs. Mulwray, the real one, appears and threats to sue if Gittes doesn''t drop the case immediately. Gittes pursues the case nevertheless, slowly uncovering a vast conspiracy around water management, state and municipal corruption, land use and real estate, and involving at least one murder, further complicated by the tangled emotional relationships between the primary characters in the film.
The plot is based in part on real events that formed the California Water Wars, in which William Mulholland acted on behalf of Los Angeles interests to secure water rights in the Owens Valley. [top]
Awards
Academy Award, Best Writing, Original Screenplay
BAFTA, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Direction, Best Screenplay(male)
Golden Globes, Best Director (Motion Picture), Best Motion Picture (Drama), Best Motion Picture Actor (Drama), Best Screenplay
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