Chinatown

Journal:

It is fascinating that everything in the movie is about Chinatown, and not about it at the same time. On the one hand, there is no important plot relevant to the location of Chinatown, even at the end, Evelyn was shot in the literal Chinatown. After seeing the title of the film, I imagined the film as a detective story happening in the Chinatown. It turned out surprisingly that there was never direct plot that depended on the location to develop in the movie. However, if we focus on the details, we see that everything in the film is connected to the concept of Chinatown. To try to conclude what Chinatown signifies in the film, I found it is all but not limited to following: Jake mysterious but undoubtedly traumatizing past; Jake’s lacking of trust for anyone; Jake’s irreconcilable relationship with his co-worker when they were both in Chinatown; Evelyn’s marriage life with Mr. Mulwray (seeing from her relationship with her Chinese servants); the “hopeful” ending Jake planned for Evelyn and her daughter. Also, it represents the negative attitude of “Forget it, it’s Chinatown” as the bleak ending suggests. Regarding the technical details, I enjoyed some of the shot sequences, as well as the music in the film. For example, when Jake was stalking Mr. Mulwray and his girlfriend in the park, and as he pretends to use his camera to take a picture for his partner, we see the change of the focus depth of the scene. The change directly presents us the subjective perspective of Jake, so that we became able to see and “stalk” from the private investigator’s view. At that moment, we, the audience, became the voyeur, observing up close the characters. One other example is about the camera movement and the framing when Jake follows Evelyn and monitors her to meet her daughter. We see Evelyn behind the windows, and Jake is outside of the window, closer to us. It again provides us with Jake’s point of view, and Evelyn as the observed female character. It is not uncommon that female characters are portrayed as mysterious and under the observation of the male gaze. However, as the story unfolds, Jake and we learned more about Evelyn’s miserable life. As for the music, the soundtrack gives off a feeling of grandeur. The notes are so beautiful and splendorous that it almost creates a sense of disconnection between the what we see and the music. The music composition distracted me from some of the seemly random but disturbing violent scenes.

class notes:

The texture of the reality from the power of the acting

Script:

• ending is bleak, or optimistic:
• the original script was in the first person narrative
• The European detective story: the justice restoring order fable — Marlowe
• the American story:

Faye == Femme Fatale: macho-fear women “I dont trust you”: How many times we see everything through Jake’s scene Oedipus eye allusion Oedipus Rex: the worst possible crime for human beings His own life is the riddle Oedipus is the first detective story Eliminated the first person: it is a post thought (reminiscential) —— no voiceover what we are seeing is subjective, and there are most layers The allusion of the movie goes back to not only American detective stories, but also the beginning of the Western civilization The shots of eyes We experience the entire movie from his eyes The movie’s music invoked the Film Noir Femme Fatale: male’s fear for the woman; gender prejudice and misogyny The men’s crime is caused by his mother The coherence of the film Nicholson breaks the detective stereotype:

1. Not serious: oblivious
2. Lacking the human sympathy
3. Reckless

The perspective of the detective and the story The detective story emerges in 19th century, and urbanization: the story with the city The world maybe dangerous, but the story reassures it —— too simplified

The beginning: double nostalgia; aware of its origin, but different Chinatown: When Jake told her in bed that “he has tried to keep people out of danger, but made the situation worse ” ——repeated again in the film The irrationality of the “Chinatown’’ is beyond comprehension. The detective cannot see through it. We won’t believe at the very end that the detective would fail Male fantasy Power, injustice, The World is more chaotic from the beginning