My sister, my daughter

Rating: 10/10 (14 December 2000)

CHINATOWN (1974)	****
Some films are obligatory for a person serious about cinema. CHINATOWN is one of them. It is the best film Roman Polanski ever directed, and see that is not easy to be better than ROSEMARY'S BABY, REPULSION, THE TENANT and TESS. It is maybe the best mystery film ever made... Yes, tying PSYCHO and VERTIGO... Okay, so it is the best film-noir ever made- and see that is not easy to be better than THE MALTESE FALCON and DOUBLE INDEMNITY. The American Film Institute gave it a glorious place on their list of 100 best films of all time- #19, above the Oscar winner of that year (1975): THE GODFATHER- PART II. That's really fair, at least. CHINATOWN is superbly directed, amazingly acted and perfectly written- in resume, flawlessly made.
Presented by Roman Polanski himself as a homage to the film-noir, CHINATOWN is admirable in every scene. The story is so clever, so intelligent, so complex, so carefully built that you can't say you would take something or complain that a thing should have been done this way or that... And what's better: the film isn't dated by any means. Now, in 2000, 26 years after its release, it is as impacting and jaw-dropping as in 1974. So today's audiences can easily enjoy this classic puzzle, if I can say that way.
Telling much of the story is not only spoiling, but a crime. The basic is this: a LA private detective named Jake Gittes is visited by a woman named Evelyn Mulwray, who thinks that her husband is having an affair. Gittes thinks this is just another case, but then the husband dies in mysterious circumstances and there's something related to the city's water crisis... The story offers endless twists, but they are intelligent and always come in the right time, making you jump from your seat. Of course it calls for attention, but it is never confusing or difficult. Instead of this, it is tense, suspenseful and entertaining.
The Oscar winning screenplay is one of the best ever written, combining classic mystery with some smart twists and turns. I'm not exaggerating, because everything on it is flawless, from the dialogues (with an unusual kind of black humor) to the character development. And Roman Polanski proves that he was once a master. There isn't a needless scene, a disposable character or window dressing. With great film editing, score and cinematography, the climate for a film-noir is perfect.
Much of the merit goes to the acting. Jack Nicholson is amazing as always as Gittes- it seems that the character was made for him. Faye Dunaway gives another astonishing performance. She plays a multi-faced Evelyn Mulwray, sometimes cold, sometimes romantic. She's not the kind of character you can always trust in, but sometimes you do. One of my favorite scenes, not only in CHINATOWN, but in films in general, is the one when she explains a certain thing to Gittes: "She's my sister, she's my daughter..." Not to talk about John Huston, in a key, memorable role, and a cameo by director Polanski.
Perfectly crafted and always surprising, CHINATOWN is a classic and a masterpiece in every sense of the word. It is a film about ambiguity, or about the many meanings a thing can assume, and about the mystery that is human nature: a lover is not only a lover, a father is not only a father, a sister is not only a sister, a murder is not only a murder, a pair of glasses are not only a pair of glasses, a lake in the backyard is not only a lake... Everything will be solved (or won't it?) in the last scene, one of the most memorable moments of cinema. There's no score in the background, the camera gets out of control, just as the characters do. It's when one of the characters gets back to a place where his life was changed years before, and the story seems to be repeating. It's impacting. An unforgettable conclusion to an unforgettable film.