Best NOIR ever made!

Rating: 10/10 (28 September 2013)

After masterpieces like "Knife in the water", "Repulsion" and "Rosemary's Baby". Roman Polanski (one of the best directors who ever lived, and lives), proved to be a competent director and screenwriter in various genres, decided to make a tribute to the genre that he grew up watching, "Noir", in the best way possible. Doing in my opinion his ultimate masterpiece!
"Chinatown" tells the story of J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson), a private detective in L.A., specialized in cases of marriage. One day, he is hired by Evelyn Mulwray, who suspect's of her husband Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling), the builder of the water supply system of the city, thinking that he is having an affair. Jake then does what he does best with his assistants and follows and takes photos of Hollis with his young lover, inadvertently causing a huge scandal in the press. Later after a job well done, Jake gets into his office the real Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) putting a process in Jake accusing him of fraud. Jake knowing that he was set-up, he begins to investigate who was the fake Mrs. Mulwray, and trying to get in touch with Hollis Mulwray, because he believe that who cheated him wanted to hurt Mr. Mulwray. Only when Jake tries to contact Mulwray, he is found dead in a channeling of the water system of the city. Now Jake asks the help of the real Mrs. Mulwray to help him in his investigation of those responsible for the death of the poor man, but this will take him into a web of lies and corruption, keeping horrible secrets of the city.
Polanski from the beginning wanted to do a tribute to the films noir of the '40s and '50s, and he did it "perfectly". First unite the types of cases and scandals of a usual noir film: policy; familial cases; xenophobia and racism; corruption; and of course murder. Mixing humor, and also dark and thrilling moments to the history. Thanks to a superb direction of Polanski, and also the strongest point of the film (and surprisingly the only Oscar that the film received), the script.
The script by Robert Towne, who was initially written by Polanski, is superb in every possible detail. Very well written from start to finish, giving the film a wonderful narrative that flows perfectly without ever getting boring and also, thanks to the influence of Polanski, is full of humor. But it also never ceases to be serious and dark when needs to be, giving superb dialogs to the film, adding a lot to the history. Not only long conversations about the case, but also on the definition of what is justice, spread all over the film. Jake before he was a private detective, he was a police officer in Chinatown, and saw many terrible things. And he says in a moment in the film that justice doesn't exist, only we can make-it.
Not only the script and direction that construct the film excellently, but also the magnificent actors. Jack Nicholson at the beginning of his career is definitely superb, from start to finish with his huge smile and his angry face, opening a huge future in front of him; Faye Dunaway simply wonderful, she is the mixture of all the heroines of a Noir film, and mature fragile; even Polanski with a small and dark appearance.
Polanski, at its best, making an incredible tribute to the Noir genre (perhaps the best Noir movie ever made) with a superb script, beautiful direction, excellent performances, a story that leaves you intrigued and drag you to the end with laughs and chills, and after the end even tears.
10/10