Chinatown (1974, U.S.A., 131 min.), directed by Roman Polanski; screenplay by Robert Towne; cinematography by Jon A. Alonzo; music by Jerry Goldsmith; production design by Richard Sylbert; with Jack Nicholson (Jake Gittes), Faye Dunaway (Evelyn Mulwray), John Huston (Lucas Cross), Darrell Zwerling (Hollis Mulwray), Diane Ladd (Ida Sesions), Roy Jenson (Claude Mulvihill), Perry Lopez (Escobar), John Hillerman (Yelburton), Richard Bakalyan (Loach), Joe Mantell (Walsh), Bruce Glover (Duffy), Roman Polanski (Man with Knife).

Please jot down answers to each of the following. Do three longer answers on separate paper.

1. Why the title of the film? When is "Chinatown" mentioned? What does it signify?

2. This film is set in Los Angeles, and, as usual in a detective film, the city setting is crucial to the overall atmosphere. What kind of place is the Los Angeles of this movie? Does this seem like an urban picture?

3. As in most detective films, Chinatown is quite self-conscious about the detective profession--the detective-hero frequently must defend and justify his line of work. How does the film's opening scene set the tone for its portrayal of the profession?

4. Chinatown is an interesting variation of the "Film Noir," a genre of films with its roots in the Forties and Fifties that featured detectives operating in worlds that were both physically and morally "dark." The film noir hero finds himself in a world that is extremely unstable, where everything and everyone is suspect. Would you say that Chinatown is a "dark film" in this sense?

5. What do you think of the film's use of color? Would you have preferred black and white? If you like the color, what would be some scenes in which color was used expressively?

6. Discuss the use of music in the film. How, in general, would you characterize the mood of the music? Think of some specific musical motifs and how they contribute to particular scenes.

7. The detective is also commonly known as a "private eye," and most detective films emphasize the role of sight--characters spy on one another, follow one another, try to achieve a clear vision of what others are doing. Chinatown is full of explicit references to sight, vision, and eyes. List as many as you can.

8. What sort of person is Jake Gittes? What do we know about his past? Is he a complex character?

9. The heroine in a film noir movie is frequently unreliable, even treacherous. How does Chinatown play with that expectation? What sort of person is she? Is she strong or weak, or both? Is she a complex character?

10. Discuss the love relationship between Gittes and Mulwray. What does each have to offer the other?

11. This film is full of a variety of forms of corruption. Who is "corrupt" in this film? Discuss corruption. Include, but don't restrict yourself to political corruption.

12. If you look at Polanski's filmography, you'll realize that his films tend to depict the depths of grotesqueness, madness, and potential violence that underlie apparently normal settings. (Like Hitchcock, he was strongly influenced by Freud and surrealism.) Can you think of any scenes that typify this contrast between apparent normalcy and underlying corruption?

13. How do you feel at the end of Chinatown? Was it an appropriate ending? Why? How do you feel at the end of Chinatown? Was it an appropriate ending? Why?

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