Chinatown

Name: Chinatown
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: 1974-06-20
Duration: 2 h 10 min
Rating: 8.1
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, Burt Young

You get tough. You get tender. You get close to each other. Maybe you even get close to the truth.

Chinatown (1974)

Timing: 2:10 (130 min)

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8.1/10
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All about film

Video 7

Photo 141

Actors and characters

Watch film Chinatown — Jack Nicholson accepts his award on the set of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

3:09

Photo 141

Release date

1974-06-20

Country

United States

Production

Paramount, Robert Evans Company, Long Road Productions, Penthouse

Genre

Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Budget

$6 000 000

Revenue

$29 201 156

Website

Director

Roman Polanski

Actors

Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, Burt Young, John Hillerman, Darrell Zwerling, Roman Polanski, Diane Ladd, Richard Bakalyan
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Robert Towne

Producer

C.O. Erickson, Robert Evans

Operator

John A. Alonzo

Composer

Jerry Goldsmith

Artist

Richard Sylbert

Audition

Jane Feinberg, Mike Fenton

Editing

Sam O'Steen
All team (87)

Short description

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

What's left behind the scenes

Jack Nicholson's character, Jake Gittes, was named after the actor's friend and producer, Harry Gittes.
While preparing for filming, Robert Towne and the film's director, Roman Polanski, titled each scene of the screenplay with individual sentences, wrote these sentences on scraps of paper, and taped them to the door of the office in Polanski's house where they worked. The game was to move these slips of paper around until they fell into the correct order.
According to Robert Towne, it took him at least 10 months to write the screenplay. The most difficult part for him was finding a starting point for the action.
A heated discussion flared up between Polanski and Towne regarding the ending: ultimately, Polanski won, not wanting a happy ending. In 1999, Towne rewatched the film and admitted that he had been wrong. Roman Polanski said that the sad ending of the film was closer to him because of the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate. Faye Dunaway recounted that Evelyn was supposed to lose her sight, in analogy with Oedipus, who blinded himself after his marriage turned out to be incestuous. The actress really wanted this ending to remain in the film, but problems arose with the makeup artists, resulting in the decision to simply shoot Evelyn.
In 1973, Paramount Pictures offered Robert Towne $175,000 to write a screenplay adaptation of “The Great Gatsby.” However, Towne instead chose to work on his original screenplay, “Chinatown,” for just $25,000.
After receiving the footage shot on the first day from the lab, Polanski was furious, as producer Robert Evans, based on the success of “The Godfather” (1972), had ordered the film to be developed with a reddish tint. Roman Polanski demanded that the film be developed normally.
In one interview, Robert Towne admitted that he did not intend to make Chinatown the location for the final scene. However, two weeks before the end of filming, someone said, "My God, the film is called 'Chinatown,' and there isn't a single scene in that district."
In 1973, Paramount Pictures offered Robert Towne $175,000 to write a screenplay adaptation of 'The Great Gatsby.' However, Towne instead chose to work on his original script, 'Chinatown,' for only $25,000.
Jack Nicholson's character, Jake Gittes, was named after the actor's friend, producer Harry Gitts.
While preparing for filming, Robert Towne and director Roman Polanski summarized each scene of the script into single sentences, wrote these sentences on slips of paper, and taped them to the office door in Polanski's home where they worked. The game was to rearrange these slips until they fell into the correct order.
According to Robert Towne, it took him at least 10 months to write the screenplay. The hardest part for him was finding the starting point for the action.
Upon receiving the footage from the first day of shooting from the lab, Polanski was infuriated; based on the success of 'The Godfather' (1972), producer Robert Evans had ordered a reddish tint to be applied during the film processing. Roman Polanski demanded that the film be processed normally.
In one of his interviews, Robert Towne admitted that he hadn't intended for the final scene to take place in Chinatown. However, two weeks before filming ended, someone remarked, "My God, the movie is called 'Chinatown,' and there isn't a single scene in that district."
A heated debate erupted between Polanski and Towne regarding the ending; ultimately, Polanski won, as he did not want a happy ending. In 1999, Towne rewatched the film and admitted he had been wrong. Roman Polanski stated that the film's sad ending resonated more with him due to the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate. Faye Dunaway shared that Evelyn was originally meant to lose her sight, drawing a parallel to Oedipus, who blinded himself after discovering his marriage was incestuous. The actress strongly wanted this ending to remain in the film, but the makeup artists encountered problems, and as a result, it was decided that Evelyn would simply be shot.