Chinatown Film Noir Essay

Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974) offers a newer, fresh take on the typical 1940s film noir. Chinatown preserves so many of the conventions of film noir, while also putting a completely different spin on them. By 1974, movies were no longer following the production code and Chinatown took advantage of the new MPAA rating system by adding more complex, realistic issues and scenes that the previous code would not have allowed. Chinatown has become the poster child for neo-noir films due to Polanski’s ability to add a modern spin to the rigid standards of 1940s film noir. The “original” film noir had very specific conventions, which contributed to the success of the genre, but also created for extremely similar, predictable movies. Film Noir was always filmed in black and white, with high contrast and dark shadows, creating an ominous feeling. Often this picture style foreshadowed the heinous crimes that would occur, and the rest of the film would consists of a hard-boiled detective uncovering the real facts. Finally film noir plots include an obvious femme fatale, and criminals who were always punished for their crimes due to production code requirements. Polanski merges all of these conventions with …show more content…
From Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon to Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, the femme fatale always has a clear, evil motive. Phyllis Dietrichson took advantage of insurance salesman Walter Neff to assist her with murdering her husband and collecting on a life insurance policy. These criminal ideals were always obvious in noir, but much less defined in neo-noir. The “femme fatale” in Chinatown is Evelyn Mulwray, although one could argue that she had no evil intentions or motives, and instead was a byproduct of the evil people surrounding her. Evelyn was also left unpunished at the end of Chinatown, unlike most of the femme fatales and criminals of the noir