In the 1960s, the student movement, pro-democracy movement, equal rights, anti-Vietnam war, and hippie movements were surging, and the outbreak of the "Watergate Incident" made the government credibility decline, so the revival of noir films full of suspicion and criticism is faintly called a trend. "Nine and Clyde" and "Dirty Harry" are beginning to take shape, while "Chinatown" directed by Roman Polanski has brought a real revival of film noir. However, the new era is bound to bring a new look, so the "new noir film" appeared. Classic noir films have a classical form. The color contrast of black and white films makes the use of light unique. German expressionism continues here, and the New York school photography style opens here. Although it has become a bit "niche" because of the age, many of them are still popular. For example, "Double Compensation", "The True Colors of the Four Seas", and "The Taste of Success" are all textbook standards. The new film noir is also very fascinating due to its wider themes, content, and form of expression. Superhero films such as "The Dark Knight" and brain-burning works such as "Muholland Road" can also be included in the new film noir. In the category, I also have a lot of new noir films that I like very much, such as "Blade Runner", "L.A. Confidential", "Seven Deadly Sins" and so on. And in 1974, this "Chinatown" with a strong retro meaning, with a new sense of destruction of the new noir film, opened the two eras.
Jack, the protagonist of "Chinatown", is a typical detective in the classic film noir period: wit, rebellious, cunning, and both righteous and evil, he is always troubled by the police or underworld. Once a case is received, he has to investigate it anyway, and Employers have a certain kind of ambiguity, but they never show mercy when they must be cruel, such as tough detectives like Sam Spade portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in the film noir "Malta Eagle". However, Jack is different from other tough detectives. Their purpose of investigating the case is to find out the truth. They focus on the truth and serve the truth. They can fight against the police and bring down the employer. On the surface, Jack is also trying to find out behind the scenes. The black hand, perhaps to retaliate against them, but as the plot deepens, we learned that his real purpose is to protect his lover, and he is really moved.
According to the classic film noir routine, the heroine of the film, Mrs. Murray, must be a femme fatale. The thief shouts to catch the thief and then crosses the river to tear down the bridge. Later, finding glasses in the pond deepens this suspicion, but then the plot takes a turn and turns. Being portrayed as a veritable victim, when I look at the women in film noir, I always involuntarily treat them as femme fatales. This seems to have become a habit. However, Fei Tang Nawei shouted when the film’s emotional conflict broke out. After the release of "She is my sister and my daughter!", we were dumbfounded and at a loss just like Jack's performance in the film. She was ravaged by her father and her husband was murdered again. This setting abandoned the poisonous heart of femme fatale in the past. This is an anti-tradition. Although it cannot be said to be a sign of new film noir, it has also shown us that "Chinatown" is definitely different from previous film noirs.
Noir films, such as "The Eagle of Malta" and "Long Night Dreams", with tough guy detectives as the protagonists, must be attentive and quick to understand every line and remember every detail, even if there is only a slight slack, it will make you feel about the subsequent plot. Not mindful. The same is true of "Chinatown". Although the amount of information is so much, it is easy for people to see it in the clouds and feel very boring, but I have to admit that this is a good script, like peeling an onion layer by layer. Open, every level has a turn, from an extramarital love to a big conspiracy against a city, interlocking and impervious, any scene has an effect, you can’t find one to delete. The reduced drama is like you can't even think of what else to add to the drama. In order to cater to such a script, the director must give up some of his previous style, so the texture of this film is completely different from Polanski’s previous "Swords in the Water" and "Cold Blood Cry". However, if such abandonment continues, then Polans The base shots are no different from other shots, and they will appear mediocre. So after a major dispute, the film finally gave the audience a head shot, showing us such an ending: darkness, cruelty, depression, despair, suffocation, The ending "Forget it, Jack, it's Chinatown" is the finishing touch. As the camera went up, Jack and his assistant walked slowly into the distance, walked into the darkness of Los Angeles, and left the "bright" Chinatown in front of the camera. Only then did we realize from the shock that this is no longer Regarding the disillusionment of personal careers, love, and dreams, and deeply aware of the powerlessness of people in the face of political oppression and social darkness, it makes people unable to extricate themselves. At the end, Polanski took a different black style. An ending can even conceal the wonderfulness of the script and the superb performance, making "Chinatown" a classic that is destined to be unable to be erased from film history.
In the past, noir films have exposed the dark side of society, but they have not been strongly criticized. They are only used as an auxiliary. The main conflict is still reflected in the individual, which is often concentrated in the destruction of a personal American dream. However, "Chinatown" weakens the character of Jack, not as witty as Sped, and has a lot of people who can retreat all over his body. On the contrary, he was beaten twice and seemed very useless, because the character of the detective is not the subject. Compared with the old-fashioned and delightful crime-solving stories, "Chinatown" is like an endless black hole, completely designed to portray this corrupt, dirty, and dark city, and later new noir films have nothing to do with it. Exceptionally, the evils of society are enveloped by the corruption of people's hearts.
"Chinatown" is the pioneering work of the new film noir. Although it does not yet have the colorfulness of the new film noir, it combines the classics and the originality, and it also shocks people with its artistic charm.
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