Chinatown / Day 3

Last night my friend spent a lot of time telling me how important water is. I’m still not totally convinced, but today's film goes a long way in showing the crazy things people do for it.


Chinatown





























 Los Angeles. 1937. Bodies are showing up in the reservoirs, dead people are buying land in the San Fernando Valley, and fathers are having daughters with their daughters. LA is a twisted place, for sure: just ask Roman Polanksi, who directed Chinatown. Apparently he's had some wild nights there.


Chinatown is a ‘film noir,’ like my last pick, The Third Man. For a long time I wasn’t sure what made a movie a ‘film noir,' but now I think I understand. These are movies where guys go in way over their heads, get roughed up a bunch, and by the end start seriously questioning their decision-making abilities. By this definition, Eyes Wide Shut and Dumb and Dumber are also film noirs.


The movie is also sort of based on an episode of LA history, in which a few very well connected men made a killing off the city’s expansion. So that's pretty cool.