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Chinatown
Sign in to save1974 film directed by Roman Polański
OverviewAI-generated
Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery drama film directed by Roman Polanski. The screenplay was written by Robert Towne and Polanski, with Robert Evans serving as producer. The cast includes Jack Nicholson, John Huston, Faye Dunaway, and John Hillerman. Jerry Goldsmith composed the score, while John A. Alonzo was the director of photography and Sam O'Steen edited the film. Richard Sylbert acted as production designer.
Produced by Paramount Pictures, Long Road Productions, and Robert Evans Productions, the film is set in Los Angeles and deals with the subject of incest. It is part of the New Hollywood movement and was followed by The Two Jakes. The film has a runtime of 130 minutes and was released on June 20, 1974. It has been distributed by Paramount Pictures and Netflix.
Chinatown received the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, and was named to the National Board of Review's Top Ten Films. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Cinematography. The film has a budget of $6,000,000 and generated $30,000,000 in revenue. It holds an IMDb rating of 8.1 based on 376,668 votes and a TMDb vote average of 7.9 from 4,249 votes.
Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.9Private 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.
Cast
- Jack Nicholson as J.J. 'Jake' Gittes
- Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Cross Mulwray
- John Huston as Noah Cross
- Perry Lopez as Lieutenant Lou Escobar
- Burt Young as Curly
- John Hillerman as Russ Yelburton
Themes
- dying and death
- sea
- pedophilia
- rape
- mistake in person
- river
- chinatown
- barrage
- femme fatale
- conspiracy
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Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Part of
- National Film Registry
- Named after
- Chinatown
- Genre
- drama film
- Country of origin
- United States
- Original language
- English language
- Followed by
- The Two Jakes
- Main subject
- incest
- Movement
- New Hollywood
- Director
- Roman Polanski
- Screenwriter
- Roman Polanski
- Cast member
- Lee de Broux
- Composer
- Jerry Goldsmith
- Producer
- Robert Evans
- Production company
- Paramount Pictures
- Cinematographer
- John A. Alonzo
- Narrative location
- Los Angeles
- Duration
- 133
- FilmAffinity ID
- 786390
- Distribution format
- video on demand
Show 11 more facts
- film editor
- Sam O'Steen
- title
- Chinatown
- nominated for
- Academy Award for Best Sound
- distributed by
- Paramount Pictures
- production designer
- Richard Sylbert
- set in period
- 1937
- review score
- 4.3/5
- capital cost
- 6000000
- box office
- 29200000
- Commons category
- Chinatown (1974 film)
- publication date
- 1974-12-19
Sources (15)
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Encyclopedic overview
Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir private eye mystery film directed by Roman Polanski and written by Robert Towne. It stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, with supporting performances from John Huston, John Hillerman, Perry Lopez, Burt Young, and Diane Ladd. The film's narrative, set in 1930s Los Angeles, is loosely inspired by the California water wars—early 20th-century conflicts over water rights that enabled Los Angeles to access resources from the Owens Valley. Produced by Robert Evans and distributed by Paramount Pictures, Chinatown was Polanski's final film made in the United States and is considered a landmark of the film noir genre, blending mystery and psychological drama.
Released on June 20, 1974, Chinatown received widespread critical acclaim for its direction, screenplay, cinematography, and performances—particularly those of Nicholson, Dunaway and Huston. Chinatown led the 47th Academy Awards with 11 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Polanski), Best Actor (Nicholson), and Best Actress (Dunaway), with Towne winning for Best Original Screenplay. At the 32nd Golden Globe Awards, the film received a leading 7 nominations, including Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama (Dunaway) and Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture (Huston), and won a leading 4 awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (Nicholson). It also received a leading 11 nominations at the 28th British Academy Film Awards, including BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and won a leading 3 awards – Best Direction (Polanski) and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Nicholson). In 2008, the American Film Institute ranked it #2 on its list of the top ten mystery films. In 1991, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." It is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Chinatown” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.