When private eye J.J. “Jake” Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is gulled into falsely exposing the seeming infidelity of Hollis Mulwray, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s chief engineer, he responds to the indignity by doggedly pursuing the reason for the setup. The subsequent investigation leads Jake into a confounding, exit-less labyrinth in which family dysfunction and political corruption crisscross. A pitch-black neo-noir set in the 1930s, director Roman Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne’s Chinatown – with its evocative metaphor of a title – took inspiration from LA’s sordid history but very much reflected the dark conspiratorial views of the 1970s (as seen in such other paranoid films of the period as The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, and The Conversation). The film’s convoluted plot and piquant dialogue – Towne’s Oscar-winning screenplay is frequently cited as the form’s Platonic ideal – is beautifully suited to Polanski’s bleak sensibility. With dazzling central performances by Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, and a brilliant supporting turn of gleeful malevolence by John Huston, Chinatown remains one of the high-water marks (pun intended) of ‘70s cinema.

To attend both the film screening and post-screening discussion, please purchase a ticket for the 1:00 PM showing.

The 7:00 PM screening will include a brief introduction by Cliff Froehlich., but does not include the full discussion.

This presentation is part of the film & lectures series HOLLYWOOD FILMS OF THE 1970s in partnership with St. Louis Oasis. Every film will be followed by a discussion of 45-60 minutes led by Cliff Froehlich, retired executive director of Cinema St. Louis and former film critic for The Riverfront Times. 

During the period from 1967-80, a remarkable body of work was created in Hollywood. The chaotic state of the studios in the late 1960s opened up room for the film-school generation — young and unabashed movie enthusiasts equally in love with and influenced by the cinemas of classic Hollywood and Europe — and expanded the freedoms of older directors and an underappreciated middle group of filmmakers who began in theater, comedy, television, and criticism. This class will include key works of the period, with screenings held at the Hi-Pointe Theatre at 2 pm on a Wednesday each month.