Roman Polanski’s ‘Chinatown’ Fifty Years On

 Nineteen seventy-four was a great year in the history of cinema. The American New Wave was in full swing, revitalising Hollywood after a long period of stagnation and decline. It was a year that gave audiences The Conversation, The Parallax View, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Godfather Part II. One of the finest films of this era is the captivating and disturbing Chinatown, written by the recently deceased Robert Towne and directed by Roman Polanski. Chinatown has probably the greatest screenplay ever written. It is the apogee of the noir genre. A noir emancipated from the demands of the Hays Code, allowing it to feature unsparing sexuality, together with a depressing ending and a powerful villain who gets away with it.