If you fancy a night in watching a DVD, then take a look at the selection available at Island Libraries. At just £1.50 per night, they’re a great bargain. Ed
Directed by Poland’s most patient, talented and living film director Roman Polanski, ‘Chinatown’ was originally released cinematically, a surprising thirty-six years ago.
Incredible to consider that it would not be until 2003 that Roman Polanski eventually received the Palm D’or in Cannes for his incomparable and near perfect work, ‘The Pianist’.
Homage to old school cinema
‘Chinatown’ holds the style in toned colour of California in a period shown as film-noir, but also combines a story that is both intriguing as well as devastating, as well as using the style of a surface homage towards classic old school cinema.
As a framing of a Private Detective solving a case that is in essence a murder that connects to vast power and immense wealth, few films today would even be worthy of comparison to the work that anyone working on ‘Chinatown’ managed to achieve.
Polanski as a director is always a guarantee of quality in filmmaking that is unsurpassed and also successful and yet he is a rare form indeed. Any film he has directed has been worth viewing time and again, because he chooses subjects that are either taboo, or instead draws the viewer into his perception of an always understandable underworld.
Made with classic intent
‘Chinatown’ is made with classic intent and although the story is uncomplicated, the detail and subject is like most work by Polanski – dark with light.
Although virtually any film work with the name of Polanski is well worth the attention, due to the quality achieved, the digital revolution will hopefully not be deceptive enough to not see more films released by Poland’s rare talent who it always seems is living in interesting times.
