As the TIFF Bell Lightbox’s Roman Polanski retrospective continues, we turn our attention to possibly the director’s most famous creation, the 1974 neo-noir Chinatown. For an auteur primarily known for conceiving and writing his own projects, Chinatown is one of his rare side gigs as a director for hire. In a way, the film represents the pinnacle of what the studio system should be capable of. An ambitious producer (the delightfully eccentric Robert Evans) nurtured a complicated script from a talented writer (Robert Towne) set in an established Hollywood genre (film noir) and then hired a marquee director (Polanski) and box office stars (Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway) to bring it to life. In theory, combining talents in high profile projects like this should be the goal of the studio system, but sadly politics and commerce often get in the way. Chinatown is one of the few times the studio system was done well, combining disparate and unique talents into a satisfying whole that wouldn’t be possible with any individual element missing. Simply put, it is a masterpiece that all of the collaborators struggled to top later in their respective careers. It all started with a telephone book-sized screenplay that was the pet project of Hollywood’s most beloved ghostwriter and rewrite artist of the 1970s. Robert Towne had an ambitious dream of reviving the revered film noir detective tales of the 1940s, crafting a grizzled sleuth role for his buddy Jack Nicholson named J.J. Gittes. Nicholson plays a private eye specializing in infidelity cases who is mislead into an convoluted mystery involving a secretive dame (Faye Dunaway) with an incestuous past who’s connected to a grand L.A. conspiracy involving the city’s water supply and a few evil businessmen/landowners (is there any other kind?). The screenplay was massive, ambitious, and politically charged, but super-producer Robert Evans (Love Story, The Godfather) saw a commercial thriller trapped in the tome that he knew his directing buddy Roman Polanski could dig out. Polanski initially clashed with Towne, adding new layers of cynicism and an unforgettably tragic ending to what was already a dark screenplay. The writer and director may have exchanged harsh words and hurt feelings at the time, but their collaboration was cinematic serendipity. It is arguable that neither high-tempered artist was ever able to create a better film on their own. In a weird way, Polanski is an ideal director for film noir. If Hitchcock is the master of suspense, then Polanski is the master of paranoia. His characters are typically thrust into situations they can’t comprehend and are distrustful of everyone. This is a key dramatic thread in the shadowy detective genre, and in Chinatown it’s more than appropriate that Nicholson’s character fears and distrusts everyone he meets as he stumbles into a mystery with far more disturbing and far-reaching secrets than he could ever predict. Nicholson is ideally cast as the grizzled detective, like a more sarcastic and less imposing Humphrey Bogart. Dunaway can occasionally feel a little stilted in her deliberately old-fashioned role, but she comes through when the last act reveals some painful secrets. The most noteworthy supporting roles come from two directors: Polanski himself plays a pint-sized, nose-slashing goon, while John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, Treasure Of The Sierra Mandre) plays the neo-noir’s imposing Sydney Greenstreet-style villain. Huston’s performance is incredibly underrated, portraying a slick businessmen with unwavering power and manipulation skills. Robert Towne initially envisioned Chinatown as the first part of a film noir trilogy. Unfortunately it took 16 years to make the sequel (The Two Jakes), a compromised disappointment that immediately killed off the possibility of a concluding chapter. While it would have been nice to know what Towne had planned for his epic story, in a way it’s almost a relief that it never happened. There’s a certain amount of lucky timing and collaborative magic that would make Chinatown impossible to recapture. The film is a true gem of 70s cinema, a masterpiece produced by an amazing cast of talents who were afforded a level of creative freedom in the studio system rarely offered before or since. As a fan of film, Chinatown is a required text –if only so that you can finally learn what happens to nosey people (hint: they may or may not lose their noses). Chinatown will screen at The Bell Lightbox on Tuesday December 20, 2011 at 9 pm. Phil Brown writes about classic films for Toronto Standard’s Essential Cinema column.