Polanski’s oppressively fatalistic neo-noir masterpiece is a film that not only dissects the near-vital importance of water to noir, but also ensures that this relationship is abundantly clear from the very start. For this is a film whose plot not only hinges upon water – the presence and sequestering of it – but also whose details are washed in a grimy haze.

Chinatown begins with J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) receiving a request from one Evelyn Mulwrey (Faye Dunaway) to surveil her husband – identified as the “chief engineer of water and power.” In the second scene, Gittes sits in on a public proposal for a dam to keep water in the L.A. county area. However, Mr. Mulwray testifies against the dam citing that shale beneath dams is known to cause breakage. Throughout the film, water is perpetually surrounding Gittes, sometimes literally, but mostly metaphorically. Newspaper headlines read, “Water Bond Issue Passes Council” and “Department of Water and Power Blows Fuse” and, finally, in its most aggressive form, a flyer is tucked under Gittes’ windshield wipers that reads “Los Angeles is Dying of Thirst!” This last flyer, crucially, is found just after Gittes stakes out Mr. Mulwray at the seashore where, in a gorgeous shot, we see the ocean gleaming all around Mulwray, as though he’s being engulfed by its vastness. Eventually, it is revealed that the city has been diverting water to the valley so that insiders can buy up the land for cheap before it has become irrigated. With the entire ruse finally clarified from its murky mysteries, we come to understand why our protagonist has been named Mr. Gittes – or as Noah Cross (quite an ironic name considering the centrality of water to the plot) perpetually, though ironically, mispronounces “Mr. Gitts”. A git is defined by Dictionary.com as “a foolish or contemptible person.” And, perhaps, Robert Towne – the screenwriter, wishes for us to pay special attention to the first part of this definition.