Connections between Chinatown and other film noirs we’ve read/seen
— connect The Maltese Falcon – simple job that starts off small, becomes bigger, more complicated. More and more at stake. Conspiracy. Job becomes bigger. While Sam Spade neatly ties things up at the end, Jack Nicholson’s character fumbles.
what is resolved and what is unresolved at the end of each film?

conventional narrative ideas in 40s vs. wild 70s

nuclear family cf. 70s

how does Chinatown reflect the social and political realities of 1970s America?

How does the film relate earlier film noir

How does the protagonist of Chinatown, Jake Gittes, compare to other film noir protagonists we’ve seen
— could push him back into gumshoe era
still had his own set of mores – had moments of anger, but heart in the right place. wanted to save the girl — fumbled

Gittes – nose cut by Polanski
— human, not infallible
— underdog
— why the nose – because he’s nosey — job is to put his nose into places – what will happen is that it will get hurt
— cf. Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe in Maltese Falcon, Murder My Sweet
humbling

no hope at end of film
deeply cynical – people in power corrupt, the rich bending the rules, murdering morally corrupt