“Chinatown” A film noir in which a filmmaker who has seen Inferno on earth confronts his own trauma *Note! Contains spoilers.

Shadow of a murdered wife and mother

*Please note that there is a description of the ending of "Chinatown" from here, so if you haven't seen it yet, please be careful.

The offer that came to Roman Polanski was extremely mentally demanding. However, after careful consideration, he decided to take on the role of director. Once again, I set foot in an abominable place.

In fact, Roman Polanski and Robert Towne had a major conflict over the ending of the script. The original idea was for Evelyn (Faye Dunaway) to murder her father, Noah Cross (John Huston), go to prison, and never be able to say why. However, Polanski insists on a tragic ending in which Evelyn loses her life due to police shooting. Let's take a look at Jack Nicholson's testimony.

``I'm glad that Polanski got his point, but back then it was the norm. There was no need for happy endings...'' He said, ``If you wrap everything up, the audience is going to have dinner.'' I forget before I go. If you let it hang in the air, there's a chance people will talk about it for a few minutes.'' ( quoted from an interview with Jack Nicholson )

"Chinatown " (C) 1974 by Long Road Productions. All Rights Reserved.TM, (R) & Copyright (C) 2012 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

This hopeless ending is probably due to his own despair after his wife Sharon Tate was murdered. And there is definitely a trace of her mother in there as well. Evelyn Moray wears red lipstick shaped like Cupid's bow, inspired by Polanski's memory of her mother.

Furthermore, echoes of their mother can be seen in the scene in which Gittes and Evelyn visit a nursing home. When asked, "Does this facility accept Jews?" the director shakes his head. At that moment, what was reflected on Evelyn's right was a mirror shaped like an inverted pentagram. It's a symbol of anti-Semitism. The character Evelyn bears the shadow of her mother, who was massacred at Auschwitz.

What does “Evelyn’s Eye” represent?