Forget It, Jake, It’s Chinatown

Directed with plenty of style by a pre-exiled Roman Polanski, Chinatown is one of best examples of contemporary film noir, and Hollywood moviemaking, done right. It has everything Chicagoist could want: a hard-boiled Jack Nicholson performance, a screenplay (by a pre-Mission: Impossible Deux Robert Towne) that writing guru Syd Field maintains is a model of perfect construction, kid-who-stayed-in-the-picture Robert Evans as producer, and a cameo by Polanski himself. It plays tonight as part of the Gene Siskel Film Center’s series on the masterful (if downright creepy) director, which has upcoming screenings of Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, Frantic, and most excitingly, the director’s cut of The Fearless Vampire Killers. The theatre’s website description of that last one notes, “With a dazzling blend of movieland kitsch and Eastern European lore, Polanski creates a fairy tale full of slapstick humor and poignancy, enhanced by his own picaresque performance as the innocent in love.” Movieland kitsch, Eastern European lore, slapstick humor, AND poignancy? Chicagoist knows what we’re doing this Saturday at 6.