Chinatown (Roman Polanski)

Chinatown directed by Roman Polanski, exhibits the many thriller signifier's that makes this film so brilliant to analyse for my blog. For example the male protagonist (Gittes), is an flawed hero as he smokes and drinks. He also becomes very confused with his emotions and with the messages he recieves off other people, like when he sleeps with Ms Mulwray, getting involved where he shouldn't making himself vulnerable.

Ms Mulwray acts as the femme fatale associated with the thriller genre, she is mysterious, sexy and not entirely what she seems. Her dangerousness is shown by her bright red lips, however to decieve the audience she also seems very respectable and trustworthy with her smart 50's style, fitted clothes with a necklace of pearls, this misleads the audience into thinking she is reliable but when the story unravels it makes the impact of her betrayal and mystery even more surprising and alarming. This idea of double-cross fits in with the theme of corruption or deception that make the thriller genre.

The spiralling and twisting narrative, shown in the trailer above, is made even more tangible by the mise-en-scene, with its narrowing corridors that seem to lead on forever (use of vanishing points), the chiroscuro lighting notably in the office due to the slatted blinds, this provides us with silhouettes of people and being unable to distinguish who they are adding to the mystery and intrigue, also characters are able to hide in the dark with builds suspense as you have no idea who may be watching. The tall city buildings add a sense of being overwhelmed on top of the sense of Claustrophobia caused by the camera angles inside the cars making them look trapped and the way Ms Mulwray becomes physcologically trapped by her horrible father.