BY KAREN BOSSICK
The 2017 Sun Valley Film Noir Series will conclude tonight—Thursday, Oct. 12—with a showing of “Chinatown” at the Magic Lantern Cinemas.
Vernon Scott and Rick Kessler will offer remarks prior to the screening.
Film series founder Jeannine Gregoire said “Chinatown” is always a film that immediately comes to mind when thinking of the film noir genre.
The genre is characterized by Hollywood crime dramas bursting with cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. The films, made from the early 1940s to the late 1950s, are often associated with a black and white visual style with roots in German Expressionist cinematography.
Roman Polanski directed the 1974 American neo-noir mystery film, which stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It was inspired by the California Water Wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, during which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley.
But it gets more personal in the movie with a private detective hired to expose an adulterer finding himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption and murder.
The film was nominated for 11 Oscars. Screenwriter Robert Towne won one for Best Original Screenplay.
The film will screen at 7 p.m.