Molly Austad Critical Essay
The mise-en-scene of a movie is key to the overall film because it triggers the audience’s
emotional response to the movie as a while. In Chinatown (Polanski, 1974), it is clear that
Polanski intends for the audience to feel betrayed by the ongoing corruption and lying
throughout the movie. The story is a mystery, and therefore, hints are given through the mise-enscene to aid in the understanding of the plot. The design and composition of Chinatown creates a
unique sense of time, space, and mood, which reflect the corruption and moral ambiguity
portrayed in the film by amplifying the lies, secrecy, and greed of the characters.
The costume colors throughout the movie consist of grey, brown, black, and other earthy
tones. Richard Sylbert, the production designer for Chinatown, uses these colors to instill the
harsh reality of Los Angeles in the audience. The mundane colors distance the audience from
characters such as Escobar (Perry Lopez) and the other detectives, including Jake Gittes (Jack
Nicholson)—reminding the audience that these men are purely business and will show no mercy
to any character. Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) wears red lipstick, one of the only “warm”
tones shown within the film. This color helps draw the audience in and sympathize with her.
Mulwray wears this lipstick throughout the entire film up until the moment she sleeps with
Gittes. Her dry pale lips in this scene shows that she too has turned cold and is acting out of
selfishness to gain information from Gittes about his past in Chinatown. Her new power tells the
audience that they should not be as sympathetic to her as they once were. However, later in the
film, when Mulwray takes her daughter and tries to escape her father by driving to Mexico, the
red lipstick returns and the warmness that connects the audience to her returns as well.
The costuming of Gittes and Mulwray in the scenes where they converse in the restaurant
about Hollis Mulwray’s (Darrell Zwerling) affair and then walk outside on the street to continue
talking, is based on the actions and dialogue that is about to take place between the two. Both
Gittes and Mulwray are dressed in black; however, the buildings outside and even the valet’s
costume are neutral tans, beiges, and whites. This contrast in color makes the characters stand
out against the background and suggest a more serious and callous conversation than before in
the restaurant where the color of their costumes matched the set décor. When Gittes raises his
voice when telling her about his newfound knowledge of all the devious activity he has recently
discovered, his words seem harsher because of his dark and daunting suit. He adds at the end of
his rant, “and I still think you’re hiding something”—while looking directly into her eyes, which
are suggestively covered up by a black veil and insinuates that she is in fact hiding something.
Lighting is an aspect of mise-en-scene used dexterously by Sylbert. He uses light as a
tool for measuring evil inside a character. Since no character in this movie is without flaw, each
has moments when the shadows on their faces reveal their intentions. The clearest example of
this occurs between Gittes and Mulwray in the car outside of the house where her daughter is
being kept. Gittes pushes Mulwray to tell him who the girl inside the house is. As she speaks, a
perfect shadow is cast down the center of her face, hiding half of it. This tells the audience that
she may be lying or she may be telling the truth, still leaving the audience in question and
keeping “Chinatown” a mystery.
After Mulwray and Gittes’ visit the Mar Vista rest home, Gittes sees the two men
walking towards him in a threatening manner. Mulwray appears out of nowhere in her car, nearly
driving right into the two men and saves Gittes from gunfire. The scene that shows both
Mulwray and Gittes in the car after the attempted attack only half of her face is lit, the other half
remains in the darkness. This contrast reflects two different sides of her. The half of her face that
is covered in darkness represents a side of her that she keeps secret from the other characters.
The part of her face that is lit simply reveals the Evelyn Mulwray everyone is familiar with.
These two sides of her beg the question: can she be trusted? Suddenly it is as if the audience does
not know a character they thought they had figured out, emphasizing the mystery in the film.
Another instance is the scene in the house where Mulwray hides her daughter before they
depart for Chinatown. In this scene Gittes thinks he has the mystery solved and he yells at her for
the truth. While he is yelling, demanding she tell him what he thinks he already knows, there is a
dark shadow cast across his face. Her face on the other hand, is perfectly lit, not a single shadow.
This suggests to the audience that she really is telling the truth and has no idea what Gittes is
implying. Even as she switches back and forth between saying, “she’s my sister…she’s my
daughter” there is not a trace of shadow. The audience soon finds out she is telling the truth. The
audience now knows for certain Mulwray is being sincere, and the mystery is taken out of
Mulwray’s character because she is in her most vulnerable state. Likewise, the last scene of the
movie where her father, Noah Cross (John Huston), holds Mulwray close to his chest and
demands she leave Katherine (Belinda Palmer) to stay with him, his face is completely covered
in shadow. For the first time in the movie the audience sees only a slight speck of light on a face
that is barely recognizable through the darkness, signifying he is by far the most evil character in
Chinatown. Simply by using light, Sylbert is able to indicate the antagonist and protagonist,
which he keeps a mystery until the very end of the film.