Evaluation of the narrative of Chinatown

A simple narrative structure would have a beginning, where the start of the story is introduced to the viewers, and a middle, where the true meanings of the film starts to unfold, and an ending where the key points have been made and the story concludes.
My understanding of a narrative is that it is a way in which the story can be told to the audience; therefore there are a large number of different kinds of narratives you can have in a film. For example, you can have a narrative that is narrated by the male protagonist - so the film is set in his point of view thus your approach and opinions throughout the story is based from him. Or, you can have a narrative that follows the simple arrangement of a beginning and a middle but when the story is nearing the end, where it should conclude, it abruptly stops (I.e. a cliff hanger). This is good in a way that the film-maker is giving the audience a chance to form an ending themselves so, each individual viewer would have a different concept of the film. On the other hand, a film without a conclusion would seem unprofessional in a sense that as a film-maker your job is to show the viewers your opinions; and ending the film suddenly may prevent the story from being properly expressed. For that reason, cliff hangers should be used carefully as it could quite easily go wrong.
The types of narratives that are typical in a thriller are ones that are full of twists and turns. These are set out to mystify the audience with the unpredictability of the narrative - its aim is to keep ‘one step ahead’ of the audience and letting them decipher the story themselves. As numerous thrillers involve conspiracies or corruption of some kind it would also involve detectives, police, crime lords…etc so chasing and pursuits are evident. This gives the narrative of the film a more fast and immediate effect. Another typical narrative of thrillers is the mystery and intrigue as the general themes of thrillers are normally that of deceit and (as I said before) corruption. Hence, how can there not be mystery and intrigue amongst the narrative when there is so much treachery and fraud in the stories.
In Chinatown dir Roman Polanski (1974) we see from the perspective of the male protagonist, Jake ‘J.J.’ Gittes (Jack Nicholson), which gives the audience an interesting point of view as Nicholson gives his character a cheeky yet ingenious angle to the film: for example he likes to use jokes and trick questions to get the truth out of people. As I said before, when the narrative is lead by a male protagonist we formulate this idea of the film that is made from him. This is effective in a way that as the narrative progresses from say Gittes perspective we are founding things out at the same time he is; therefore the pace of the film is the same for everyone in terms of engaging the audience with the events that are unfolding.
I would describe the narrative of Chinatown as being quite a typical thriller because it is full of thriller signifiers. It has the mystery and intrigue right from the beginning, when Gittes was hired to spy on Hollis Mulwray, as we want to know who Hollis was arguing with and who is the blonde Gittes photographs with him. The mystery continues when we discover that the woman who first hired Gittes was just posing as Evelyn Mulwray - throughout the film we are caught up with the twisting and turning narrative. From a woman who might simply want a private investigator to investigate on her husband, to see if he is having a affair, to evidence that leads the audience to corruption in the city government. There was even chasing and pursuits that is a classic in a film with private investigators. The use of dark, shadowy mise en scene gives the narrative a more sinister impression as the use of darkness/shadows can hide the identities of the characters and generally make them look baleful. Even though there was not much claustrophobia in the scenes (like from a narrow corridor) there is a sense of psychological claustrophobia from Evelyn Mulwray as during the film we learn that she has a sister that is also her daughter - this makes the audience put themselves in her shoes and we wonder what we can do, but really there is not much that could be done in her situation therefore, creating the feeling of claustrophobia.
The narrative is very important in a thriller as it is the way you tell a story to someone - so even if you had a very good storyline but the way you expressed it to the audience is bad then the film is going to be bad because you are communicating it in the wrong way. But, if you had a not so good story way the angle you use to tell it was good then it would be a good movie as you are conveying the film in a new light or perspective for the viewers. This tells us that different narratives suggest different connotations to the audience; and allowing the film-maker to use whatever methods to communicate with the viewers as best as they can to get the story across.