Chinatown

Perhaps the best film in the cannon of Roman Polanski, Chinatown is an atmospheric and refreshingly complex thriller that hasn't lost any of its effectiveness in the 30 years since the original theatrical release.

In a performance that ranks amongst his best, Nicholson cranks up the low rent charm as Jake Gittes, a private detective whose speciality is providing evidence of spousal infidelity. The very personification of sleaze, and not all that bright to boot, Gittes is hired by a woman who claims to be the wife of the LA's water commissioner. After meeting the commissioner's real wife Evelyn Cross Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), Gittes realises he's been taken for a fool, yet is soon thrown back in the firing line when Mulwray's hubby actually winds up dead. Intrigued by the cast of colourful and strange characters, Gittes gets deeper into this netherworld before he encounters the force who seems to be engineering drastic change, Noah Cross (John Huston).

Effortlessly evoking a sense of time and place, Chinatown basks in its period glory; an ample foil to the sheer ingenuity of Robert Towne's remarkable screenplay. Cleverly riffing off the themes which had been explored in the classic noir films, Towne ups the ante, not only framing his central character in a less than heroic light, but playing around with the conventions of the detective genre. Polanski keeps things moving, but the unapologetic complexity of Chinatown makes it essential viewing. It's only on in the IFI for a week, so make it your business to catch this one on the big screen.