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Director: Roman Polanski

Chinatown is a blockbuster that would never get made today: main characters die off-screen, the plot has something to do with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, there is a light-hearted visual gag about wife-beating, the protagonist spends half the film with a ridiculous bandage taped to his nose, and it’s directed by Roman Polanski. And it’s also one of the greatest achievements in the history of Western culture.

Hired to gather evidence of a prominent engineer’s extra-marital affair, private detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is quickly drawn into a complicated political intrigue set in sun-drenched 1930s California. Shot entirely from Gittes’ perspective (Nicholson appears in every scene), the film’s suspense is based on the gradual drip-feeding of information. Through revelations which are often genuinely startling, Gittes’ and the audience’s conclusions are constantly challenged and revised.

This approach is mirrored in, and partly created by, the film’s use of clichés and archetypes. At the outset, Chinatown seems packed with film noir conventions – the hard-boiled private detective, the femme fatale (played by Faye Dunaway), the murder-mystery, the complex storyline, the cynical outlook. Yet these stock devices are gradually rejected over the course of the film. Nicholson’s character becomes a genuine tragic hero, Dunaway’s an emotionally complex figure, and the film’s cynicism gives way to something altogether less glib and more moving.

Released in 1974, Chinatown was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including each of the “Big Five”, but won only one (Best Original Screenplay, to Robert Towne). Polanski and co could rightly feel robbed – even though they were up against The Godfather Part II, which is a great film because, well, it’s really long and it has Robert de Niro in it.

“Classic” films are often weighed down by their reputations. Citizen Kane is often named the greatest film of all time – but Kane is dry, overly technical, and hasn’t aged well. The mantle truly belongs to Chinatown, a film still as beautiful, sad, thrilling, funny and mysterious as it was 38 years ago.