Chinatown

US 1974, d Roman Polanski

Although often cited as Polanski's masterpiece, Chinatown is actually his least typical 1970s film, an immaculately-crafted detective thriller that only occasionally shows signs of its director's regular preoccupations. That said, his cameo as a knife-wielding hitman is unforgettable, not least because the state of Jack Nicholson's nose throughout the rest of the film provides a constant reminder.

It's set in 1930s Los Angeles, and Nicholson plays private eye JJ Gittes. Initially hired to investigate whether an ambitious water project's chief engineer is having an affair, he finds himself enmeshed in a conspiracy that allows screenwriter Robert Towne to encompass the city's very foundations - in both the literal and historical sense.

Although clearly inspired by film noir, Polanski eschews the genre's overt Expressionism, preferring subtler methods (glimpsed photographs, sidelong glances) of conveying corruption of both the moral and sexual kind. This was a deliberate strategy, as he intended Chinatown to prove that he was capable of handling the slickest of Hollywood films without frightening the horses (talking of which, the period detail includes a reference to Seabiscuit's triumph). It is therefore somewhat ironic that this turned out to be his last truly American film, albeit for entirely different reasons.