Chinatown

A Bogartland thriller handled with style and brilliance by Polanski. The plot is riddled with mystery from the very beginning when Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), a classic wise-cracking private-eye, is hired by a woman to find out what her errant husband is up to. The woman turns out to be an imposter hired for purposes unknown; the husband is duly murdered; and the real wife (Faye Duna way), leads him into a nightmare web of intrigue ranging from civic corruption to incest by way of some bizarre encounters.

One such encounter is a memorable meeting of Gittes with a gnome-like smiler (Polanski himself) in a nocturnal wasteland. "Want to know what happens to inquisitive guys?" the gnome asks as he delicately slits open Gittes' nostril. "They lose their noses." Gittes survives the humiliation to unravel the mystery and even get his dangerous charmer to bed, but only at the sudden climatic ending do we realise the significance of the film's title.

Chinatown has shades of Hitchcockian cunning and is full of subtle images for all its exquisite period" detail. Good performances from Nicholson and Dunaway and veteran director John Huston as the villain.

Monday 24th April 2.00 pm.