Chinatown (1974)
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
Runtime: 130 min
Roman Polanskis Chinatown is not only a great entertainment, but something more, something I would have thought almost impossible: Its a 1940s private-eye movie that doesnt depend on nostalgia or camp for its effect, but works because of the enduring strength of the genre itself. In some respects, this movie actually could have been made in the 1940s. It accepts its conventions and categories at face value and doesnt make them the object of satire or filter them through a modern sensibility, as Robert Altman did with The Long Goodbye. Heres a private-eye movie in which all the traditions, romantic as they may seem, are left intact.
The Philm Club aims at screening and discussing movies that raise philosophically relevant issues in accessible as well as entertaining ways.