SILVER

"Forget it, Jake — it's Chinatown." Roman Polanski's landmark neo-noir combines mastery of the genre's conventions with a 1970s sensibility even more paranoid and doom-bent than that of the classic era. Investigating the suspicious death of the Los Angeles water commissioner, private eye Jack Nicholson becomes drawn into a mystery that somehow involves both the countryside's struggling citrus farmers and the city's elite, including a wealthy businessman (John Huston) and his elegant daughter (Faye Dunaway). The film received 11 Oscar® nominations, with a sole win for Robert Towne's screenplay, based on events surrounding the "water war" between the city of LA and the residents of the interior Owens Valley. DIR Roman Polanski; SCR Robert Towne; PROD Robert Evans. U.S., 1974, color, 130 min. RATED R