Great career-making performances from Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, with a Polish director [Roman Polanski] delivering the best of American filmmaking with a French flair.

J.J. Gittes – Legendary screenwriter Robert Towne created a gumshoe for the ages in Jake Gittes, the character brought to life in the classic 1974 film “Chinatown” by Jack Nicholson (with a little help from director Roman Polanski). Gittes is a former LAPD officer who learned how to bend the rules during his assignment to a maddening section of downtown Los Angeles called Chinatown. At the end of the movie, a frustrated Gittes stares off in the distance while a cop buddy tries to console him with the memorable line: “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway star in this 1974 classic about a private detective hired to expose an adulterer who finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.

promotion is hard and feels like soul-sucking hell. Other than that it's lovely. Favourite movies: Badlands, Stalker, Graduate, Days of Heaven, Old Boy, Mirror, In the Mood for Love, Happy Together, Punch Drunk Love, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Master & Commander, Harold & Maude, Last Detail, Being There, Coming Home, Alice Doesn't Live here Anymore, Flash Gordon (the Queen one), Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Princess Bride, Life of Brian, Cannonball Run, Tootsie, Trading Places, Fucking Amal, Chinatown, All the President's Men, Ordinary People, Local Hero, and of course, Twilight Breaking Moon. Oh no wait, I hate that movie.

Long-haul flight movie marathon: the original Gatsby & Chinatown. Both films are perfection.

Awesome film. Greatest ending ever!

See now I’m sort of in no-man’s land, because I’m thinking Bonnie and Clyde, I’m thinking Chinatown… I’m just wandering around now.

Besides Blade Runner, Japan and Portishead - what else inspired you when writing, producing and creating KISS LAND? Scanners, naked lunch, the thing, polanski's Chinatown, enter the void, Amadeus and videodrome

Especially in the “After Hours” video, I went full-on film geek: There’s the “Chinatown” reference with the broken nose, the “Jacobs Ladder” reference with the subway, “King of Comedy” for Jimmy Kimmel, “Trouble Every Day,” “Possession,” “Dressed to Kill” with the elevator — and of course “After Hours,” Martin Scorsese’s [1985] film, is the obvious inspiration, with all this madness taking place in one night. That was the only on the nose reference — pun intended!

film noir with polanski's recent trauma and bleak outlook on the world at the time of filming

Bateman then rounds of his list with Roman Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir classic Chinatown, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.

That’s just one of the great… That’s another great one. That and Chinatown are probably — and maybe Five Easy Pieces — I mean, those were the big Nicholson performances.

Note: my favorite film of all time is “Chinatown”…

He was planning to fly to Kona Village the next day, alone, and I asked to see what he had put on his iPad 2 for the trip. There were three movies: Chinatown, The Bourne Ultimatum and Toy Story 3.

Polanski. Rosemary’s Baby I keep coming back to, and I like Chinatown a lot. Those aren’t radical choices but I enjoy them. The truth is that I enjoy them a lot, and everybody knows they’re wonderful.