In sun-bleached, pre-war Los Angeles, slick private eye Jake Gittes takes what looks like a routine adultery case and finds himself pulled into a conspiracy over the city's water supply, family secrets too dark to name, and a socialite hiding a devastating truth. Every answer only deepens the rot. Roman Polanski crafts one of cinema's supreme neo-noirs, a slow, immaculate descent into corruption where power always wins and innocence is a fatal liability. Robert Towne's screenplay and Jack Nicholson's bandaged detective make it a landmark of American filmmaking, cynical, elegant and unforgettable.