While the dialogues in Chinatown are well crafted, the drama of this detective story falls a bit flat after 30 years. Roman Polanski has a penchant for psychological stories, but his art is at a much higher level in The Pianist and Death and the Maiden. If you want a little history lesson of LA without too much history, the film captures well the city’s precarious habitat: it is built in a semi-desert and requires imported water for its sustenance. Water politics are central to this history of the city to this day. Watching the film, I could never shake the feeling that I already knew the mood of the film. With the help of the web learned that The Two Jakes was a sequel to Chinatown. Both films don’t make it my must-see list.