Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Fascinating comedy-drama written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. 

It’s 1969 in Los Angeles. Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an actor famous for his role in a 1950s TV western. His best friend is his stunt double and personal assistant Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Times are changing and the pair are struggling to stay relevant in the film industry. Their next-door neighbours are actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and her director husband Roman Polanski. Also on the fringes of the scene is a young Charles Manson…

The film cleverly weaves together fact and fiction across multiple narratives, playing on what we know – or think we know – about the mythology of the Manson murders. It’s a kind of alternative history that finds humour and tragedy in the events, but not in the way that you might expect.

It’s visually rich and full of the iconography of the time, with Tarantino really relishing the period detail. Highly watchable stuff.

Tess (1979)

Roman Polanski’s superb adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

In the 1880s, a poor Wessex family seek social betterment after they discover their connection to a noble lineage.

Natasha Kinkski is mesmerising in the lead role. She says little but conveys great presence. 

Long and luxurious, it looks fantastic and the 186-minute running time never seems excessive.

Frantic (1988)

Tense, constantly gripping thriller directed by Roman Polanski. Harrison Ford plays an American doctor in Paris whose wife is kidnapped from their hotel. In the absence of any help from the police or the US embassy he sets out to find her himself, aided only by a pretty young drug smuggler called Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner).

It’s a taut and exciting narrative, with the mystery steadily deepening as Ford's character begins to learn what’s happening. There are moments of black humour, too, as his situation becomes more and more dire. The scene in which he scrabbles around on a slippery rooftop is a highlight.

Music is by Ennio Morricone, excellently judged as ever, with additional tracks by Grace Jones.

Carnage (2011)

Set in one evening in a New York apartment, Carnage features two couples rowing over an incident between their children. Directed by Roman Polanski, the real-time scenario works (it’s adapted from a play by Yasmina Reza) and the disintegration of relationships and social niceties is handled with ruthless precision. Not one of the four characters is likeable, so you move beyond feelings of “taking sides” to a realisation that the whole lot of them are self-centred and childish. It’s filmed in such a way that the slightly queasy angles cleverly emphasise their grotesque qualities as the tension escalates. It’s brilliantly twitchy and uncomfortable.

There’s an especially memorable scene in which a hair-dryer is used to dry Jodie Foster’s precious art catalogue after it becomes splattered with Kate Winslet’s vomit. You might think that would be the low point for the characters, but things continue to get worse.

Chinatown (1974)

Highly watchable Roman Polanski crime thriller starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. The former plays Jake Gittes, a private investigator. The latter plays Evelyn Mulwray, who is suspected of killing her husband.

The plot unfolds slowly and luxuriously. The L.A. locations look stunning, and it’s one of those films that can be paused at any moment to reveal an image striking enough to work as a poster. There’s a spacious quality to the pace and style of the storytelling that’s missing from so much modern cinema. It’s a film you want to live in.

And Nicholson – one of the most charismatic people to ever walk the Earth – is transfixing.

The Ghost (2010)

Political thriller directed by Roman Polanski and adapted from a novel by Robert Harris. Ewan McGregor stars as a ghostwriter employed to help an ex-prime minister (Pierce Brosnan) complete his memoirs. That’s because the previous ghostwriter died in mysterious circumstances that soon threaten McGregor as well. 

It’s extremely odd. Parts of it are unintentionally funny. McGregor has a cockney accent and at times sounds like a young Michael Caine, but beyond that isn’t given any personality at all. Brosnan also speaks oddly, and his usual natural quality is absent. The two women in the ex-PM’s life (Kim Cattrall as Olivia Williams) are both played in a hammy, overwrought fashion. Cattrall has few lines and little to do. The set is also strange: a peculiar designer house on an island just off the US mainland. The Martha's Vineyard area is meant to be attractive – sought after by a wealthy elite – but it looks like a remote, unloved stretch of the Suffolk coastline. You think the fancy "Bond villain" house is going to have a significance, but that never arrives, so the flashy location ends up being a distraction that has nothing whatsoever to do with the story.

The Ghost isn’t very exciting, either. Even the mugging and car chase scenes are lacklustre and strangely flat. Badly mocked up photos shown countless times. Important parts of the story don’t add up.