Screenshot

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Documentaries

Podcasts

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image revealing fascinating links and hidden gems from cinema and TV to streaming and beyond.

BBC Radio 4 FM

Screenshot: Chinatown

Chinatown

BBC Radio 4 - Screenshot, Chinatown

Mark and Ellen explore the history of one of Hollywood’s greatest films, Chinatown.

Chinatown turns 50 this year. Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones take a deep dive into the genesis and history of one of modern Hollywood’s greatest and most controversial movies.

In 1974, Chinatown - now widely considered to be among the greatest films ever made - was nominated for 11 Oscars. Despite the creative confidence and freedom of the era, the 1970s were a time of tolerance for the morally questionable, or even downright illegal, behaviour of some of the powerful men creating these movies.

Chinatown’s director, Roman Polanski, is the most totemic of those figures. His 1977 indictment for drugging and raping a 13 year-old led the director to flee the United States and seek legal and creative sanctuary in France, where he has remained and continued to make celebrated movies such at The Pianist, for which he won the Best Director Academy Award in 2003.  

Fifty years on from Chinatown's release, Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones ask how we can appreciate cinematic masterpieces like Chinatown which have been made by very problematic people? 

Ellen gets about as close as it’s possible to get to the creators of Chinatown - Hawk Koch worked with Roman Polanski on the set of Rosemary’s Baby and, as the First Assistant Director on Chinatown, he was deeply connected with the movie and its director. In a wide ranging interview, he shares his memories from the set, discusses his friendship with Polanski and reflects on remaining in love with a movie despite its troubled past.

Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is a highly personal account of her own relationship with the works of film-makers like Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, and the questions of how knowledge of an artist’s personal life does or doesn’t change the way we feel about their art. Mark talks to Claire about the ethical and emotional issues of separating the art from the artist.

Produced by Freya Hellier.
A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Screenshot

Chinatown

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4