Directed in 1974 by Roman Polanski from a script by Robert Towne, Chinatown is a brilliant reworking of film noir set in a drought-stricken Los Angeles of the 1930s. Jack Nicholson stars as J. J. Gittes, a private eye who, despite his best intentions, can bring only disaster on Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), the enigmatic woman he has come to love. Gittes’s investigation into the death of Evelyn’s husband exposes a chaos of political corruption and sexual violence lurking beneath a glittering, sun-bleached surface.

Michael Eaton situates Chinatown in relation to a history of fictional detectives, from Sophocles to Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Hitchcock. He traces Chinatown’s relationship to the pessimism of American cinema (and, by extension, the wider culture) in the mid-1970s, and the source of the film’s narrative and visual impact.

Coming up to date, Eaton considers Chinatown’s 1990 sequel The Two Jakes and also the movie’s changing fortunes in the years since its release.

Michael Eaton is a play- and film-writer, broadcaster and, oh, lots of other things to do with writing

Refreshments included

Discount for Broadway members!