"I got involved with "Chinatown" back in '71." "I was having dinner with Bob Towne   who was at that moment a fledgling writer with a good reputation." "I wanted him to write "Gatsby" for me." "I offered him what was then astronomical - $175,000 - to do it." "He said: "No, I don't want to try and beat Fitzgerald."" ""I'm writing a story called 'Chinatown'."" "He told me about it and said:" ""Let's do that instead."" "Instead of getting $175,000 for "Gatsby", he took $25,000 for "Chinatown"." "The title had come from a Hungarian vice cop." "He had said that he worked "Vice" in Chinatown." "I asked him what he did." "He said: "As little as possible"." "I said what kind of law enforcement is that?" "He said: " Hey man, when you're down there with the Tongs   "and the different dialects, you can't tell who's doing what to who." ""You can't tell if you're being asked to prevent a crime   "or you're inadvertently lending the color of the law helping commit a crime." ""We decided the best thing to do in Chinatown is as little as possible."" ""Chinatown" started with Jack Nicholson calling me one day." "We'd been planning to make something together for years." "One day he called me in Rome to tell me about Bob Towne's script." "Soon after Bob Evans called me with the same news." "I wanted a European's vision, not an American vision of it." "Because Europeans see America differently." "So, I read the script." "It was a period when I didn't want to return to Los Angeles." "It was a few years after Sharon Tate's death." "He wasn't anxious to come back to America   to the tragedy he had." "The picture got him back to the US." "The script was exciting." "It was long, about 180 pages." "It had great material for movies   so eventually I went to discuss it with them." "I mean, most detective movies have been about exotic falcons   about heist jewels, weird crimes of one kind or another." "Water and power?" "That was unusual." " That dam's a con job." " What dam?" "The one your husband opposed." "They're conning L.A. To build it   but the water's coming right here." " To the Valley?" " Everything that's around us." "Bob wrote the script for Jack." "Many of his lines are really Jack's language." "I did write it for Jack." "His temperament, manner and the way he uses language." "All of it was inspiration for the character." "You sue me, your husband dies, you drop the lawsuit like a hot potato." "All of it quicker than the wind from a duck's ass." "He wasn't the huge star that he is today." "He was on the way up." "It cemented him not only as a character actor but a leading actor." "The more you watch, the more you realize he's an extraordinary actor." " Have we ever met?" " Well, no." "That's what I thought." "You see, I'm Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray." " You know, Mr. Mulwray's wife." " Not that Mulwray?" "Yes, Mr. Gittes, that Mulwray." "The classic female in a noir film is a black widow." "The Faye Dunaway character   is a character who gives you those expectations." "But in fact, she's the heroine of the movie." "She's the one person in the film operating out of selfless motives." "I wanted Faye Dunaway from the start to play Evelyn." "Many people were for Jane Fonda." "I really saw Faye in this role." "I remember my mother of that pre-War period   she did what was fashionable in those times." "That is, to pluck the eyebrows and draw them with a thin line." "And to put the lipstick in a cupid bow here." "That's how I wanted Faye to look in the film." "And she did apply the make-up systematically." "In fact, so systematically that finally it drove me nuts   because after not only every shot, but every take   she was at the mirror redoing her lips, eyebrows and powder." "She was extraordinary." "No one could've played it as well." " How much are you worth?" " I've no idea." "How much do you want?" " Your worth?" "Over $10 million?" " On my ass!" "Why do you do it?" "To eat better?" "What can't you already afford?" "The future, Mr. Gittes." "The future!" "I think that John Huston as Noah Cross, aside from Jack   is the most important piece of casting in the movie." "John shamelessly in the best way brought a sense of evil   that was made possible not because he played it in an evil way." "Quite the contrary, he was this charming, courtly man." "He brought to it all the weight of John Huston." "His power as a director." "John was my choice from the start." "With the script, I imagined the characters and Faye in her part." "I imagined John in the part of her father." "Hold it there, kitty cat!" "The cameo role that I played was Robert Towne's idea." "He said: "You must play that part." I thought it would be fun for everyone." "It was an inside joke." "You're a very nosy fellow." "You know what happens to nosy fellows?" "Huh?" "No?" "Wanna guess?" "OK, they lose their noses." "I recall thinking of slitting an ear, but a nosy detective whose nose is slit   just seemed like a good idea." "He thought of a knife that would have a swiveling tip on it." "I asked them to build it for me." "They did it very well." "It was, of course, swiveling in one direction and not in the other." "I said to Jack: "You have to remind me each time we rehearse   "to hold the knife in the right direction   "because if I don't, I'll just rip your nostril."" "That was very good because that added drama to Jack's expression." "I wasn't worried." "Roman never plans capriciously." "He's very detailed." "I think a story of a private eye in Marlowe's style   has to be told radically subjectively." "It's really all seen or heard   by the character played by Jack Nicholson." "When he's hit on the head, he faints." "It's a black out." "When he opens his eyes, he sees Faye Dunaway." "It's very much like Raymond Chandler's novels." "The characters in the film I tried to draw from life, not from film." "I mean, starting with the Philip Marlowe prototype of Gittes." "In Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett movies   there was always the tarnished knight." "My favourite thing about the movie is the time that things take." "Going into the library." "Allan Warneck played that snotty guy in the Hall of Records   who slaps the ruler down and says:" "This is not a lending library." "It's the Hall of Records." "The time Roman takes with that scene." "Or the time spent when Jack hums "The Way You Look Tonight."" "And the secretary for the acting head at the Dep't." "Of Water and Power   is getting annoyed with him." "His willingness to take time to listen to the guys   scratching the name of Mulwray off the door after he died." "Those moments not only advance the action but create a sense of reality." "The classic scene is when Jack grabs Faye." "She's my daughter..." "My sister..." "My daughter." "I said I want the truth." "She's my sister and my daughter!" "He understands what Chinatown is all about." "My favorite scene from the visual point of view   that's the scene when they leave the Brown Derby." "You see Jack and Faye in profile   and he's got very good dialogue about the nose." "He says:" "I goddamn near lost my nose and I like it." "I like breathing through it." "In the background you can see the valet fetching Evelyn's car, etc." "I think this is a nice shot." "Something about powerful directors..." "They're unmistakeably powerful." "He ended up teaching me more than anybody else I had ever worked with." "My collaboration with Roman on "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby"   leads me to believe there's no one quite like him." "Each time I see my movies, there are many things I would like to change." "It doesn't mean the movie will be any better." "Such as when Gittes photographs the couple downstairs from the roof " " I wanted to see the reflection of it in the lens of his Leica." "I was hesitating a lot and discussing which way to put it." "Upside down or the way it is." "A lens normally reflects it upside down." "For the audience's sake, we didn't put it upside down." "Today I'd definitely put it upside down." "How many years have I got?" "She's mine too." "She's never going to know that." "Bob in those days wanted a happy ending." "He wanted the girl to survive and Cross to die." "I was adamant that she dies at the end if the film's to have any meaning." "We fought and we parted before finishing the script." "So, there was no end to the script." " Get away from her." " You'll have to kill me first." "Get away!" "I wrote that scene literally like a couple of nights before we shot it." "I walked up to Jack and said: "Jack, rearrange the dialogue in your style."" "Jack took my dialogue and started changing and crossing out words." "That's what you have now in the film." "It wasn't a masterpiece, but it could've been a failure." "The masterpiece came." "It built its own story   because it's a kind of film that you had to pay attention to." "Today I couldn't do the same film." "I don't know if they'd let me finish it   with anything other than a happy ending." "I don't know if it could be made today." "It would be considered   at the required budget, too demanding for audiences." "I think these were great days." "I felt very at home at Paramount then." "Working with Bob was terrific because   he adhered to the theory that the thing that counts is the final result." "Everything else was secondary." "With time, I look at the movie and think: "God, it's really a good movie."" "I've seen the picture a minimum of a dozen times on the screen." "Not only does it hold up   because few films do hold up after 25 years, but it's better." "Subtitles by:" "Gerson Nason"