R.I.P Robert Towne

“Chinatown” is a fantastic movie, but the interviewer is painfully loquacious. I’m 20 minutes in and calling it quits.

Please give credit to the great Uan Racey on trumpet,. heard you Uan in movies such as American in Paris and Rocky

Have been binge-watching analyses of 'Chinatown' but this takes the biscuit. It's fantastic! Everyone else bangs on about Gittes's vanity and his wanting to be a hero, the latter which for some reason I found unconvincing. And then here I get the real reason. He pursues the matter because he's pissed off at getting his nose slashed, and wants revenge (43:25). Of course, as obvious as the nose on one's face (pun intended), except I hadn't thought of it.

Fantastic commentaries, i just realised how Jack Nicholson voice and Johnny Depp voice in the ninth gate sound similar, now i can't help but imagining John Huston in the mumbo jumbo scene...🤣The nine gates of the kingdom of Chinatown... Being french the name Gittes makes me think of "get this" maybe it was intended like that.What a great movie...and script

I'm 74 and in the '50s-'65 my folks and I would go the pt fermin park . I got a coke from walkers many times . Later in my 20s-40s also . The fact that it is in my fav movie just makes it sweeter 👍 p.s. We would scramble down to the rocky shore and sometimes divers were bringing up abalone and my dad would buy 3 or 4 . Love them ❤

#2 on my list of fav films #1 being Dr. Zhivago . #3 The Two JAKES , #4 Once Upon A Time In The West .

The opening notes of this. Over the title work but man oh man.

I'm definetely gonna watch the movie on my Ipad while listening to the commentary on my phone 🧡🔥

Thank you so much for uploading this! 🧡🔥

Oh my god, this is so cool. A director whom I like a lot discusses in depth a movie I like a lot 🧡🔥

Fincher goes on and on about what an "odd notion" it is for a millionaire rancher to be wearing "Mexican" ranch gear. Does this twerp know ANYTHING about California? California was part of Mexico for a century or more before it was part of the US. The whole history of California is Spanish. Jeez, this guy is dumb.

sticks with me. almost wish it didn't.

Noah Cross/John Huston was the most evil characterization that I ever saw on screen....a brilliant movie!!!

Looking back , there is no way Chinatown could not be made today. The movie is about water and today's studio woud ask why not it be about drugs or gambling or prositution to which I'd reply those three things you mention does not affect everyone where water effects all of us. Above all, Rober Evens was both the producer and ran Paramount, so there was no buffer. Today, every studio clown would chop throught the script with a billion revisions. For me, Chinatown is the golden standard of the last great period of films, the ealy 1970s.

Towne is just one of the great film writers.

What a treasure, insights that make perfect sense once pointed out to me

Am I the only one annoyed by Fincher talking way too much and repeatedly interrupting Towne? Having said that, this is well worth listening to.

They sound very similar..

When Jack and Faye were filming the “slap” scene Faye felt that to make it more authentic Jack should actually slap her. So that’s the way they filmed it.

FYI, Fincher, it is not unusual for the TACK room on a wealthy man's ranch to have seating, such as chairs or a loveseat. Riders like to sit and relax with friends when they may be in dusty clothes or muddy boots after riding. Fincher thinks with such a pedestrian, in-the-box mind. How he ever got in the film business is astounding.

Fincher is such an amateur and such a rube. He doesn't understand a thing about the old world of early wealth in California. Like saying that the setting of the stables and tack room (not "tackle room," you moron) is "such an odd notion of a millionaire." A millionaire having ranch is "odd" ? A servant attending him at lunch is "odd" ? He uses realtor-speak by describing it as "California indoor-outdoor living," He comes off as SUCH an ignorant goofus. He refers to every bit of symbolism as a "gag" or a "running gag." Where does this yokel come from? To Towne's credit, he does not laugh him out of the room , or get up and walk off the set, but gently corrects him. Fincher is SO outclassed.

Well, now I have to see it again-for the fourteenth time. No movie has ever come close to moving me the way Chinatown has. Nothing even begins to compare.

It's wonderful to listen to Towne's reminiscences of his own Los Angeles history and upbringing as well as his experiences writing Chinatown as well as during the production of the film. The serendipitous and felicitous combination of a superb script by a supremely talented and skilled writer, A-list director, actors and production designer, plus the at-once seedy, glamorous and depraved setting of early Los Angeles, (not much changed, may I add) superbly rendered, has not been equaled since. Indeed, Chinatown is the first time this particular synastry has been achieved on film since Casablanca, with the possible exception of The Godfather.

Fincher is a man who clearly has only a passing interest or even acquaintance with history of any kind - particully the history of Los Angeles. A zanjero was the man who managed the "zanjas," the acequias (ditches) that carried water to the fields and farmlands. The zanjero was an important figure in city government - more important than a mayor actually Towne is not quite technically correct - the zanjero was not a "water carrier." The zanjero managed the distribution of water, so farmers' livelihoods depended on the decisions of the zanjero. Mulwray, in the story.

Fincher is so outclassed here, by Robert Towne. His cheap modern slang and English usage comes off poorly against Towne's intelligence and beautiful use of the English language. Strangely, he discusses the lines of dialogue as if Jack Nicholson or the other actors made them up, when in fact Towne wrote them.

It's a pity that this talk isn't underlaid by stills from the movie. It would be so much more instructive. Although those of us who love the film know the shots by heart. Fincher doesn't really understand or relate to the thirties or the history of early Los Angeles and mostly talks film technique, so it's easy to see why he's so gaga over the period setting, whereas Towne grew up with it, which is why the film is so authentic and lush with period detail. Nothing beats writing what you know. Great credit goes to the production designer for realizing Towne's vision. How the film looks is a huge part of of conveying the air of early LA wealth, decadent glamour and corruption that the story requires.

This commentary is better than the movie itself.

Fincher remarks that Jake is always reading the newspaper but isn’t it always a racing form?

I love coyote's voice 3:41 1:52

Who gives a rat's ass what David Fincher thinks?

One of my favorite movies ever. BEAUTIFULLY done and the score is fantastic. Acting is spot-on and screenplay is superb. It captures a time and place and events. Wishing Roman Polanski was able to still make movies in this country. He has exceptional talent.

I was almost murdered by mob owned NOPD ...I was being stalked by them at the time I first saw this movie on TV.....I WAS STUNNED...I really identified with Jake and KNEW I had to keep going ( I was trying to get patient murders investigated and the murderers arranged to shut me up) One of the murderers was my MD husband...the other was his best friend who was married to a mob NOPD.....obviously GOD intervened on my behalf....but I was SO out of my league on how psychopaths operate.. It is no exaggeration to say to this movie helped me hang on...and helped me survive. ...and yes....the murderers got away with it... But ONE of the mob NOPD went to Federal prison on evidence I was able to get the DOJ to look at..... Because two good NOPD were too scared to go to the DOJ...they gave me the evidence ..They only took the chance because ANOTHER GOOD NOPD was thought to be working with DOJ and was executed in broad daylight in downtown New Orleans in an elaborately covered up plot that managed to get the patsy beaten to death .....by over 100 cops most of whom did not know what was really going on... SO THESE GOOD GUYS PARTICIPATED IN A MURDER.....SET UP BY CROOKED COPS....SO NO ONE HAS COME FORWARD TO THIS DAY...

Thanks for the upload!

Who will be the next Towne? Tarantino is equally great, but in a different genre, and he is not planning on a long continuing body of work. His dialog has set a new standard. Towne, though, made the great stories.

Not gonna lie, this is better than the movie

Lol I cant tell who is David and who is Robert

TACK ROOM for Gods sake. Not a "tackle room." Fishermen have tackle. Not horsemen.

The film is truly superb and this would have been nicer if we had heard more from Robert Towne, although he does talk quite a bit about Chinatown in his long interview with the Writers Guild, which you can find on KZfaq. This is mostly Fincher gushing on and on about how much he loves everything, but it does serve to illustrate the craftsmanship of filmmaking and the finer points of creating movie magic. The tragedy of filmmaking today is that none of the talentless corporate entity bureaucrats that produce films would ever make a movie like this. The only ideas they can come up with are that the world needs more cartoon movies. Yawn.

1:01:30 Tarantino does that in his movies, and the food always looks very delicious. That whole strudel scene in Inglorious Basterds, for example.

all very well to have the commentary-but only the soundtrack! no good for me!

I just bought the Blu-Ray here in Norway and it doesn't have this track for some reason. So thanks for this!

Better than a year of film school.

Surprising to hear Fincher say he's never been able to find Ida's bungalow court and he assumed it was long gone, because the address is on IMDB, and I've googled it and used the maps function, toggling up and down the street. It's there, and looks the same pretty much although the surrounding blocks are quite changed. I wish I knew how to contact him to let him know how easily he could find it.

Love the movie of course, very nearly perfect. The one bit that's never set quite right with me (long before "woke" became a thing) is the glass/grass mishearing. It's a little bit cheap and actually doesn't even make sense when you see towards the end that Gittes can speak the language a little. He's obviously been very close to the culture and the guy is obviously talking about the grass in the context of the scene. Kinda corny, kinda racist, the one imperfection. I think it would have been OK to challenge Towne a little bit on one imperfection...oh well.

Just synced this to Netflix (turning the sound off), and it's perfect! thank you!

just want to say thanks to the uploaded for disabling ads on this!

1:45 Lovely words about the Goldsmith score. Agreed this is his finest work. I saw this film twice in a first run theater and the score is so haunting, such an exquisite part of the film that I couldn't quite hum it after leaving. "The solo trumpet has such a mournful, lonely quality..." perfectly stated!

What does the line "as little as possible"?

2 very similar sounding voices