Wisdom from Robert Towne

From Above the Line: Conversations about the Movies

On screenwriting:

Screenwriters are trying to pedict the future. What's going to happen at some unnamed time and place when people are going to expend upwards of $50 million, with actors they don't know, with settings and climactic conditions that nobody knows, and what's going to happen when that product is finished and goes into a theater before audiences which may or may not show up. And in that screenplay you're saying that this will be an effective tale, one that will make the investment profitable. That's a level of arrogance that on the face of it is foolish...

There are so many variables, the screenplay itself doesn't tie anything or anyone down enough to be able to predict with any certainty whatever the f*ck is gonna happen with it! It's a meaningless document. The screenwriter controls nothing.

But notwithstanding that, there are some of us who try. [And] I certainly don't think about that when I'm writing.

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On directing:

You're so passive when you're directing. When you're writing, you've got the whole world in your hands - though there's a point where that can get passive too. But when you're a director, from the moment you say "Action," you're the only f*cking asshole on the set that doesn't have a job. Everybody else is doing something. You are doing nothing. But watching. And your only job is to be in touch with your feelings... respond to what's going on in front of your eyes. And do it quickly enough so you're not only able to feel but you're able to articulate how you feel in time to tell the actors before the next take... You don't need to know why you're making a movie half the time, or if it's going to be any good, until it's done and then you say, "Oh f*ck, that's why I was making it." It's a voyage of discovery, not just of invention.