2 men, 1 obsession: the quest for justice

Ellroy knows this impulse and uses it in his work. "I lie in the dark, night after night after night, brooding. And I am either thinking about the work that I do or about women.... That's it! It's a little about 58 years and I am as bad as I was when I was 23. I suspect it's going to keep me alive for a very long time. It turns on me, but I indulge emotion, and I give back generally to the work, to the narrative point."

Two men, different lives

As the crime masters swap notes, it's clear that Ellroy not only talks the talk but was forced to walk the walk, although his devastating firsthand experience with violence provides the well of his art. That doesn't seem to be true for Fincher. One is, in a sense, a method actor; the other opts for the British school -- simply using one's imagination.

The director shrugs. "I'm a kibitzer. It's just what interests you." He sighs, suddenly frustrated, slightly defensive. "I'm tired of this moniker of being dark, dark, dark." He says he's not personally, and "for the fact of the matter, I don't even think my work is."

But he goes on: "I'm not interested in making a movie where somebody goes out of their way to kiss their wife to show you that they are a \o7good\f7 person," he says, mockingly. "I am not here to placate."

When Fincher leaves the room briefly, this reporter asks Ellroy if he believes that one needs firsthand knowledge to truly understand and re-create the horror of crime.

He holds no one to this standard. Slouching down in his seat, his longs arms outstretched and his head resting on the table, Ellroy sighs like a wise master. "The imagination is unfathomable and endless."

rachel.abramowitz@ latimes.com