Portrait of the Director as a Young Man

An observation: Did you know that, in "Chinatown", it is the director, Roman Polanski, who plays the man with the knife, the one who slices Jack Nicholson's nose and says "Hey kitty cat." (Check it out here.) You remember, of course, that Nicholson's nose stays bandaged and then scarred for the rest of the film. This is an extremely awesome, and literal, example of the director leaving his mark on a film. The bandage and scar become a sort of on-screen logo bug for Polanski--a constant reminder that you are watching his movie.