Favorite quotes from filmmakers?

[B-side]

This is a personal favorite from Mr. Welles:

"I have an unfortunate personality."

[origami_mustache]

this is more like a monologue...but I love it!

herzog on the obscenity of the jungle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xQyQnXrLb0)

[Boner M]

Maurice Pialat, after being booed upon accepting the Golden Palm in 1987 for Under Satan's Sun:

"If you don't like me, I can tell you I don't like you either."

Also a lot of Bresson's quotes in Notes on Cinematography. Or something from Godard. I think the French generally have the coolest manifesto quotes.

[Sycophant]

[everything Woody Allen has ever said]

-Woody Allen

[Ivan Drago]

"All you need to make movies is a girl and a gun." - Jean-Luc Godard

[Grouchy]

[everything Woody Allen has ever said]

-Woody Allen
Even "pass me the butter, please?"

[Sycophant]

Even "pass me the butter, please?"Whenever he lacks in content, he makes up for in style.

[Watashi]

imdb is shit

[BIOspasm]

Bullshit. Total fucking bullshit.

[B-side]

Bullshit. Total fucking bullshit.

Repped.:lol:

[chrisnu]

I like this:

John Cassavetes on movie audiences (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNMYmMDGZZ0)

[Amnesiac]

Paul Thomas Anderson:

- [on the meaning of Magnolia (1999)'s ending] "Oh, how I hate it, when directors are supposed to explain their films. I only say this much: If I had had more cash, I would have let it rain cats and dogs."

Stanley Kubrick:

- "I believe , [Vittorio De Sica] and [Federico Fellini] are the only three filmmakers in the world who are not just artistic opportunists. By this I mean they don't just sit and wait for a good story to come along and then make it. They have a point of view which is expressed over and over and over again in their films, and they themselves write or have original material written for them."

- "How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo [Leonardo Da Vinci] had written at the bottom of the canvas, 'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover'? This would shackle the viewer to reality, and I don't want this to happen to [i]2001."

- "A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later."

Ingmar Bergman:

- [on Michelangelo Antonioni] "He's done two masterpieces, you don't have to bother with the rest. One is Blowup (1966), which I've seen many times, and the other is Notte, La (1961), also a wonderful film, although that's mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Grido, Il (1957) and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade. He concentrated on single images, never realizing that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don't feel anything for Avventura, L' (1960), for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress."

- [on Orson Welles] "For me he's just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane (1941), which I have a copy of, is all the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie's got is absolutely unbelievable."

- "Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls."

Woody Allen:

- "I've made perfectly decent films, but not 8½ (1963), not Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957) ("The Seventh Seal"), Quatre cents coups, Les (1959) ("The 400 Blows") or Avventura, L' (1960) - ones that to me really proclaim cinema as art, on the highest level. If I was the teacher, I'd give myself a B."

- "I know it sounds horrible, but winning that Oscar for Annie Hall (1977) didn't mean anything to me."

Martin Scorcese:

- "My whole life has been movies and religion. That's it. Nothing else."

- "What does it take to be a filmmaker in Hollywood? Even today I still wonder what it takes to be a professional or even an artist in Hollywood. How do you survive the constant tug of war between personal expression and commercial imperatives? What is the price you pay to work in Hollywood? Do you end up with a split personality? Do you make one movie for them, one for yourself?"

Federico Fellini:

- "It's easier to be faithful to a restaurant than it is to a woman."

Orson Welles:

- "I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard and am sitting in the back of the theater, you expect me to tell you the truth about something. These are the cheap seats, not Mount Sinai."

- [on Citizen Kane (1941) being colorized] "Keep Ted Turner and his goddamned Crayolas away from my movie."

- "I'm not very fond of movies. I don't go to them much."

[eternity]

"All you need to make movies is a girl and a gun." - Jean-Luc Godard
Ivan, just a note on your sig, Seth Gordon, the guy who made The King of Kong is a tad more respectable than "Like I Care".

[Philosophe_rouge]

Two of my favourites;
“I think the enemy of films is reality. I think films are best when they manage poetry, by reducing the element of reality and introducing something which is the invention of the filmmaker” -Orson Welles

"Je veux parler que de cinéma, pourquoi parler d'autre chose? Avec le cinéma on parle de tout, on arrive Ã* tout" - Jean Luc Godard

[Silencio]

"In England, I'm a horror movie director. In Germany, I'm a filmmaker. In the US, I'm a bum."
--John Carpenter

"I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians."
--Francis Ford Coppola

"For any director with a little lucidity, masterpieces are films that come to you by accident."
--Sidney Lumet

[transmogrifier]

Ivan, just a note on your sig, Seth Gordon, the guy who made The King of Kong is a tad more respectable than "Like I Care".

I beg to differ. I'm not surprised in the least that his Christmas film has been torn to shreds; The King of Kong is pure cornball literalism, broad and artless.

[Boner M]

"In England, I'm a horror movie director. In Germany, I'm a filmmaker. In the US, I'm a bum."
--John Carpenter
There's also "In France, I'm an auteur", but yeah, great quote.

[Izzy Black]

"I want the audience to work. I ask them to see the film from the beginning and devote their full attention to it, treating it with the same respect they would give a painting, a symphony or any other work of art. I treat them with the same respect by inviting them to search for their own meanings instead of insulting their intelligence with obvious explanations."

- Michelangelo Antonioni

[B-side]

"I want the audience to work. I ask them to see the film from the beginning and devote their full attention to it, treating it with the same respect they would give a painting, a symphony or any other work of art. I treat them with the same respect by inviting them to search for their own meanings instead of insulting their intelligence with obvious explanations."

- Michelangelo Antonioni

I love this quote. Repped.

[Malickfan]

- [on Orson Welles] "For me he's just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane (1941), which I have a copy of, is all the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie's got is absolutely unbelievable."

That's funny coming from Bergman.

[Ivan Drago]

Ivan, just a note on your sig, Seth Gordon, the guy who made The King of Kong is a tad more respectable than "Like I Care".

Like I care. The movie was terrible.

[Amnesiac]

Andrei Tarkovsky:

"In one of the most ageless films, L'Atalante [1934], by Jean Vigo, there is an episode where the newlyweds, a girl and a young sailor, walk from the church to a barge. To the sound of a trivial accordion they walk around three large hayricks, now disappearing (when we see a deserted landscape), now appearing anew. What is this? A ritual, a dance of fertility? No, the episode is significant not for a literary retelling, not in its symbolism, not in its visual metaphor, but in its concrete saturated existence. We see a form filled with feeling.

I think that such concepts as intellectual cinema and intellectual montage have no future. Cinema will remain an emotional area, and one must film what one has experienced, felt, suffered, and not what one has constructed."

[B-side]

"Most people don't know what they want or feel. And for everyone, myself included, It's very difficult to say what you mean when what you mean is painful. The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to... As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all, we must dare to fail. You must have the courage to be bad - to be willing to risk everything to really express it all."

- John Cassavetes

"Love is the best, most insidious, most effective instrument of social repression."

- Rainer Fassbinder

[lovejuice]

"Retirement? You`re talking about death, right?"

- robert altman. :cry:

[number8]

"Violent films don't lead to violence. Violent films lead to violent filmmakers."

- Tarantino


I always thought it was funny...

[trotchky]

"Je veux parler que de cinéma, pourquoi parler d'autre chose? Avec le cinéma on parle de tout, on arrive Ã* tout" - Jean Luc Godard

Haunting.

[BuffaloWilder]

George Miller, on the use of Campbell:

'You've got to be careful about what Campbell calls concretising the myth - if you're too aware of what you're doing, it destroys its power. You have to find the poetry and let the other stuff happen underneath. But there are recurring motifs. The lone hero undergoing dark and fabulous adventures, relinquishing self-interest, shattering the world and bestowing a boon on society. That's the Odones, that's Mad Max.'

It's a sad thing George Lucas never took that advice to heart.

[Dead & Messed Up]

George Miller, on the use of Campbell:


It's a sad thing George Lucas never took that advice to heart.

I really like that. I tried to consciously write a hero's quest, but it was only when I stopped worrying about that and worked more on making everything work in a broader sense that the whole thing started coming together.

[Spun Lepton]

"Death is a handicap, not an energy drink." -Simon Pegg on running zombies. :P

[Dukefrukem]

"Death is a handicap, not an energy drink." -Simon Pegg on running zombies. :P

I have mixed feelings about that.

[trotchky]

"The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second." - Godard
"A feature films is twenty-four lies per second." - Michael Haneke
"Do you know what directors go through? It's just hell. Like, why do I work so hard - to think I'm only going to see this movie five times and then never see it again 'cause I'm so sick of it? What is it worth, honestly?" - Michael Bay

[soitgoes...]

"Marilyn Monroe? A vacuum with nipples." - Otto Preminger

:lol:

[trotchky]

Wait, does that mean she gave him head, or she did a lot of blow?

Even if he's just calling her vacuous I still think that's a pretty disrespectful comment.

[soitgoes...]

Wait, does that mean she gave him head, or she did a lot of blow?

Even if he's just calling her vacuous I still think that's a pretty disrespectful comment.
The only thing she does is suck? Sure it's disrespectful, but that doesn't make it any less funny for me.

[trotchky]

Wait, what I actually meant to say is that it's pretty sexist, and makes me not want to see any movie Otto Preminger has directed.

[soitgoes...]

Wait, what I actually meant to say is that it's pretty sexist, and makes me not want to see any movie Otto Preminger has directed.
That'll show him.

How's it sexist? I'm pretty sure she did have nipples, and in my eyes she wasn't a good actress. You are taking the word "vacuum" to imply blowjob, I'm pretty sure he meant that she wasn't any good, "she sucked." Like a vacuum.

[Amnesiac]

How's it sexist? I'm pretty sure she did have nipples, and in my eyes she wasn't a good actress. You are taking the word "vacuum" to imply blowjob, I'm pretty sure he meant that she wasn't any good, "she sucked." Like a vacuum.

That's a very innocuous interpretation of that quote.

Either way, I think if one starts to boycott a filmmaker's oeuvre based on a few moral transgressions or tasteless statements... you might just miss out on a lot of good films. Actually, listing the arguably 'despicable' dirty laundry attached to various directors might make for an interesting thread. Or it might make for a horribly unnecessary thread that distracts from what we should really be talking about (their films). Beyond Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, I can't think of any notorious examples right now of famous directors doing something deplorable (even when I bring it down to the standard of an arguably tasteless joke like the one you posted).

[Derek]

Either way, I think if one starts to boycott a filmmaker's oeuvre based on a few moral transgressions or tasteless statements... you might just miss out on a lot of good films.

I agree. I think it's self-righteous and entirely unnecessary.


Beyond Roman Polanski, I can't think of any notorious examples right now of famous directors doing something deplorable (even when I bring it down to the standard of an arguably tasteless joke like the one you posted).

Reifenstahl
Kazan
Gallo
Woody Allen
Bunuel
Walt Disney

And you could probably increase that list at least one hundredfold if you were to list every sexist and racist director. Seems unnecessary, but a task worth undertaking for anyone who wants to boycott directors with questionable personal beliefs.

[soitgoes...]

That's a very innocuous interpretation of that quote.I'm pretty sure if one of your colleagues told you that sucked at what you do you wouldn't take offense. I think the quote works fine that way as a slap in the face. Monroe was just married to DiMaggio when the Preminger/Monroe film came out, so I'm pretty sure she wasn't giving blowjobs to whoever crossed her path. Plus he said this:

"Directing Marilyn Monroe was like directing Lassie. You needed fourteen takes to get each one of them right."


Either way, I think if one starts to boycott a filmmaker's oeuvre based on a few moral transgressions or tasteless statements... you might just miss out on a lot of good films.
This I agree with you on.

[trotchky]

That'll show him.

How's it sexist? I'm pretty sure she did have nipples, and in my eyes she wasn't a good actress. You are taking the word "vacuum" to imply blowjob, I'm pretty sure he meant that she wasn't any good, "she sucked." Like a vacuum.

It's sexist because he's reducing her to a sexual object. If the quote was, "Marilyn Monroe is like a vacuum with a vagina," that wouldn't be sexist either because she did have a vagina, right?

[soitgoes...]

It's sexist because he's reducing her to a sexual object. If the quote was, "Marilyn Monroe is like a vacuum with a vagina," that wouldn't be sexist either because she did have a vagina, right?
I had a couple lines written out about how nipples aren't the same as vagina yadda yadda yadda. Then I realized, I don't care. A dead man said something about a dead woman probably 50 years ago when films were full of sexist behavior. Don't watch his films. I don't really care. Hate the man. He definitely won't care. Stand up for the virtues of a dead woman, who in my eyes did indeed suck as an actress. She won't care either.

[Dead & Messed Up]

It's sexist because he's reducing her to a sexual object.

She was a sexual object. That was her purpose. To be lusted after. That's what she wanted.

[trotchky]

I had a couple lines written out about how nipples aren't the same as vagina yadda yadda yadda. Then I realized, I don't care. A dead man said something about a dead woman probably 50 years ago when films were full of sexist behavior. Don't watch his films. I don't really care. Hate the man. He definitely won't care. Stand up for the virtues of a dead woman, who in my eyes did indeed suck as an actress. She won't care either.

That's the thing, though. It's not Monroe's virtues I care about (although I think she was a lot smarter and more talented than most people did or do give her credit for); nor Preminger's sexism; it's your apparent support of Preminger's comment and your disregard for how degrading it is. That's what's troublesome.

[trotchky]

She was a sexual object. That was her purpose. To be lusted after. That's what she wanted.

I don't think any human being is a sentient "object" defined by a singular purpose, but hey, that's cool if you do.

[soitgoes...]

Wait, what I actually meant to say is that it's pretty sexist, and makes me not want to see any movie Otto Preminger has directed.


That's the thing, though. It's not Monroe's virtues I care about (although I think she was a lot smarter and more talented than most people did or do give her credit for); nor Preminger's sexism; it's your apparent support of Preminger's comment and your disregard for how degrading it is. That's what's troublesome.So my support of Preminger's quote has made you not want to see any Preminger films? Or are flipping this on me? Because I'm pretty sure your first replies were you upset more with the quote than with my "support" of the quote. What's troublesome is you reducing me to what you think I am because I posted a quote made by someone else on an internet message board.

[trotchky]

So my support of Preminger's quote has made you not want to see any Preminger films? Or are flipping this on me? Because I'm pretty sure your first replies were you upset more with the quote than with my "support" of the quote. What's troublesome is you reducing me to what you think I am because I posted a quote made by someone else on an internet message board.
Yeah, that first post was more of a gut reaction. I obviously wouldn't not not watch an Otto Preminger film, but I'd probably go into it biased against him on some level. However, the time period, the nature of the industry, etc. all make his statement unsurprising, if disappointing.

What did I reduce you to, exactly? I stated that "your apparent support of Preminger's comment" and "your disregard for how degrading it is" are what troubled me. Both of those things are pretty clearly present in your previous posts in this thread. If I'm misunderstanding you somewhere, please correct me. No reduction occurred on my part, though, I can assure you, and just because my responses are troublesome to you doesn't make them troublesome on a broader, human level.

[MacGuffin]

Well, Marilyn Monroe could quite possibly, depending on a person's opinion, subjectively suck. I'm also pretty sure she has nipples.

[soitgoes...]

What did I reduce you to, exactly? I stated that "your apparent support of Preminger's comment" and "your disregard for how degrading it is" are what troubled me. Both of those things are pretty clearly present in your previous posts in this thread. If I'm misunderstanding you somewhere, please correct me. No reduction occurred on my part, though, I can assure you, and just because my responses are troublesome to you doesn't make them troublesome on a broader, human level.
I support that Preminger thought she was a shitty actress. That is not sexist, nor should it trouble anyone alive. It is a quote from a filmmaker, so it is in the right thread. I just watched a Preminger film, and ran across a quote that I found amusing. In no way did I consider it sexist, because (and I've stated this from the get-go) the term vacuum to me implied she sucks, as in acting. The term nipples, whatever, I don't find that to be sexist. Guess what? I have nipples. I also have a penis.

I support Preminger's quote only in that I don't like Monroe, the actress. I disregard how degrading it is only because I'm not reading the quote in the same context as you.

[trotchky]

I disregard how degrading it is only because I'm not reading the quote in the same context as you.

I know you aren't; it's the reason we're having this argument. However, I both accept the reality of your viewpoint and tire of this discussion, so I guess we can leave it at that.

[Ezee E]

Preminger has been notorious for being a tough director to work with. An actress at the Telluride Film Festival simply said, "I do not speak ill of the dead," when referring to her time with him.

Marilyn Monroe, on the other hand, was basically the Lindsay Lohan of her time. She never knew her lines, and was always getting in trouble. This should be pretty obvious, but there's some good stories to read if you look into it.

[transmogrifier]

Peter Jackson to Svensos:

"I heard what you were saying! You know nothing of my work!...How you got to teach a course in have an opinion on anything is totally amazing!"

Michael Mann to number8:

"I heard what you were saying! You know nothing of my work!...How you got to teach a course in write reviews about anything is totally amazing!"