RANDOM QUOTES from directors.

RANDOM QUOTES from directors.

 

Make The Audience Suffer | Alfred Hitchcock's 5 Best Movies - HeadStuff

ALFRED HITCHCOCK:              

‘There is a dreadful story that I hate actors. Imagine anyone hating Jimmy Stewart…Jack L. Warner? I can’t imagine how such a rumour began. Of course, it may possibly be because I was once quoted as saying that actors are cattle. My actor friends know I would never be capable of such a thoughtless, rude and unfeeling remark, that I would never call them cattle…What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle.’

Alma Lucy Reville with her husband Alfred Hitchcock. Alma was born in St Ann's in Nottingham on 14 August 1899. | Alfred hitchcock, Hitchcock film, Alma reville

Hitch & Alma Reville

[When accepting the American Film Institute Life Achievement award, Hitchcock paid tribute to his wife Alma]: ‘I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter; the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville.’

Ingrid Bergman and Alfred Hitchcock, 1948 - Photos - Alfred Hitchcock's leading ladies | Ingrid bergman, Alfred hitchcock, Hitchcock

Hitch & Ingrid Bergman 1948

[When Ingrid Bergman told him she was unable to play a certain character the way he wanted her to because, ‘I don’t feel like that. I don’t think I can give you that kind of emotion’, his response was short and to the point]: ‘Ingrid – fake it!’ Along similar lines – ‘When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script’. If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?’ – I say, ‘Your salary.’

‘I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.’

‘Walt Disney has the best casting. If he doesn’t like an actor he just tears him up.’

[On his feature film North by Northwest (1959)]: ‘Our original title, you know, was ‘The Man in Lincoln’s Nose’. Couldn’t use it, though. They also wouldn’t let us shoot people on Mount Rushmore. Can’t deface a national monument. And it’s a pity, too, because I had a wonderful shot in mind of Cary Grant hiding in Lincoln’s nose and having a sneezing fit.’

[Part of his publicity campaign prior to the release of Psycho (1960)]: ‘It has been rumoured that Psycho is so terrifying that it will scare some people speechless. Some of my men hopefully sent their wives to a screening. The women emerged badly shaken but still vigorously vocal.’

Rob Reiner Movies: 12 Greatest Films Ranked Worst to Best - GoldDerby

ROB REINER:                                                                    

[The director/actor once wed to director/actress Penny Marshall]: ‘There’s not one film that I’ve made that could get made today by a studio, not one – even A Few Good Men (1992), because it’s an adult courtroom drama, and studios do not make them anymore. And so every movie that I make, have made, and will make is always going to be independently financed.’

Martin Scorsese Discusses His Next Film 'Killers of the Flower Moon' | Observer

MARTIN SCORSESE:                                           

‘Every time I get on an airplane, I know I’m not really an atheist. ‘Oh God, dear God,’ I say the minute the plane takes off. ‘I’m sorry for all my sins, please don’t let this plane crash.’ And I keep praying out loud until the plane lands.’

James Cameron filmography - Wikipedia

JAMES CAMERON:                      

[The director of True Lies (1994) was asked why he declined True Lies 2]: ‘It just never really gelled and then the September 11th attacks happened and the idea of a domestic comedy adventure film about an anti-terrorism unit just didn’t seem all that funny to me anymore. And then we never picked it up again.’

[On Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993)]: ‘I tried to buy the book rights and he beat me to it by a few hours. But when I saw the film, I realized that I was not the right person to make the film, he was. Because he made a dinosaur movie for kids, and mine would have been Aliens (1986) with dinosaurs, and that wouldn’t have been fair. Dinosaurs are for 8-year-olds. We can all enjoy it, too, but kids get dinosaurs and they should not have been excluded for that. His sensibility was right for that film, I’d have gone further, nastier, much nastier.’

[On being sued for plagiarism]: ‘It is a sad reality of our business that whenever there is a successful film, people come out of the woodwork claiming that their ideas were used. Avatar (2009) was my most personal film, drawing upon themes and concepts that I had exploring for decades.’

[On possible future contact with aliens]: ‘The history on our planet is whenever a superior technology society encounters a society with lesser technology, the superior technology supplants the lesser society. There has never been an exception. So if the aliens come to us, it probably won’t go well for us. A thousand years from now, if we’re the ones going to where the aliens are, like the story told in Avatar, it won’t go so well for the aliens.’

Paris Review - The Art of Screenwriting No. 1

BILLY WILDER:               

[Billy was a native of Austria-Hungary]: ‘The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that Adolf Hitler was a German and Ludwig van Beethoven an Austrian.’

[To a cameraman on one of his pictures]: ‘Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.’

George Cukor movies: 20 greatest films ranked from worst to best - GoldDerby

GEORGE CUKOR:            

[Cukor began directing Gone with the Wind (1939), only to be replaced by Victor Fleming, but before his removal he spoke with the author of the book, Margaret Mitchell]: ‘Margaret Mitchell’s only casting suggestion for Gone with the Wind was for her favourite star to play Rhett: Groucho Marx!’

Joan Crawford and George Cukor at the Academy Awards | Joan crawford, My  fair lady, Hollywood

Cukor with Joan Crawford

[Cukor had only kind words to utter about Joan Crawford]: ‘In private life, Joan was a lovable, sentimental creature. A loyal and generous friend, very thoughtful – dear Joan, she forgot nothing: names, dates, obligations. These included the people at Hollywood institutions who had helped to make and keep her a star. When it was fashionable to rail against the studio system and the tycoons who had built it, she was always warm in their defence. She spoke of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a family in which she was directed and protected, provided with fine stories and just about every great male star to play opposite; later, she built a similar relationship with Warners.’

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