you aren't a real new yorker unless you visited times square in 2007 with your high school choir and saw wicked and ate at planet hollywood and went home
Orson Welles on Buster Keaton:
"Keaton, one of the giants! What about The General—that’s a truly great movie, isn’t it? Now, finally, Keaton’s been “discovered.” Too late to do him any good, of course—he lived all those long years in eclipse, and then, just as the sun was coming out again, he died. I wish I’d known him better than I did. A tremendously nice person, you know, but also a man of secrets. I can’t even imagine what they were."
— This is Orson Welles by Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich (1992)
This totally happened. My Mom says Kubrick would call the house at like 1 or 2 am while my Dad was shooting and she’d be like I’m just here w the toddler and he would get done talking to her for an hr and then talk to me for a while. Legend.
Paul Schrader : "Je peux enseigner l'écriture, mais je ne peux pas enseigner à quelqu'un à comprendre le sens de sa vie."
"Quand j'ai enseigné à UCLA, il y avait beaucoup d'étudiants qui voulaient s'inscrire dans ma classe. Il fallait que je trouve un moyen de choisir 10 personnes parmi les quelques 200 types qui voulaient entrer. Et je n'avais pas envie de passer un temps fou à lire leur littérature. Le premier jour, quand ils étaient tous réunis, je leur ai demandé d'écrire sur un bout de papier leur nom, leur classe, la ville où ils étaient nés, leur race, leur sexe, etc...
Je leur ai expliqué que je faisais ça parce que je voulais choisir dix personnes d'origines différentes. Je ne voulais pas me retrouver avec dix blancs originaires de l'Ohio.
Ensuite, je leur ai dit de m'écrire en trois phrases, quels étaient leurs deux problèmes personnels les plus graves du moment. Six phrases en tout.
Je les ai lues rapidement, et j'ai choisi dix mômes intéressants. Dix mômes avec des problèmes intéressants. Et je ne me suis pas préoccupé de savoir s'ils étaient capables d'écrire.
Parce que je me suis dit que si j'avais dix mômes avec des problèmes intéressants, on allait se retrouver avec un potentiel de dix scripts intéressants. Et moi je m'intéresse infiniment plus à quelqu'un qui est un bon écrivain. Parce que je peux enseigner l'écriture, mais je ne peux pas enseigner à quelqu'un à comprendre le sens de sa vie..." (Cinématographe n°53, janvier 1980)
Paul Schrader et Martin Scorsese, 1973
The precious bit of film shows of Stan Laurel visiting his father, Arthur Jefferson, during the 1932 visit to England by Laurel and Hardy. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!
Just read Gregory Peck was born in 1916, so Bob Dylan has ppl born >90 years later feeling his words go straight to the heart ❤️
The young fans have talked to seem to get modern BD, like his cool personality is the foundation for all this work
"It's all I had" :)
In this 1972 interview at the NFT (now BFI) in London JAMES STEWART — born 118yrs ago today — was asked how he approached biographical roles like Glenn Miller & Charles Lindbergh.
His answer revealed a philosophy he'd developed over decades in Hollywood.
“This is one of the deep motives for literature, or for art of any sort: that one is defeating the formlessness of the world. One is cheering oneself up [and] instructing oneself by giving a form to something that is, perhaps, alarmingly formless.”
—Iris Murdoch on literature
this is one of the jolliest, most benevolent paparazzi photos I have ever seen in my life - Spielberg somehow just emanating pure concentrated good vibes
born artists are unique. I know artists who can't even grasp how talented they are, it just seems "natural" to them. "anyone can draw," they say. "just try."
Akira Kurosawa recounting the unforgettable experience of watching Solaris with Andrei Tarkovsky:
“Andrei Tarkovsky was sitting in the corner of the screening room watching Solaris with me, but he got up as soon as the film was over and looked at me with a shy smile. I said to him, ‘It’s very good. It’s a frightening movie.’ He seemed embarrassed but smiled happily. Then the two of us went to a film union restaurant and toasted with vodka. Tarkovsky, who does not usually drink, got completely drunk and cut off the speakers at the restaurant, then began singing the theme of Seven Samurai at the top of his voice. I joined in, eager to keep up. At that moment, I was very happy to be on Earth.”