Geeking over film.
“I don’t make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare – in fact, unless you’re a good comedian, you’re never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.”
Ian McKellen (born May 25, 1939)
“Why make a movie about something one understands completely? I make movies about things I do not understand, but wish to.”
Seijun Suzuki (born May 24, 1923)
“I think of the medium as a people-to-people medium, not cameraman-to-people, not direction-to-people, not writers-to-people, but people-to-people… You can only involve an audience with people. You can’t involve them with gimmicks, with sunsets, with hand-held cameras, zoom shots, or anything else. They couldn’t care less about those things. But you give them something to worry about, some person they can worry about, and care about, and you’ve got them, you’ve got them involved.”
Frank Capra (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991)
![Akira Kurosawa on Kenji Mizoguchi (May 16, 1898 – August 24, 1956)
“His greatness was that he never gave up trying to heighten the reality of each scene. He never made compromises. He never said that something or other ‘would do.’ Instead, he pulled—or pushed—everyone along with him until they had created the feeling which matched his own inner image. An ordinary director is quite incapable of this. And in this lay his true spirit as a director—for he had the temperament of a true creator. He pushed and bullied and he was often criticized for this but he held out, and he created masterpieces. This attitude toward creation is not at all easy, but a director like him is especially necessary in Japan where this kind of pushing is so resisted. […] In the death of Mizoguchi, Japanese film lost its truest creator.”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m43mupeD6w1qf7r5lo1_1280.jpg)
Akira Kurosawa on Kenji Mizoguchi (May 16, 1898 – August 24, 1956)
“His greatness was that he never gave up trying to heighten the reality of each scene. He never made compromises. He never said that something or other ‘would do.’ Instead, he pulled—or pushed—everyone along with him until they had created the feeling which matched his own inner image. An ordinary director is quite incapable of this. And in this lay his true spirit as a director—for he had the temperament of a true creator. He pushed and bullied and he was often criticized for this but he held out, and he created masterpieces. This attitude toward creation is not at all easy, but a director like him is especially necessary in Japan where this kind of pushing is so resisted. […] In the death of Mizoguchi, Japanese film lost its truest creator.”
“With all the opportunities I had, I could have done much more. And if I’d done more, I could have been quite remarkable.”
Katharine Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003)
“Some years ago I was asked, ‘When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?’ Back then I thought the answer I gave was funny. I said, “Saul Bass.” It was no joke.”
Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996)
Huw Wheldon: The fact is, you’re in love with the movies, aren’t you?
Orson Welles: That’s my trouble! You see, if I’d only stayed in the theater, I could have worked steadily, without stopping for all these years. But, having made one film, I decided that it was the best and most beautiful form that I knew and one that I wanted to continue with. I was in love with it as you say, really tremendously so.
![“The only moment where one can exercise any control over a film is in the editing. But in the editing room, I work very slowly, which always unleashes the temper of the producers who snatch the film from my hands. I don’t know why it takes me so much time: I could work forever on the editing of a film. For me, the strip of celluloid is put together like a musical score, and this execution is determined by the editing; just like a conductor interprets a piece of music in rubato, another will play it in a very dry and academic manner and a third will be very romantic, and so on. The images themselves are not sufficient: they are very important, but are only images. The essential is the length of each image, what follows each image: it is the very eloquence of the cinema that is constructed in the editing room.”
Orson Welles - Cahiers du Cinéma, No. 84, June 1958. [x]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3knuoJUBa1qf7r5lo1_1280.jpg)
“The only moment where one can exercise any control over a film is in the editing. But in the editing room, I work very slowly, which always unleashes the temper of the producers who snatch the film from my hands. I don’t know why it takes me so much time: I could work forever on the editing of a film. For me, the strip of celluloid is put together like a musical score, and this execution is determined by the editing; just like a conductor interprets a piece of music in rubato, another will play it in a very dry and academic manner and a third will be very romantic, and so on. The images themselves are not sufficient: they are very important, but are only images. The essential is the length of each image, what follows each image: it is the very eloquence of the cinema that is constructed in the editing room.”
Orson Welles - Cahiers du Cinéma, No. 84, June 1958. [x]
“I can never forget the excitement in my mind after seeing Pather Panchali. I have had several more opportunities to see the film since then and each time I feel more overwhelmed. It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river.
People are born, live out their lives, and then accept their deaths. Without the least effort and without any sudden jerks, Ray paints his picture, but its effect on the audience is to stir up deep passions. How does he achieve this? There is nothing irrelevant or haphazard in his cinematographic technique. In that lies the secret of its excellence.”
Akira Kurosawa on Satyajit Ray (May 2, 1921 – April 23, 1992)
“I’ve been lucky because I’ve had opportunities. Thanks to Bergman, I’m sure, I’ve gotten a lot of those. I’ve gotten opportunities to play in interesting stories and work with interesting directors and, of course, interesting actors. It’s all a matter of opportunities. I’ve known so many great actors who never got the opportunity to have audiences see what they do or really be appreciated. I’ve been lucky. Yes, I’ve been lucky.”
Max von Sydow (born April 10, 1929)
