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William Friedkin

William Friedkin Books

Film director

William Friedkin, born on August 29, 1935, is a renowned American film director. His works are characterized by tense and stimulating plots and profound social significance, with notable films including 'The Deer Hunter' and 'The French Connection'.

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Related Quotes

“And it was only a week later that I realized a close up of Steve McQueen was worth the greatest landscape you could find.”

Week I Realized Landscape Mcqueen

Author:William Friedkin

“One of my themes is that there is good and evil in everyone. I was not out to make these guys heroes. I really don't believe in heroes. The best of people have a dark side and it's a constant struggle for the better side to survive and to thrive.”

People Believe Guy Evil Sides Dark Struggle Hero Constant Don't Believe Theme Good And Evil Thrive Dark Side Constant Struggle

Author:William Friedkin

“Ive never seen a more terrifying film than 'The Bababook'. It will scare the hell out of you as it did me.”

Film Hell Scare

Author:William Friedkin

“Sam Jackson is a director's dream. Some actors hope to find their character during shooting. He knows his character before shooting. Sam's old-school. I just got out of his way. I never did more than two takes with Sam.-william friedkin”

Knows Way Two Character Dream School Actors Fame Directors Shooting Old School Sam Jackson

Author:William Friedkin

“I had absolutely no focus as a kid. I never paid attention at school, I never went to college. Not because we were too poor; we were. But if I wanted to go to college, I would have found a way.”

Ifs Way Kids Wanted School Found Poor Attention Focus College Paid

Author:William Friedkin

“There are many untalented people making millions of dollars in the film business.”

People Film Millions Dollars Untalented

Author:William Friedkin

“I believe it's true that there's good and evil in everyone and it's a constant struggle to have your better angels prevail.”

Believe Evil I Believe Struggle Angel Constant Good And Evil Constant Struggle

Author:William Friedkin

“If you're a movie star, the studios don't want you to act. They just want you to show up and look good and chase girls and have a lot of laughs.”

Ifs Want Looks Shows Girl Stars Laughing Studios Movie Star

Author:William Friedkin

“The studios are making fewer films. They are making more expensive films. Profits are tougher to come by. Not only because of the expense of production. But also because of the expense of promotion and hype. To boil that all down, it's more about hype than it is about filmmaking.”

Film Profit Productions Studios Expensive Expenses Fewer Filmmaking Promotion Hype

Author:William Friedkin

“When you go to a studio with something you want to make, or they come to you with something they want to make, more often than not, it's a tent pole. Not something one single person is really passionate about on a creative level.”

Want Persons Levels Creative Passionate Studios Tents Single Person

Author:William Friedkin

“I don't look back or analyze my films. I just make them. It's for someone else to look at.”

Author:William Friedkin

“There are films that I've made that I like a little bit more than the others. But the films that I mostly watch, and see over and over again, are not my own.”

Littles Made Film Bits My Own Watches Little Bit

Author:William Friedkin

“I've seen my own films close to a thousand times in one form or another. When you edit them. When you shoot them. Then you run them over and over again for sound and music. Then you'd go to premiere screenings, and have to do promotional screenings in other cities. I can't watch any of my old films.”

I Can Running Film Form Sound My Own Cities Watches Thousand Edits Screening Premieres Sound And Music

Author:William Friedkin

“With all of my films that are on DVD and Blu-ray, I have spent weeks with them in a color timing room. Just changing or enhancing them. I have been desaturating the color. Sometimes I will make a scene bluer or redder. I do use the new medium. I believe in it.”

Believe Has Beens Sometimes Use Film I Believe Rooms Week Color Scene I Believe In Mediums Rays Timing Dvds

Author:William Friedkin

“When you make a Blu-ray, its not the same as the print process was. You have little or no control over any print that was ever made. You are a victim of the 35mm printing process.”

Littles Made Process Victim Print Rays Printing

Author:William Friedkin

“I have control over every single frame on Blu-ray. If I want a scene bluer, I get that scene bluer. Originally, there was some fluctuation with the prints. If you made a thousand, or a few thousand prints, there is no control over any of that. But now I can make a master using the digital process.”

Ifs Want Made I Can Process Masters Scene Thousand Digital Print Rays Fluctuation

Author:William Friedkin

“The digital process gives me total control over how I want the film to look. The films look like they did when I was first looking through the viewfinder.”

Want Giving Firsts Looks Film Process Give Me Digital

Author:William Friedkin

“Every time you run a 35mm print, it picks up scratches. It picks up dirt. Sometimes it breaks, and you have to re-splice it. You lose frames. This doesn't happen with digital or Blu-ray. I think that's great. Because I love the new media.”

Thinking Sometimes Happens Running Loses Break Media Picks Digital Print Rays Dirt Scratches New Media

Author:William Friedkin

“I don't like 3D. I don't believe there is any film that I have seen and loved that would have been improved by a scintilla in 3D. To me, it's just a gimmick.”

Believe Has Beens Film Don't Believe Gimmicks

Author:William Friedkin

“To me, the art of cinema is the same as the art of painting. The artist takes a 2D medium and gives you the illusion of depth. If you look at any of the great paintings, you have the illusion of depth. Which is part of the art. The same with the great movies.”

Ifs Giving Looks Art Artist Painting Illusion Depth Mediums Cinema

Author:William Friedkin

“I don't believe that Citizen Kane or Gone With the Wind, or any damn picture that you can name, would be better off in 3D. I think it's a gimmick. I find 3D distracting.”

Thinking Believe Would Be Names Gone Wind Citizens Don't Believe Damn Better Off Gimmicks Citizen Kane

Author:William Friedkin

“You don't need great actors to do a 3D picture. All of this condescending stuff that they put out? "Oh, we will always need actors." Bullshit! They are able to take anybody and put some markers on them, and have them walk through an empty room. Then they paint in the background.”

Needs Able Actors Stuff Walks Rooms Empty Paint Backgrounds Bullshit Great Actors Markers Condescending Empty Rooms

Author:William Friedkin

“To me, the art of movies is to take a two-dimensional image and give the illusion of depth.”

Giving Art Two Illusion Depth

Author:William Friedkin

“The art of movies is to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. They need to use their imaginations.”

Needs Art Use Imagination Audience Disbelief

Author:William Friedkin

“None of the chase scenes that I did had any opticals. We had to do all of that physically. The first thing you have to do is see it in your mind's eye. You have to envision it. Imagine someone knitting a sweater or a scarf. They either have a pattern in front of them, or they see a pattern in their mind's eye. Then it's one stitch at a time. That's what shooting a chase is like.”

Mind Firsts Eye Imagine Fronts Scene Patterns Shooting Sweaters Knitting Stitches Scarves

Author:William Friedkin

“I have to see the whole scene in my head before I go out and do it. Which I do. I will envision the entire scene before I shoot it.”

Author:William Friedkin

“In the case of a film like The Exorcist or To Live and Die in L.A., I saw the whole movie in my head before I went to shoot it. I never did storyboards, or anything like that. I had the film in my head.”

Whole Film Dies Cases Saws Exorcist

Author:William Friedkin

“I'm not a fan of 3D. But I am a huge fan of digital imagery. Because it allows a filmmaker much more latitude to appreciate their own visions and dreams.”

Dream Vision Fans Huge Appreciate Filmmaker Digital Imagery Latitude Visions And Dreams

Author:William Friedkin

“You don't leave the film alone. You have a new audience, and you have a new medium. Why would you leave it alone? Film is not an antique. It's not a relic. It's not a Leonardo da Vinci. I don't want someone painting over a da Vinci or Rembrandt. But these movies aren't that.”

Want Film Audience Painting Mediums Antiques Relics Leonardo

Author:William Friedkin

“The Blu-ray is the real cinematech of world cinema. That's how it's being preserved. All of these guys that are trying to preserve 35mm negatives? They are wasting their time. There are better ways to see and project this stuff. It's called digital.”

World Way Trying Real Guy Stuff Projects Preserves Cinema Digital Rays Better Ways

Author:William Friedkin

“Sure, you could go out and make Jaws today. But all of the sequels to Jaws weren't good. They are all worthless. The Godfather II is the only sequel that I have ever seen that is as good as or better than the original.”

Today Originals Worthless Sequels

Author:William Friedkin

“I'm not a fan of Star Wars. That is not for me. That is for my nephews and nieces. I don't get it.”

War Stars Fans Nephew Niece Niece And Nephew

Author:William Friedkin

“I have seen lampoons of my work. And I have really enjoyed them. But I would never do another version of The Exorcist.”

Versions Enjoyed Exorcist

Author:William Friedkin

“With The Exorcist we said what we wanted to say. Neither one of us view it as a horror film. We view it as a film about the mysteries of faith. It's easier for people to call it a horror film. Or a great horror film. Or the greatest horror film ever made. Whenever I see that, I feel a great distance from it.”

People Feels Made Said Wanted Film Views Mystery Easier Horror Distance Horror Film Exorcist

Author:William Friedkin

“All of the films I have made, that I have chosen to make, are all about the thin line between good and evil. And also the thin line that exists in each and every one of us. That's what my films are about.”

Made Film Evil Lines Chosen Good And Evil

Author:William Friedkin

“There is a thin line between the policeman and the criminal. The best cops are always crossed. The best cops are the ones who are able to think like criminals. But for a quirk of fate, they might have been criminals.”

Thinking Has Beens Might Able Lines Fate Criminals Cop Might Have Been Policemen Quirks

Author:William Friedkin

“You are always cheating for the audience.”

Audience Cheating

Author:William Friedkin

“The thing that interests me is the good and evil in everybody. I don't have conventional heroes in the films that I directed, because I believe there's good and evil in everybody.”

Believe Film Evil I Believe Interest Hero Good And Evil Conventional

Author:William Friedkin

“If you call yourself a non-believer, you're referring to disbelief in something, and you're acknowledging that there is something to believe in or not.”

Ifs Believe Believer Disbelief Referring Non Believer

Author:William Friedkin

“I don't think sexuality defines a person. It's one small part of who you are, in my view. You are many things, and I never felt that people were defined by their sexuality solely.”

People Thinking Persons Felt Views Who You Are Sexuality Defined Small Parts

Author:William Friedkin

“God knows, as a minority, gay people have taken serious lumps for their sexual preferences. As has every minority.”

People Knows Taken Serious Gay Minorities Preference God Knows Gay People Lumps

Author:William Friedkin

“The studios mostly threw away the negatives of the classic films. They had no interest in their legacy.”

Film Interest Studios Legacy Classic Classic Films

Author:William Friedkin

“We all wind up the same way, no matter what our goals or ambitions are. We have nothing at all to say about how we got into this world or how are going to leave it.”

World Way Matter Goal This World Wind Ambition No Matter What

Author:William Friedkin

“All the great countries are at odds with one another over something, and yet if they don't cooperate they're going to blow up.”

Ifs Country Blow Odds Great Country

Author:William Friedkin

“Even with some of the best action films like 'The Bourne Ultimatum,' which is a great action film with a great chase sequence, so much of it is computer-generated. But that doesn't bother me. I think it works. It's fantastic.”

Thinking Action Film Computer Fantastic Bother Working It Sequence Action Films Bourne Ultimatum

Author:William Friedkin

“Star Wars is one of a handful of films that changed the zeitgeist forever.”

War Film Stars Forever Changed Handful Zeitgeist

Author:William Friedkin

“If Star Wars had failed, you wouldn't have 90 percent of what's out there today.”

Ifs War Today Stars Percent

Author:William Friedkin

“'Star Wars' gave birth to all the computer-generated superhero films.”

War Film Stars Birth Computer Superhero

Author:William Friedkin

“I believe today that there is no film and no shot in a film that is worth a squirrel getting a sprained ankle.”

Believe Today Film I Believe Shots Squirrels Ankles

Author:William Friedkin

“I don't go to the movies much anymore. There's very little that draws me. I watch mostly the older stuff, and I often don't sit through the new films.”

Littles Film Stuff Watches Draws

Author:William Friedkin

About the Author

Born: August 29, 1935
Known for: Film director
Quotes: 65

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