“When I left the University of Iowa and made the decision to come to Rutgers, I said to my athletic director, as both of us stood there crying, 'I wish I could just take Iowa to the East Coast. That would be the best of all worlds.' Of course, I couldn't. I have the best of all worlds now by being at Rutgers, being in this part of the country and being able to embrace and receive the great prestige that is part of the Big Ten.” WorldMadeSaidCountryBigsWould BeAbleCoursesLeftWishDecisionCryDirectorsTenEmbraceUniversityEastBeing The BestCoastAthleticPrestigeIowaEast CoastRutgers Author:C. Vivian Stringer
“I didn't have the problem of finding myself at 45 on the wrong course - I always wanted to be a film director.” ProblemWantedFilmCoursesDirectorsFindingsFilm DirectorsFinding Myself Author:Elia Kazan
“He [Mark Webb] is very savvy, technically, he's shot so many videos, he knows how to get what he wants. The surprise, of course, is that he's also an extremely humanistic story-teller. He's obsessed with story and character, and not just making it look right, which is a double-thred that's rare in directors.” KnowsWantLooksCharacterStoriesCoursesKnow HowDirectorsShotsMarkSurpriseVideoObsessedSavvyHumanistic Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt
“With directors, some have a kind of in-built ability to just know how to work with actors and get the best out of actors, and some don't have a clue about acting. I think it'd be a good idea if directors put themselves in front of the camera, or even went on a six-week drama course, just to know a little bit about what that feels like.” IfsThinkingKnowsFeelsKindLittlesIdeasCoursesActorsBitsAbilityActingKnow HowWeekFrontsDramaDirectorsSixLittle BitBuiltCamerasGood IdeasClue Author:Paddy Considine
“I generally enjoy the rehearsal process because that's where you can share your ideas, get your thoughts and feelings out and see whether or not they're going to land, whether or not people are going to agree with them, particularly the director. So you can sort out in that process any elements that need to be sorted out before you're on the set, and of course that saves time and it also makes everyone more comfortable working together.” PeopleNeedsIdeasFeelingsTogetherCoursesProcessEnjoyShareLandDirectorsElementsComfortableAgreeWorking TogetherRehearsalThoughts And Feelings Author:Nicolas Cage
“I've worked with multiple directors throughout the 'Saw' series with a lot of conversations as they bring their particular installment to the screen. If I've been able to do anything throughout the course of these films, it's been to help shape dialogue and to try to make things as delicate and as intelligent as I can.” IfsTryingI CanHelpingAbleFilmCoursesSawsParticularShapesDirectorsConversationIntelligentSeriesScreensDialogueDelicateMultiple Author:Tobin Bell
“As a director, you have a thousand things going on in your head, and of course, that's going to be difficult. That's going to mean that some things get overlooked. And so, for us as performers, being the selfish pricks that we are, we're sitting there being concerned about ourselves all the time and our character's through-line.” MeanCharacterCoursesDifficultLinesThousandDirectorsSittingConcernedSelfishPerformersOverlooked Author:Jamie Campbell Bower
“Of course for many years directors have had to go on the road with their movies and promote them and I've done that since the beginning. So that's not new but the forms of it are different such as with the internet.” YearsDifferentDoneFormCoursesGoes OnInternetDirectors Author:David Cronenberg
“Any director, if you really ask them, will tell you that the toughest thing to do is like a dinner table or a dialogue scene because you need to keep that electricity maintained throughout the course of the film.” IfsNeedsFilmCoursesAsksSceneDirectorsTablesDinnerDialogueThings To DoElectricityDinner Table Author:Gary Ross
“Of course I am a child of European culture. There are a number of great directors from which I learned, but there is nobody in particular I got inspired from.” ChildrenCultureCoursesNumbersParticularDirectorsInspired Author:Michael Haneke
“[Akiro] Kurosawa, no doubt, was a big influence. Movies sometimes more than directors have influenced me: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Ford, was an extraordinary discovery. Sergei Eisenstein, of course. Later on, [Ingmar] Bergman.” SometimesBigsCoursesDoubtInfluenceDirectorsDiscoveryExtraordinaryNo DoubtWrathGrapesBergmanKurosawa Author:Costa-Gavras
“If I would want to have a huge audience, I would make American movies, not French movies, because there is a limit of course with French language. If I prefer to shoot in my own language, it is to play with my language, to play in my Paris, and I have complete freedom in France. It's so amazing. If American directors could imagine how free I am, they would have asked for political asylum immediately.” IfsWantPlayPoliticalCoursesLanguageMy OwnAudienceImagineHugeDirectorsLimitsFranceParisAsylumsAmerican MovieComplete FreedomFrench LanguageFrench Movies Author:Jean-Pierre Jeunet
“I have walked many times around the world and each time it's different from the last one. It feels a little bit like I am a theatrical director, creating a theatre in space. It's really a theater in the sky. But of course the World Trade Center is certainly the most well-known of my productions.” WorldFeelsWellsLittlesDifferentLastsCoursesBitsSpaceKnownSkyDirectorsCreatingLittle BitTheaterTradeProductionsTheatreAround The WorldWell KnownTheatricalWorld TradeWorld Trade CenterMost Well Known Author:Philippe Petit
“Every single time when you act in a film, and there's a different director, which of course as actors we're used to experiencing that's what we do, it's a different experience.” DifferentFilmUsedCoursesActorsDirectorsDifferent Experiences Author:Famke Janssen
“Michael [Douglas] was just leaving the TV series The Streets of San Francisco and he said, 'Dad, let me try it.' I thought, 'Well, if I couldn't make it...' So, I gave it to him and he got the money, the director and the cast. The biggest disappointment for me, I always wanted to play McMurphy. They got a young actor, Jack Nicholson. I thought, 'Oh God. He will be terrible.' Then I saw the picture and, of course, he was great in it! That was my biggest disappointment that turned out to be one of the things I'm most proud of because my son Michael did it. I couldn't do it, but Michael did it.” IfsTryingWellsSaidPlayWantedYoungCoursesActorsSawsStreetsSonTvsProudDadTerribleDirectorsLet MeSeriesLeavingCastsDisappointmentMy SonSan FranciscoTv SeriesYoung ActorsNicholsonMcmurphy Author:Kirk Douglas
“I've done documentaries and TV for six years but this was my first feature as director, so there were moments when I'd look around and was excited... but, of course, it was also very challenging on a day-to-day basis. And, of course, now that it's coming out people want to talk mostly to the actors.” PeopleWantYearsFirstsLooksDoneMomentsCoursesActorsChallengesTvsDirectorsSixBasesExcitedFeaturesComing OutDay To DayDocumentaries Author:Robert B. Weide
“I love telling truthful honest stories. I suppose I'd love the opportunity to be a superhero within a realistic dramatic piece. It would have opportunity for humor too of course. And ideally I would be the writer/director? (Though I suppose if I was, it is POSSIBLE I would give myself a meaty but smaller part so I could focus on the latter of my duties... Maybe).” IfsGivingStoriesWould BeCoursesOpportunityFocusPiecesHonestDutyDirectorsDramaticLatterTelling The TruthRealisticTruthfulSuperhero Author:E.J. Bonilla
“It was Die Hard in my father's workshop. And so when that opportunity came up, the possibility of doing it, it's more the teenager in me who says that, 'I have to, of course I'm going to.' So that's the fun of reinventing, or just getting involved in things that really, actually loved as a kid growing up wanting to grow up to be a director.” HardKidsDiesCoursesFatherOpportunityFunGrowsGrowing UpGrowingPossibilityInvolvedDirectorsTeenagerWorkshopsKids Growing UpReinventing Author:Len Wiseman
“I had been at the director's workshop for women at the AFI, which at the time was a great thing to do. I had always meant to direct, and for a variety of reasons that are hard to explain, I never did. I produced many things - there'll be people who tell you I directed through them - and of course I wrote. It took a divorce, a move back to New York and a kind of "now I can do anything" to say, "I really want to do this."” PeopleWantKindI CanHardReasonMovingCoursesCan DoNew YorkDirectorsDirectDivorceGreat ThingsVarietyThings To DoWorkshops Author:Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
“It's incredibly easy as a director to be egotistical. Of course, it is because you have 200 people on set every day listening to your every word and whatever you say goes, and that can be slightly corrupting. And actually, to be a good director, you have to take ego out of it, because hopefully what you've done is surrounded yourself with brilliant people. Let them be brilliant and you just shepherd that and marshal that and hopefully guide it however you can, but definitely not to the extent that you're overbearing.” PeopleDoneCoursesEasyListeningDirectorsEgoGuidesBrilliantHopefullyShepherdsEgotisticalGood DirectorsOverbearingWhatever You Say Author:Dan Mazer
“What can Americans learn from the Olympics spectacle? According to the IMF, China will succeed America as the dominant economic power in the course of the next presidential term, so Howard Fineman, editorial director of the Huffington Post and MSNBC mainstay, was anxious to pick up tips. 'Brits long ago lost their empire,' he tweeted, 'but overall show us how to lose global power gracefully.' So there's that.” LongShowsAmericaCoursesNextLostTermLosesEconomicSucceedDirectorsPicksChinaPostsPresidentialEmpiresAnxiousLong AgoOlympicsDominantEditorialsEconomic PowerBritsImf Author:Mark Steyn
“There are directors, and I think this is true of all directors, it would be true if I was a director - If the actor didn't want to do what I was suggesting, I would let him do it his way, and then I would say to him, "Just give me one where you do what the director wants", and that, of course, is the take that's used.” IfsThinkingWayWantGivingWould BeUsedCoursesActorsDirectorsGive MeBeing TrueSuggesting Author:Ian Mckellen
“I'm a huge fan of director's cuts or reassemblies if they're good, but I remember being really excited about the restored version of Apocalypse Now, and then I preferred the original film. Kingdom of Heaven as a director's cut is the real picture, but in fact someone recently told me that there was another cut, the original first cut, which he said was just extraordinary. I've never seen it - and of course now I want to, if it exists, and so would everybody else.” IfsWantFirstsSaidRealFactsRememberFilmCoursesHeavenCuttingFansHugeDirectorsOriginalsExtraordinaryExcitedKingdomsVersionsBeing RealNow And ThenApocalypseKingdom Of Heaven Author:William Monahan
“Among today's directors I'm of course impressed by Steven Spielberg and Scorsese, and Coppola, even if he seems to have ceased making films, and Steven Soderbergh - they all have something to say, they're passionate, they have an idealistic attitude to the filmmaking process. Soderbergh's Traffic is amazing. Another great couple of examples of the strength of American cinema is American Beauty and Magnolia.” IfsSeemsTodayFilmCoursesProcessAttitudeExampleCoupleDirectorsPassionateCinemaFilmmakingImpressedTrafficIdealisticScorseseMagnolias Author:Ingmar Bergman
“I was really fortunate from the time I arrived in Hollywood to work with some of the greatest directors from the beginning. I worked with Robert Altman, John Boorman, and of course Steven Spielberg, Michael Cimino, Brian De Palma ... I couldn't pick one of them; they were all different, but they are all so talented.” DifferentCoursesDirectorsPicksHollywoodFortunateBrian Author:Vilmos Zsigmond
“In the neighborhood around Waseda, there were all these movie theaters, so every morning I left the house and watched movies instead of going to class. The experience of encountering films then is one of my greatest memories. Before that I'd never paid any attention to directors, but there I was taking a crash course in Ozu, Kurosawa, Naruse, Truffaut, Renoir, Fellini. Because I've always been naturally a more introspective person, I was more interested in becoming a screenwriter than a director.” PersonsFilmCoursesHouseLeftMemoriesAttentionClassMorningBecomingDirectorsPaidTheaterNeighborhoodEvery MorningCrashIntrospectiveScreenwritersMovie TheaterKurosawaRenoir Author:Hirokazu Koreeda
“Hours is an understatement. I honestly don't know how the director and editor decide each week what actually makes it on the air. There's of course director and cast commentary on each episode on the DVD. We had a blast recording that.” KnowsCoursesHoursKnow HowAirWeekDirectorsCastsHonestlyEditorsEpisodesBlastCommentaryDvdsUnderstatement Author:Joel McHale
“But then male directors also have a hard time getting their movies made... not as hard as women but it's a tough time for any movie this size. And that particular movie [The Hurt Locker] was so specific. It couldn't hurt, of course, and I'm really glad for her, but I don't know how much it will change things, if at all. The film industry is still so sexist.” IfsKnowsMadeStillsHardFilmCoursesHurtKnow HowParticularIndustryDirectorsToughMalesSizeGladHard TimesTough TimesSexistFilm IndustryLockersHurt Locker Author:Nicole Holofcener