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Category Archives: Directors
“The films I find boring are the ones that have no space for the audience’s misconceptions.” — Josephine Decker
Unfortunately, considering Josephine Decker’s recent output, much of what I say here is no longer relevant and I can’t even say how much this saddens me. I don’t wish for her to not change, of course, but watching her abandon … Continue reading
“Every choice I’ve ever made has been dictated by a formless hunch rather than by strict logic.” — Peter Brook
“I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space, whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.” … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, On This Day, Theatre
Tagged Ellen Terry, Glass Menagerie, Laurette Taylor, Orson Welles, William Shakespeare
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“Reality is always extraordinary.” — Mary Ellen Mark
It’s her birthday today. My first job was as a page at a local library. I would go there after school, shelve books for a couple of hours, and then head home. I ended up working there all through high … Continue reading
“I think my cinema is minimalist because so is my gaze: I’m very interested in people.” — Joanna Hogg
It’s the birthday of director Joanna Hogg, who hasn’t directed that many films (comparatively) and yet what she has done really matters, so much so that when there are gaps between films, people who always have her on their radar … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged England, Joanna Hogg, Martin Scorsese, Tilda Swinton, women directors
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“A good director must be able to inspire whoever he was coaching so that the actor would live the scene. Make-believe must become reality.” — Raoul Walsh
It’s his birthday today. Raoul Wash directed a number of great films (in a career as vast as his, the names stick out), but one also thinks of the great PERFORMANCES in these great films, often from actors who were … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Ida Lupino, James Cagney, Raoul Walsh, Roaring Twenties, White Heat
4 Comments
Jafar Panahi on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show
I am so glad this happened. The language barrier often means filmmakers as important as Jafar Panahi don’t do the talk show circuit. In fact, I don’t think he ever has before. But It was Just an Accident is nominated … Continue reading
“He is a good listener. When you have a good listener you have a good actor.” — Norman Taurog on Elvis
American director Norman Taurog was born in 1899, literally during the first gasps of cinema. What an improbable journey. He was born into a world before cinema had even cohered into an artform … and he ended his career helming … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Elvis Presley, Live a Little Love a Little
9 Comments
“I should like to make even the most ordinary spectator feel that he is not living in the best of all possible worlds.” – Luis Buñuel
Today is Luis Buñuel’s birthday! From Luis Buñuel’s autobiography My Last Sigh: Connoisseurs who like their martinis very dry suggest simply allowing a ray of sunlight to shine through a bottle of Noilly Prat before it hits the bottle of … Continue reading
“I’m really confident. I had a perfect childhood. I had perfect parents and grandparents. They just love me, simply. So I have no fears.” — Mélanie Laurent
Today is the birthday of French actress and director Mélanie Laurent. Probably most American audiences (and international audiences, outside of France) were first introduced to the extraordinary Mélanie Laurent in her perfoƒrmance as the revolutionary Shoshanna in Inglourious Basterds. Laurent … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged France, Mélanie Laurent, Quentin Tarantino, women directors
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