Episoder
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"An artist can create works for himself to 'do himself good,' or to 'do good' for others. Perhaps the greatest artists are those who simultaneously resolve their own problems and those of their public." François Truffaut in his analysis for Charlie's magnum opus The Great Dictator
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âAfter a couple of years as an engineer, of course, the routine bored me. One night, I was driving after work in downtown Seattle, and I saw a billboard outside a movie theater with the words, German New Wave, and the title, Aguirre: The Wrath of God [a 1972 West German film directed by Werner Herzog--R.S.]. It made me curious, so I went in. I was fortunate. I came out a different person. That two hours just blew me away. It restored my sense of competence that I could be a filmmaker. This is what I thought a film should be. Film school would never teach you to make those kinds of shots. That was one of the crucial moments of my life. I had turned thirty, I thought I was getting old, and three more years passed before I got the chance to work on a film project with a friend who asked me to write a script for him. I went back to Taipei, and also visited Hong Kong for the first time, and the film was shot in Japan. I got an offer to write and direct a made-for-TV movie in Taiwan, so I didn't go back to Seattle. After ten years my mom was still calling and asking, 'When are you coming back to your regular job?'â
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Manglende episoder?
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When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of âgetting to know youâ questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? Whatâs your favorite subject? And I told him, no I donât play any sports. I do theater, Iâm in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.
And he went WOW. Thatâs amazing! And I said, âOh no, but Iâm not any good at ANY of them.â
And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: âI donât think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think youâve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.â
And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadnât been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could âWinâ at them.
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"Idiot proofing was a concept meant for advertising products. But when films became products, screenplay writers became copywriters and filmmakers became advertisers, then the art was left somewhere in the oblivion." Sushrut Gopesh.
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1. Trust yourself. Follow your instincts.
2. Unless the bank is closing your account, remember what Buñuel said: âNever do for money what you wouldnât do for free⊠Work is for slaves.â
3. In order to get the movie started, pretend to everyone you meet that the film is going to be a commercial success, and that it will for sure be selected for official competition at Cannes.
4. The good producers are the ones who have produced good movies. Never trust the ones who simply made commercial successes.
5. Your movies are like babies who need love. You have to carry them and take care of them for at least one year after their birth. Being a director is like being a dad.
6. It takes a long time to find the ideal production partners and team. Once youâve found them, itâs evident.
7. Donât work with friends. But work with the most skilled, friendly people you can dream of.
8. Be friendly to absolutely everyone who hasnât been unfriendly to you.
9. Fire immediately anybody in the crew who behaves disrespectfully to your work.
10. Show your crew that you work hard for the love of art.
11. As for the rest of the world, humans can be tricky. Donât pay attention to any jealousies. Focus on your work, and on your heroesâ examples.
12. Lacking any affection or being madly in love can make you unstable and unfocused. While making the movie, try to be in as safe a relationship as possible.
13. Life is excitingâsometimes sweet, sometimes violentâbut always sexual and unrated. So donât pay attention to the rating of your film during production if you want to make a film that looks like real life.
14. People who are charismatic in life are usually also charismatic on screen. Donât hesitate to ask people you meet at a party or on the streets to be in your film.
15. Always let the actors or non-actors improvise. But shoot as many different versions as needed to have the scene safely covered.
16. If the acting is bad in a scene, just cut it. The narrative will always survive the missing pieces.17. Creating new images is always far more rewarding than copying your idols. Try to achieve the films you dream of seeing, not the ones youâve already seen.
18. Make your team and actors dream of a better cinema. And show them the work of your masters.
19. Push your crew and actors to their best limits. Interesting things will happen.
20. Drink alcohol when needed, but donât get drunk.
21. If you canât prevent yourself from doing drugs, at least share them.
22. Make your decisions at the very last moment. Your intuition is always correct; do not overthink it. Last-minute ideas are always the best.
23. Try to retain at least 10, but preferably 20 percent of time in the shooting schedule for retakes or last-moment new scenes.
24. First, try to get your favorite music in the film. The musicians or the record labels could end up being very friendly to you.
25. While shooting or editing, donât listen to anybody besides the ones whose tastes you fully share.
26. Say ânoâ to the 100 people who want to stop by your editing room daily. Be especially careful with the actors and financers who never leave the room. Editing can be the most inventive moment of the whole process. Keep it sacred.
27. While shooting, or while promoting the film, donât be pretentious. There will always be a few intelligent people around who know your real value.28. Donât pay attention to the reviews. The worst ones can also make you stronger.
29. Remember, movies also die. But if theyâre really good, they might survive a little bit longer than your flesh and bones. -
This will be the cinema of young filmmakers who love
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âThere are two kinds of directors; those who have the public in mind when they conceive and make their films and those who don't consider the public at all. For the former, cinema is an art of spectacle; for the latter, it is an individual adventure. There is nothing intrinsically better about one or the other; it's simply a matter of different approaches. For Hitchcock as for Renoir, as for that matter almost all American directors, a film has not succeeded unless it is a success, that is, unless it touches the public that one has had in mind right from the moment of choosing the subject matter to the end of production. While Bresson, Tati, Rossellini, Ray make films their own way and then invite the public to join the "game," Renoir, Clouzot, Hitchcock and Hawks make movies for the public, and ask themselves all the questions they think will interest their audience. Alfred Hitchcock, who is a remarkably intelligent man, formed the habit early--right from the start of his career in England--of predicting each aspect of his films. All his life he has worked to make his own tastes coincide with the public', emphasizing humor in his English period and suspense in his American period. This dosage of humor and suspense has made Hitchcock one of the most commercial directors in the world (his films regularly bring in four times what they cost). It is the strict demands he makes on himself and on his art that have made him a great director.â
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actor and his journey with rejection
