- Recommends going very fast in shooting scenes. Rene Clair would get a scene perfect, and then say let’s do it again but faster. But is this just for comedy?
- Filmmakers have a natural biological rhythm. Allen’s is shorter, Scorcese’s is longer.
- The first thing the audience sees in a film and the last he tries to make special. He also says the end has to be special. ‘Have a theatrical quality.’
- The first 2 or 3 minutes, good filmmakers can bring you into their world.
- Acting in a play after it has opened is the easiest job in the world. You work for an hour and a half and the rest of the day is yours.
- A central driver in his work is the contention between reality and fantasy. He used movies to escape the harshness of his life. He still hasn’t grown out of that.
- He says the writer creates the world that he’d like to live in, where things turn out the way that he wants. But this isn’t always true for everyone.
- Found Diane Keaton to be a muse. But maybe more than that a creative partner.
- Doesn’t prepare a lot. Does the bare minimum and then wants spontaneity. Usually doesn’t carry the script with him on the set. ‘The less I study it, the fresher it is to me.’
- Doesn’t do too many takes, 2 to 4. ‘One, plus one for protection.’
- Listen to Cole Porter.
- Used very little music in Annie Hall as an experiment. Also influenced by Bergman and his non-use of music. I think he is wrong on this. Wong Kar Wai is an excellent example of why.
- Used very simple titles. What’s the point? Created a brand.
- Does hardly any coverage anymore, just works from long master shots. But he probably had to learn enough to do this.
- Something changed in him with Annie Hall xand he started writing good women’s parts. Better than the men’s part. An internal change he thinks.
- “For me it’s like stamping out cookies. I finish a film and I go onto the next one.”
- “I love the relationship of women to women.”
- “artists frequently are selfish. They need time alone, they need discipline and they need sometimes to behave with people in ways that are important for them but are not really very nice for other people. And Renata has come to the realisation that early on that her art is not going to save her, and it’s bothering her. I sometimes feel that art is the intellectual’s religion. … But the truth of the matter is art doesn’t save you.” By save, he means give you life.
- Recommends I read The Deniel of Death by Ernest Becker.
- Recommends Scorcese pictures as having great dialogue.
- “Yes, from the first day I ever made a film. Editing is a part of the making of a film. It’s so utterly, utterly crucial …”
- “What’s important is that your work is a part of your daily life and you can live decently. You can, as in my case, do other things I want to do at the same time.” Restaurants, children, playing music etc.
Posted 2 years ago
