10 Favorite Director Quotes Relay Race

David Zou at Taste of Cinema has thought up a new blog-a-thon relay race, and was kind enough to pass the baton over to me... I love director quotes, so fun to take part!

Here's how it has gone so far:
David at Taste Of Cinema
Chris at Movies And Songs 365


The idea in David's own words:
People love wisdom words from great minds,as a cinephile,I prefer director quotes than words from any other group of people in the world.Their thoughts on cinema not only provide insights into deep understanding of cinema,but also open the window to their own films,their genres,their filmmaking methods,thus need to receive more exposure as their films did.

The rules of the relay race:
I will list 10 of my favorites quotes from directors and comment on each of them in my post,then I will pass the baton to the next blogger.

Each of the participants should first add all the post links in the relay race history,then list the 10 quotes with all the comments in the previous blogger’s post,then you can do it in two ways:

1. Remove 2 comments and add 2 comments

2. Remove 1 quote +1 comment and add 1 quote + 1 comment

then pass the baton to the next one.

I will update this post every 10 days by adding the post urls of those who participate in this blog-a-thon.

I bring this up for 2 major purposes:

1. More director quotes can be shared and appreciated by bloggers

2. Bloggers’ ideas about cinema can be shared and appreciated by each other

Let’s hear their voices!

“I steal from every single movie ever made. I love it – if my work has anything it’s that I’m taking this from this and that from that and mixing them together. If people don’t like that, then tough titty, don’t go and see it, alright? I steal from everything. Great artists steal; they don’t do homages.” – Quentin Tarantino

David's Comments:

Bold and honest statement from a guy who surely knows how to steal.I bet the video renting shop experience must have helped Tarantino a lot to become an important director in modern cinema,I remember seeing his interviews in Reservoir Dogs DVD and he makes a long list of films he “steals” from,this must have happened in all his films.

Homage is a beautiful word invented by film critics,steal is a much more proper word,but I don’t care what it’s called as long as the director steals “stylistically”,I like finding these hidden “homages” as a test to my cinephile quality.

“Actually, I can’t stand watching violent scenes in films; I avoid watching horror films. I don’t tend to watch action films mainly because I find them boring, but I watch the films of David Cronenberg and Martin Scorsese, usually in a state close to having a heart attack. I’m a complete coward. I make violent films as a result of my sensitivity to violence—in other words, my fear of violence.” - Park Chan-wook

David's Comments:

It’s interesting to call David Cronenberg and Martin Scorsese films as action films,but let’s focus on the last sentence,it sounds unconvincing first but the more you think about it,the more you find its philosophy.Directors make films based on their own feelings,if something can cause them fear,they know it can do the same thing to the audience.That’s why Hitchcock projects his fear of murder and police in his childhood experience to the big screen,he knew we would feel the same,or even more fearful then he felt.

“An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before?” – Francis Ford Coppola

David's Comments:

We can understand this quote much better from a director who made Apocalypse Now,which probably is one of the most risk-taking picture ever made in cinema history.So many directors had encountered the tragedy of short of filming budget for the next project,the most famous example is Tati,who spent all his money on building the Tativille for the shooting of Playtime and became broke after the film’s box office failure,this disaster almost killed his career. Coppola took the risk few directors would dare to take and it was paid off,Apocalypse Now is so beautiful and unique,arguably the best war picture of all time,if you have no idea what hell Coppola had been through,check out his wife’s documentary – Hearts of Darkness.

“Unlike all the other art forms, film is able to seize and render the passage of time, to stop it, almost to possess it in infinity. I’d say that film is the sculpting of time.” – Andrei Tarkovsky

David's Comments:

We ain’t talking about “bullet time” here,we are talking about the feel of Tarkovsky films.”film is the sculpting of time” ,what a beautiful metaphor,just like his poetic films,when I watch Nostalgia and Mirror,I can’t feel time,it was like I was going to stay in the dreams or memories of the protagonist forever,the view of another different world is so beautiful that I wouldn’t want to leave.

“A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.” – Stanley Kubrick

David's Comments:

Forget about these arguments about film and fiction,which is a more powerful form BS,sometimes an image of film can speak 1000 words,but can a word speak 1000 images? Definitely NO.Moods and feelings always hit you in the heart first than anything else,and film is all about emotions and psychology,that’s why we shouldn’t care too much about the plot and that’s why such a highly emotional film Vertigo can hit No.1 in the Sight&Sound list.

“I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.” – Alfred Hitchcock

David's Comments:

Are you sure the audience is not looking for your cameo,Mr. Hitchcock? Being typed is not a bad thing if you can be the greatest in the niche,Ozu is a even more typed auteur than Hitch,but he still is directors’ favorite in the Sight&Sound director poll.Cinema is about breaking new grounds,but it’s also about consistency,after the auteur forms his own style,his own cinematic language,all he need to do is stick to it for the rest of his/her career,sometimes the consistency is more precious than invention in filmmaking.

“Why make a movie about something one understands completely? I make movies about things I do not understand, but wish to.” – Seijun Suzuki

David's Comments:

I think Pedro Armodovar’s quote below is exactly what I want to say here.

“I don’t like the idea of “understanding” a film. I don’t believe that rational understanding is an essential element in the reception of any work of art. Either a film has something to say to you or it hasn’t. If you are moved by it, you don’t need it explained to you. If not, no explanation can make you moved by it.” – Federico Fellini

David's Comments:

Just as what Kubrick said,film is more about feeling than understanding.I often fell in love with films I can’t fully understand,like my favorite film 2001:A Space Odyssey,I still can’t understand it and I firmly believe nobody in this world can,but I can feel the beauty and profoundity in it.People always like to ask Gordard fans if they truly understand his films,that’s nonsense,even to a guy like me who is not a Gordard enthusiast,how do you suppose to appreciate his cinema by understanding it?

“When I make a film, I never stop uncovering mysteries, making discoveries. When I’m writing, filming, editing, even doing promotional work, I discover new things about the film, about myself, and about others. That is what I’m subconsciously looking for when shooting a film: to glimpse the enigmas of life, even if I don’t resolve them, but at least to uncover them. Cinema is curiosity in the most intense meaning of the word.” – Pedro Armodovar

David's Comments:

This is what exactly I’m looking for when watching a film too,to see life in microscope,to see minor things we usually won’t pay attention to in real life.I need films to feed my big appetite for knowledge and life experience,thanks to those directors,they are the magicians who reveal another world to us.


I bid farewell to:

“To me, watching a movie is like going to an amusement park. My worst fear is making a film that people don’t think is a good ride.” – Darren Aronofsky


Why above quote has to go: I quite like the analogy of an amusement park. What Aronofsky says is important, but compared to other quotes, it doesn't really blow me away. Probably I need context for it to really speak to me.


Say hello to:

“All my movies are about strange worlds that you can't go into unless you build them and film them. That's what's so important about film to me. I just like going into strange worlds.” - David Lynch

Chris’ Comment:
I thought about going with a quote about how important final cut and creative freedom is to David Lynch, but I think that statement speaks for itself. The quote I picked is also about having an artistic vision, creating an imaginary universe only available as cinema. For me, Lynch’s films take you to a unique world that is beautiful, nightmarish and atmospheric.
You could also apply ”can’t go” to historical events, for example experiencing sailing on the Titanic in James Cameron’s 1997 film, or the battle of Normandy in Saving Private Ryan (1998). You wouldn’t want to die of course, but the movies are so believable, that the filmmakers trick you into thinking you are right there.


I’m gonna pass my baton to Alex Withrow at And So It Begins, look forward to seeing what he has in store for us. Have fun!

The Decalogue (1989) Episode 6

The Decalogue 6

Spoilers occur about the ending, this review is intended for those who have already watched the film.

Summary:
19-year-old Tomek has for some time secretly spied on his beautiful 30something neighbor Magda in the opposite building using a telescope, especially when she has male company, which is not a rare occurrence. He knows it’s wrong. However, for Tomek, observing her has become an obsession, and he even allows himself to interfere with her life, phone calls, delivering milk, and withholding mail (he is employed at the local post office). His new gimmick, to send her messages in the post, leads him to confess it was him all along spying on her. As the initial irritation wears off, she invites him to visit. She wants to demonstrate to him, that love is nothing more than a physical act. He hurries home to commit suicide. Magda becomes obsessed, possibly not with Tomek, but with his welfare and her guilt. She regrets her conduct, more than that, she discovers a lost feeling. A feeling which in her opinion doesn’t exist.

Analysis and interpretation:
Magda has a cynical view of love, the physical act of love dominates her life, she doesn't allow herself to become emotionally involved, and claims not to believe in emotional love.

In this case, love evolves from sexual perversion. Lust and voyeurism are connected. Tomek realizes he is observing areas of a personality, which rarely are seen by others, because the person thinks they are alone. He thought she was strong and insensitive, but he observes her crying (screenshot above), he sees a glimmer of her true self, and this is likely why he starts to fall for her. A theme of the story is also loneliness. There are many windows between people. Everyone suffers in their corners. Episode 6 is a cat-and-mouse game of voyeur and victim, with an exchange of roles between the two about 2/3 of the way through.

Tomek is a voyeur, an onlooker, he seeks sexual gratification by watching a woman having sex in the opposite building. Through his telescope he makes the sexual activities a threesome, and some viewers might even call it a foursome, as we are watching the watcher. He feels pity for Magda, when she cries following a fight, in her loveless frame of mind, he can put himself in her place. But you couldn't claim what he is feeling inside is a healthy love, he has not yet had the chance to get to know Magda, her attributes and needs. Tomek naively puts her on a pedestal without knowing who she in fact is on the inside.

As Deciphering The Decalogue writes: “Tomek and Magda really need to reflect on what it really means to love someone, because both of their views, whether it be spying on someone or just engaging in sexual relations, were blinding them to see what love really is.”

We know very little about Magda's childhood, but her actions suggests someone who has led a loveless upbringing. Her behavior implies she doesn't really know what love is, and doesn't understand the difference between emotional and physical love. Or perhaps she was hurt so deeply that she never wants to experience that emotional pain again. She doesn't express that she loves herself, let alone other people. Her sexual life is an ever-changing mess, and maybe that's the way she wants it, but the price to pay is no meaningful, emotional relationships to others. Despite all the sex, she is a tragic woman, which the crying Tomak is witness to. Magda seeks to fill the empty emotional void by having various men admire her for her sexual favors. This is why she has no problems with being observed by Tomek, she can't get enough acceptance and confirmation from men, a deficit she can never satisfy.

As with other characters during The Decalogue, Tomek does not have a father figure, and his mother is not there, the most important role models in his life are absent. He grew up in an orphanage, and lives with his friend's lonely mother. Tomek tells Magda during a conversation, that he prefers to repress thoughts of his mother, probably because it hurts so much to remember her betrayal.

As reviewer at damaris notes: “It is one thing to recreate a kind of fantasy world not unlike the fairy tales about love we heard as a child, but once we enter into a relationship, we soon realize that creating intimacy with another human being is often difficult and messy, and requires a lot of effort and care.” (…) “Both Tomek and Magda are in some ways contemptible, some ways pitiable, and some ways admirable. As in Decalogue V, Kieslowski loves to create complex characters about whom we feel conflicted. Tomek is initially presented as a creepy, voyeuristic teenager who has nothing better to do with his time than to spy on the intimate life of his female neighbor. As the film goes on, however, we see that Tomek is actually a very sensitive and caring individual who holds a very admirable (if naive) view of love and relationship. Likewise, Magda is initially presented as a promiscuous, cynical and lonely woman, but we later see an affectionate, almost maternal side and someone whose heart has been awakened to new possibilities in relationships. Characters like these demonstrate Kieslowski’s commitment to present characters that are fully human; not one-dimensional but reflecting the ever-present complex interaction and tension between human dignity and depravity. “

Kieslowski on the longer version, A Short Film About Love (1988): “The interesting thing about it is the perspective. We always look at the world seen with the eyes of a person who loves. Not with the eyes of someone, who is being loved. To start with we see it from the boy’s perspective, Tomek, who is in love with the woman, Magda, but we know nothing about her. We only see her, as he sees her. A moment happens where we see them together; then the perspective changes completely. When Magda starts to have feelings for him, first pity, later a matter of conscience, and later on also a sort of affection, we start to see the world through her eyes. And we don’t see him anymore. He disappears, he slits his wrists and is transported to the hospital. We are never at the hospital with him. Everything is now seen from her point of view. The change of perspective 2/3 into the film is an interesting structural intervention. We share the point of view with the character, who loves, not with the loved one. The loved one has gone to pieces and become an object. Love is so difficult, for the young man, but later also for the woman. (…) and this love is always connected to some form of suffering, a kind of impossibility. Tomek spies on Magda. Then Magda attempts to locate Tomek. Due to guilt, but probably also because she is reminded , that she also at an earlier time behaved much like him. When she was his age, or maybe younger, her behavior was similar to him. Pure of heart and convinced of the existence of love. But then she got burned. She has touched something red-hot, which hurt terribly, and decided to never love again, because she realized, that the stakes were too high. But then this situation occurred.”


Verdict:
Episode 6 is very well edited, a lot happens in the hour it lasts. Connected to the sixth imperative of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." you could argue that the longer theatrical edit, entitled A Short Film About Love (1988) was a more fitting title. The Commandment confuses more than anything for Episode 6. Magda is violating the commandment, though she is unmarried. The 6th commandment is not only about adultery, but also improper conduct.
I have to admit age difference in a relationship depicted on screen I have grown a little weary of, but this is one of the most powerful dealing with that issue I can remember. The main theme is voyeurism, observing and secretly spying on other people’s lives. But Kieslowski has also been looking at us (in all ten) and showing us ourselves. Another theme is emotional love and physical love, and how it can be difficult to figure out, when the person you desire may not have compatible ideas about love.
Episode 6 deals expertly with the matter of naïve, vulnerable feelings of youth, and cynical, world-weary experience. So much of the story is told without dialogue, and is about longing and unspoken desire, rather than words. Tomek is basically violating Magda’s privacy, we know it’s wrong of him, but we somehow become fascinated by Magda’s life in the same way Tomek does. There is a certain thrill in the forbidden. However, you could question the realism in 19-year-old Tomek’s actions.
Tomek and Magda have now seen what is possible within a relationship, and though it may not happen between themselves, there is hope that they will offer genuine love and intimacy to someone in the future. Sex does not equal love, but love can include sex as one of its expressions.
I never figured out what the spilt milk symbolizes, anyone? Happens when she is crying in screenshot 7, and again outside Magda's door, when Tomek visits her.



Next time, I'll look at Episode 7. Readers of this review, any thoughts on Episode 6?


Quotations:
Kieslowski on Kieslowski / Danusia Stok

noripcord

Deciphering The Decalogue

damaris

American V: A Hundred Highways - Johnny Cash (2006)

American V: A Hundred Highways is a posthumous album by Johnny Cash. The quality of the vocal is all the more remarkable because Cash was in very poor health.

Producer Rick Rubin, in linear notes of album sleeve:
“I could always tell how Johnny was feeling each day from the sound of his voice and his breathing. Some days his voice was weak and he sounded like he was panting, trying to get enough air. Other days his voice boomed with power and gravity. You can hear the difference on some of these songs…Sometimes he booms and other times he sounds weaker and more vulnerable”

After your mum (June Carter Cash) died, he (Johnny Cash) went back to recording pretty quickly.
John Carter Cash: He (father) went back into the studio ten days after she died, and really started working hard. It’s a life lesson that a parent’s motto is “Press On”. That was the title of mom’s record, Press On.

Yeah, and your dad wrote a song called “Drive On”
Yeah, Drive On”. There’s a lot to say that in the face of pain and misery or struggle, you don’t stop”
He recorded up until two weeks before he died.

Rubin: “I think of songs for him all the time. There was one that we were planning to do for the next album, that we hadn’t gotten to yet, and I’m sick about it “A Place in the Sun” by Stevie Wonder. I envisioned that as the greatest Johnny Cash song ever. I played it for him, and he was down for doing it when he got to California. But he died the week before he was going to come”

The album takes its name from a lyric on the track "Love's Been Good to Me" by Rod McKuen; the opening verse begins (emphasis added):
I have been a rover
I have walked alone
Hiked a hundred highways
Never found a home

Even in death, Johnny Cash topped the Billboard 200 with the album American V: A Hundred Highways. It is his first No. 1 album since 1969's Johnny Cash at San Quentin with 88,000 copies sold in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.


Stand-out tracks:

God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash




If You Could Read My Mind - Johnny Cash (Lightfoot cover)




Further On Up the Road - Johnny Cash (Bruce Springsteen cover)




Love's Been Good to Me - Johnny Cash (Rod McKuen/Frank Sinatra cover)





What did you think of the music? Any thoughts?



Sources:
Cash - by Rolling Stone Magazine (2004) (biography)
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
Unearthed boxset booklet
Album sleeves
Johnny Cash: The Last Great American (2004) (documentary)

Monthly links from the blogosphere: September

New running feature on my blog...

Ryan, CS, Duke, Shala, Courtney, and others have been covering the Toronto Film Festival. I'm disappointed about the lukewarm reviews for Malick's To The Wonder, but happy to see positive buzz for Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha (2012), which is so under-the-radar it didn't even have an official IMDB entry a few weeks ago.

Bradley Cooper seems a bit old for Jennifer Lawrence, and the trailer I think gives too much away, but Silver Linings Playbook won the People's Choice Award in Toronto, and looks to be a possible contender at 2013 Academy Awards. From what I'm reading, the film is quite conversational, which is something I like from a movie.

Bonjour Tristesse celebrated his two year anniversary. Happy blogiversary, BT! He also looked at the recent Venice Film Festival, sharing review cuttings. The Master appears to have been the highlight of the festival.

Sati shares her honest thoughts on why she didn't like the new HBO show Girls, which has made me uncertain if I would enjoy the show, because I value her opinion. I think I'll just have to watch a few episodes, and see if it's for me, because I also listen to Alex Withrow's viewpoints, and he praised the show Please Permit Me to Rave About Girls. Maybe a love it or hate it kind of thing?

SDG at U Me and Films reviews Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy. I loved The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), my favorite western so far, and I'm looking forward to finally watching the other two in the series very soon.

Andina at Inspired Ground shares Memorable Movie Moments #1 : Pools

Josh at The Cinematic Spectacle provides us with his September Oscar predictions

SJHoneywell at 1001plus reviews under-appreciated Smoke (1995)

Dan at Public Transportation Snob reviews Before Sunrise (1995), one of my favorites.

Steven at Surrender to the Void warms up for The Master by watching There Will Be Blood

David at Taste of Cinema lists his 21 Useful Tips For Being A Better Movie Buff, and writes an interesting article on Why Chinese-language Films Are Ignored by the West

Chip at Tips From Chip loved A Fish Called Wanda, one of my favorite comedies.

Stephanie Ward from On Page and Screen writes about 10 Book to Movie Adaptations I Read But Never Watched

Mette at Lime Reviews discusses A History of Boredom. Slow movies she loves, and slow movies that she finds boring.

3guys1movie ask what is your favorite TV show?



That's all folks! In a few days I'll post my monthly what have I been watching in September

Favorite Twin Peaks moments 7

Readers, any thoughts on the Twin Peaks screenshots?