“I trained myself to be able to imagine an entire musical sequence without having sets put up on the stage, to film it exactly as it would be seen on the screen without the help of editing or of multiple cameras. Everything is prepared in my head beforehand. I tell the cameraman what I want, […]
“I felt the urge to direct, because I couldn’t stomach what was being done with what I wrote.” — Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-1993) “I couldn’t do films today. In fact I sensed that – I must have sensed that even more than I thought I did, like a hurricane way off on the horizon. You […]
“There are some things which cannot be learned, though they can be studied. Among them are the laws of art—and the lawlessness of it, as well.” — Josef von Sternberg, posing next to a bronze bust of himself, created by Rudolf Belling in 1930. The Casa von Sternberg, built in 1935 by Richard Neutra. […]
“Yep, this business is the biggest gamble. It’s very true here that prosperity is just around the corner. And there are a lot of corners in making pictures.” — W.S. Van Dyke Source: 1937 “There’s a movie boner in ‘Naughty Marietta’ which no one noticed. I’m surprised no one saw it. Miss MacDonald is […]
“The permanent photoplay of the future will be composed of these elements: A play written by a scenario writer, rather than a dramatist; directed by a motion picture director and played by a motion picture cast. The sooner stage stars who have come into the pictures merely for the big money, get out of it, […]
“Audience look for the dramatic realism of today. The world is vibrant with life and activity and it is from this life with its intensely human characters that the dramas for the screens must be taken. No period in the world’s history has been richer in dramatic material than the one in which we now live. […]
“The way to write a good moving picture comedy is first to get your idea; you’ll find that either in sex or crime. Those two fields are the great feeding grounds of funny ideas. Having found your hub idea, you build out the spokes; those are the natural developments that your imagination will suggest. Then […]
“Give me any two pages of the Bible and I’ll give you a picture.” — Cecil B. DeMille “They gave me the laugh when I tried to interest them in photodrama. ‘Nothing doing on that legitimate stuff,’ they told me. ‘the stage is one thing and moving pictures another,’ and they laughed in unison […]
“There are moments when it’s too quiet. Particularly late at night or early in the mornings. That’s when you know there’s something lacking in your life. You just know.” — Frank Sinatra “Call it self-confidence. Call it cockiness – call it anything, but it has always been true of me that when I get […]
“But I’m sure Hollywood isn’t what it used to be. Once it was what people expected, a wild boom town, where a new gold had been discovered, and actors, naturally a crazy and vagabond ilk, ran loose. Today that’s gone. Hollywood is horribly respectable. The actors are too sober. They play cricket and polo; they […]