“I think that a film should have a good story, a clear story, and it should have, if possible, something which is probably the most difficult thing – it should have a little bit of magic. Magic being untouchable and very difficult to cast, you can’t deal with it at all. You can only try to prepare some nests, hoping that a little bit of magic will slide into them.” –Emeric Pressburger Continue reading Born On This Day – December 5, 1902
“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing — that it all started with a mouse.” “Over at our place, we’re sure of just one thing: everybody in the world was once a child. So in planning a new picture, we don’t think of grown-ups, and we don’t think of children, but just of that fine, clean, unspoiled spot down deep in every one of us that maybe the world has made us forget and that maybe our pictures can help recall.” –Walt Disney “I think that a film should have a good story, a clear story, … Continue reading Born On This Day – December 5
“Of course, all films are surrealist. They are because they are making something that looks like a real world but isn’t.” “Seventy years ago there were men like D.W. Griffith and seventy years later – now – there are not many men like Martin Scorsese. But so long as there is one there will be others, and the art of the cinema will survive.” –Michael Powell “One, we owe allegiance to nobody except the financial interests which provide our money; and, to them, the sole responsibility of ensuring them a profit, not a loss. Two, every single foot in our … Continue reading Born On This Day – September 30
“The great innovators have always been fearless . . . I have fallen off haystacks, out of trees, over cliffs. I have been nearly drowned, shot and hanged. I have been in countless car crashes without getting a scratch. I have been alone in an office with Louis B. Mayer.” –Michael Powell Continue reading In Their Words – Saturday, April 27, 2013
The study of cinema is the study of directors, or more accurately, the study of auteurs. Single visions brought to life via a committee. Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, John Ford, all of these names immediately pop into our minds when we think of directors. Their films are connected through common motifs, iconic imagery, recurring themes, and most importantly, a singular vision captured. One man helming the show. The problems with this idea is simple, cinema is quite possibly the most collaborative form of artistic expression. Both a blend of consumer oriented marketing and genuine emotional pathos, it takes a village of hundreds, sometimes … Continue reading The Archers
“…how many times have I told you that a film is not words … it is thoughts, and feelings, surprises, suspense, accident.” -Emeric Pressburger Continue reading In Their Words – Thursday, October 4, 2012
“We had all been told for ten years to go out and die for freedom and democracy, for this and for that, and now that the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go and die for art.” -Michael Powell Continue reading In Their Words – Saturday, September 15, 2012
“…no artist believes in escapism. And we secretly believe that no audience does. […] they will pay to see truth, for other reasons than her nakedness.” -Michael Powell Continue reading In Their Words – Sunday, August 19, 2012
