One Does Not Have To Make Frank

The Director's Job Is To Know What Emotional Statement He Wants A Character To Convey In His Scene Or His Line, And To Exercise Taste And Judgment In Helping The Actor Give His Best Possible Performance.

The First Really Important Book I Read About Filmmaking Was The Film Technique By Pudovkin. This Was Some Time Before I Had Ever Touched A Movie Camera And It Opened My Eyes To Cutting And Montage.

Some People Demand A Five-line Capsule Summary. Something You'd Read In A Magazine. They Want You To Say, 'this Is The Story Of The Duality Of Man And The Duplicity Of Governments.' I Hear People Try To Do It -- Give The Five-line Summary -- But If A Film Has Any Substance Or Subtlety, Whatever You Say Is Never Complete, It's Usually Wrong, And It's Necessarily Simplistic: Truth Is Too Multifaceted To Be Contained In A Five-line Summary. If The Work Is Good, What You Say About It Is Usually Irrelevant.

Be Suspicious Of People Who Have, Or Crave, Power. Never, Ever Go Near Power. Don't Become Friends With Anyone Who Has Real Power. It's Dangerous.

A Satirist Is Someone Who Has A Very Skeptical View Of Human Nature, But Who Still Has The Optimism To Make Some Sort Of A Joke Out Of It. However Brutal That Joke Might Be.