on Woody Allen

He has an uncanny ability to be right about all the wrong things. Makes me laugh about things I should be crying on. The one (and the only memorable one) to successfully break the fourth wall in a film! There's almost no better pick-me-up than an Allen film when you are low. More so because, it picks you up and still leaves you depressed (as in Annie Hall). Perfect Cocaine, helps you and harms you. :)

I just saw Annie Hall again. I do not know what to say, I am feeling good and bad at the same time. Here, let me paraphrase:

Alvy and Annie shake hands and kiss each other friendly like.  Annie crosses
the street, Alvy watching her go.  Then he turns, and slowly walks down the
street off screen.  His voice is heard over the scene:

					ALVY'S VOICE-OVER
			After that it got pretty late.  And we
			both hadda go, but it was great seeing
			Annie again, right?  I realized what a
			terrific person she was and-and how much
			fun it was just knowing her and I-I
			thought of that old joke, you know, this-
			this-this guy goes to a psychiatrist and
			says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy.  He
			thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the
			doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn
			him in?" And the guy says, "I would, but
			I need the eggs." Well, I guess that's
			pretty much how how I feet about
			relationships.  You know, they're totally
			irrational and crazy and absurd and ...
			but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it
			because, uh, most of us need the eggs.

					THE END

beautiful!

...and a director must

A director must be able to write:

"We're willing to write for other people but we wouldn't direct a script written by somebody else...writing a script takes a few weeks, sometimes a few months. Directing a film can take up to two years of our lives. So it better be worth it!" - Ethan Coen

"...director who realizes somebody else's screenplay without being involved in it becomes a mere illustrator, resulting in dead and monotonous films" - Andrei Tarkovsky

...but, a director must always think in images (and draw and animate!):

"We like telling stories. But we don't see the writing as the best form to do that. It's just a step. We really think in terms of images." - Joel Coen

"...I would advise any future filmmaker to take a stab at animation...when you work in animation you control everything and do everything yourself: costumes, sets, lightning, framing and even, in a way, actor direction" - Jean-Pierre Jeunet

"When you're sent something and read it, either you can see it while you read it, or you can't." -
Steven Soderbergh

"It is not a just image, it is just an image" - Jean Luc Goddard

"I dream for a living." - Steven Spielberg

also, a director should be able to shoot and edit (and record sound) :

"The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure." - Francois Truffaut

"I'm obsessed by the camera" - Bernardo Bertolucci

"What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out." - Alfred Hitchcock

"Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second." - Jean-Luc Godard

"...to film the unspoken" - Claude Sautet

A director may steal:

"...one could say that the tribute is borrowing and then copying is theft. For me, only theft is justifiable. If it's necessary, one should never hesitate; every filmmaker does it"- Pedro Almodovar

"I steal from every movie ever made." - Quentin Tarantino

"Self-plagiarism is style." - Alfred Hitchcock

but, the director better know what he is talking about:

"I think the duty of a filmmaker is to tell the story he wants to tell, which means that you have to know what the hell you're talking about." - Martin Scorsese

"I'm a storyteller - that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move!" - Howard Hawks

"If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed." - Stanley Kubrick

and although he may not know a lot else:

"...its a tension between knowing exactly what you want or being able to change it according to the circumstances..." - Martin Scorsese

"The biggest danger I would warn any future filmmaker about is to think that you know everything about cinema." - Woody Allen

"I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing." - Francis Ford Coppola

"...when I get on the set, I don't know anything." - Woody Allen

he should still be a know-it-all:

"The profession of film director can and should be such a high and precious one; that no man aspiring to it can disregard any knowledge that will make him a better film director or human being." - Sergei Eisenstein

A director must think different different different:

"I failed to make the chess team because of my height." - Woody Allen

"The concept of absurdity is something I'm attracted to." - David Lynch

"A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order." - Jean-Luc Godard

"Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark?" - Steven Spielberg

"Thank God I'm an atheist." - Luis Bunuel

and whatever happens, a director must keep trying trying trying:

"I associate my motion picture career more with being unhappy and scared, or being under the gun, than with anything pleasant." - Francis Ford Coppola

"To be or not to be. That's not really a question." - Jean-Luc Godard

"Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all." - Woody Allen

A director must always stay true to the self:

"All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography." - Federico Fellini

"As for me, well, I make films for myself" - Martin Scorsese

"Each time I view my work after a film is finished: I see only the mistakes" - Jean-Pierre Jeunet

"...it has to do with the way you tell that story..." - David Lynch

but then, when it's all there, the director must, in the end, lie:

"Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering." - Steven Soderbergh

"I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself." -Francois Truffaut

"Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world. " - Jean Luc Goddard