Directing

I never look through the camera. The cameraman knows me well enough to know what I want -- and when in doubt, draw a rectangle and then draw out the shot for him. You see, the point is that you are, first of all, in a two-dimensional medium. Mustn't forget that. You have a rectangle to fill. Fill it. Compose it. I don't have to look through the camera for that.

When I made PSYCHO, I made it in black and white for the very simple reason that I didn't want to show the red blood flowing down the bathtub into the drain. The whole shower scene was shot as a concept imagining this woman's being stabbed to death. But if you examine the film frame by frame, you'll find that no knife ever touched the woman's body.

(Alfred Hitchcock)


A script clerk is a completely frustrated person with Hitchcock because Hitch doesn't care what people say, he looks at it visually and if the thing makes sense to him, and he hears what they say, that's it.

(James Stewart)


For THE AFRICAN QUEEN [1951] we were shooting on location in Africa, way down out of Penteville in the Belgian Congo. I had played the first scene, in which I bury Robert Morley. And the next morning, John Huston came waltzing up to my hut. I said, "I hope you're not planning to have breakfast with me every day, because I rather prefer to eat alone." And he said, "No, no. I'm just coming in for a minute." Now you know, I've a sort of hollow face and a sort of jaw, and my mouth goes down, and when my face is serious it is very on the down side. If I can smile I've got a lot of nice teeth. I can cheer everything up quite a lot. So John sat down, and he just said, "Did you ever see Mrs. Roosevelt visiting the soldiers in the hospitals?" And I said yes, I did; I did see that movie. And he said, "Well, think of her a little bit as Mrs. Roosevelt." Then he drifted off. Well, it was the most brilliant suggestion. Because she was ugly so she always smiled. So I smiled. Otherwise he said very little to me on the set. But it was an awfully clever piece of direction, wasn't it?

(Katherine Hepburn)


It's not often that I look through the camera. I know what lens they're using, and I know what it's going to look like... I direct actors about as little as possible. The better the actor, the less I have to direct. I want to get as much out of the actor himself as I can. Because wonderful accidents occur. I guide an actor rather than direct; expand a performance or reduce it. So far as the mechanical element goes -- why that's just being a traffic cop... The very best actors, the ones that fill me with admiration, are those that furnish surprises. You don't know -- I doubt that they do either -- where it comes from. They reach down into some remote cavern and come up with something that reveals a principle, something mysterious and new.

(John Huston)


So much of what Huston does isn't to do with words, but with feelings. He makes you, as an actor, feel very comfortable, also very concerned with every facet of the character you're playing. He gives you tremendous freedom, but is always watching out so that you don't go over the top. Most of all, however, is the fact that he's concerned with positive energy. He's very open, and he needs to feel that he's not stifling other people's creative energies, which, I think, is the mark of a good director. He has a great love and a passion for detail, and I love that. And he takes little incidents in life and thinks, and treats them, as though they are no less significant than the big ones... FAT CITY [1972] was probably the most productive relationship that I've had with a director in the sense that we discussed the alternatives for a scene. We never made any hard and fast resolutions. I think there's an important point a lot of directors get stuck on. A lot of them think there's one and only one possible way for a scene to be done, and that can produce a feeling that's so airtight it's almost stultifying. I think it's better to give the actor alternatives so that something can happen spontaneously during a scene that is not the manifestation of a rehearsal. But Huston does rehearse a lot. He walks through the scene many times and works with the cameraman and the actors. But he sort of lets the actor stage the scene himself. He brings the camera in and lets the actor show him. Then he'll bring in his suggestions -- something that might spice up a moment or change the tempo of a scene. It's a real collaboration in the best sense of the word.

(Stacy Keach)


Renoir arrives on the set [of THE VANISHING CORPORAL, 1962]. We have the impression that he does not know anything about the story, about the film, nothing. "Bonjour. You slept alright? What do we do today? Sit down and read the script." "We've learned the lines." "No, no, sit down and read it like a telephone directory." We sit down and read it, flatly, without acting. "My friends, please, it's fantastic. Marvelous. We shoot immediately. Put the camera here." We shoot only 3 or 4 hours afterward, but no one knows why. We change everything and you have the impression that you change it, but it's him. "Maybe it's better if you're here. You don't think so? No, no, stay there." Afterwards you go here but it's exactly a game, and when we shoot, he puts his hat off. He never says "Action." He says, "Messieurs les comedediens, s'il vous plait." And you act, and at the end he never says "Cut." The first time we did the first scene of the film and we finished the scene and [Renoir said] nothing. And with Claude Brassuer we continued, and suddenly it's "What a pity we have to stop." And we look at him and he's crying. "Thank you, thank you. Just once more for pleasure. For my pleasure." And we played it. And we were in love with this man all the time.

(Jean-Pierre Cassel)


I don't really believe in the idea of an actor being required at a given moment to incarnate a particular character. I never try to get a virtuoso performance out of an actor in an attempt to make him express something which, on the human level, on the level of his own personality, I know is just not him... I never make the mistake -- for I think it is one -- of making the actor enter into a character. On the contrary, I always try to do the opposite, namely to let the character take on the color of whatever actor I have available for the part. One of the things I really try to do... is to make friends with an actor before starting work. Naturally, this is not a method that I can recommend to everyone, and even for me making friends can be difficult enough... The definite casting of minor roles, or indeed sometimes even the main ones themselves, is for me one of the agonizing moments. Because I fall in love with everybody. For example, I see the character as bald, slurring his r's, nerveless, and with hairy hands, and I see him clearly; I saw him vividly when I was conceiving him. And I start looking round to find that physical presence which will embody my character. And then there comes to see me a man who is thin, with a lot of hair, with long artist's hands, and a perfect pronunciation. By the very fact that this is someone alive, speaking and looking at me, somebody who has a particular accent, who breathes, who lights his cigarette in a certain way, all this makes him so much more alive than my own imagined character that I say to myself, "Instead of looking for that particular type, maybe I could use this one." And then I see it will work out just as well, better perhaps, and everything is in the melting pot again, making it all more harassing than ever. Then a second man turns up, not very thin, an average chap, and now I find this one, too, could bring to my character the authenticity of his own life, of his presence. So you see the casting of a character becomes a real drama, because they would all be good -- they all communicate something to me. Any real living person moves me, influences me, stimulates my imagination...

(Federico Fellini)


Fellini is one of the few directors who really likes actors, and an actor feels this and responds to it -- in other words, he is happy. And he is convinced that every time he opens his mouth he is saying everything splendidly. That is a great secret. Fellini is very crafty in his dealing with actors, very crafty indeed. I say this because, when I have been with other directors who, like Fellini, really direct the acting, I have always been afraid of going wrong, but with him I always feel I am being marvelous... the truth is that I have never worked so happily as in LA DOLCE VITA [1960]. I have never enjoyed myself so much, and I really mean enjoyed. For six months I really felt that I was an exceptional man, so that everything was bound to go right.

(Marcello Mastroianni)