Stanley Donen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMC8kHycgwM
Ron Howard.
[Insert director]
@apursansar: Jodorowsky thinks quite highly of himself, if you ever get your hands on one of his audio commentaries (like the one he made for El Topo) you’ll hear a bunch of self-aggrandizing anecdotes.
One filmmaker that hasn’t been mentioned is Carl Theodor Dreyer, there is footage of him in the Criterion edition of Gertrud where he is at the avant premiere of this film, and there’s Jean Renoir, Godard with Anna Karina, Rohmer, Truffaut all hanging out with him and you can tell he’s the quietest, sweetest guy ever. “I know your films!” he says to Renoir, “Well I like yours as well” he replies back. I believe it’s on youtube. It’s a lovely document.
Another well-known auteur whom I think had similar issues was Robert Bresson, there’s also footage of him receiving the “Prix Cinema du Creation” along with Tarkovsky (handed by Orson Welles himself), and as quickly as his name was pronounced some critics and part of the audience started booing at him, and then he appears, walking quickly, shoulders way down and staring at the ground. Then in an interview he was asked something like: “Your films seem to be very frustrating for the audience…” to which he replies: “First of all, where is this audience you’re talking about”. That seems to be indictment enough for me.
“@apursansar: Jodorowsky thinks quite highly of himself, if you ever get your hands on one of his audio commentaries (like the one he made for El Topo) you’ll hear a bunch of self-aggrandizing anecdotes.”
Yes, I listened to some of those commentaries. That´s why I also mentioned him on the “FILMMAKERS WITH THE BIGGEST EGO” thread.
All the bad ones.
Francisco R, Bresson had a big ego. He seems kind of humble sometimes but he thought every other filmmaker was ‘wrong’. Apparently he said that if L’Argent didn’t win the Palme d’Or it’d be his last film. That press conference went like this: “Why do you make films that frustrate the spectator?”, “Which spectators are you talking about? You?” Laughter.
David Lynch. Guy is completely without ego, posturing, irony, or whatever. He loves and believes in what he does.
How about Weerasethakul, look at how he usually talks.
Woody Allen is as modest as a film maker with his acclaim can get. He doesn’t really understand why his films are adored as they are. He doesn’t even like most of his films. There are only a handful he looks back on with positive feelings, like Cairo and Stardust Memories.
^ Or is that all part of the act?
Woody Allen in interviews for the longest time isn’t the jester he once was. I’m not getting an act vibe out of him nowadays at all. He doesn’t really avoid questions with humor and is more open than he used to be.
But of all directors that we could pick, I’d think that he’d be the most able to contort his public persona. I’m not saying you’re wrong (or right), but just that Allen knows how to play the game.
There seems to be ummmmm…..not a dichotomy, but a conflict between self affirmation and self awareness.
By that I mean the drive-to-selfaffirmation is blocked by these large egos and the fixation on that condition precludes self awareness – the self awareness that both parties have egos, one is just louder than the other.
Anyone else getting that? or are we savages?
There are basically only two subject matters in all Western culture: sex and death. We do have some ability to manipulate sex nowadays. We have no ability, and never will have, to manipulate death. – Peter Greenaway
Coming soon: “FILMMAKERS WITH ALTER EGOS”
Joks
Jerry: surely the reason he got 50 mimm and stars for T.R.L because the reputation of his films had grown over the years? it isnt like Badlands or Days made huge dollars at their time of release