• 2 months ago
English - French onstage translation - In February of 1982, Orson Welles was sixty-six years old and hadn’t completed a dramatic feature since the docu-fiction “F for Fake,” from 1973. He was in France, to be decorated as a commander of the Légion d’Honneur, and while there he paid a visit to the Cinémathèque Française, for a Q. & A. Master Class with film students, mostly Film Directing students. The event was filmed by Pierre-André Boutang and Guy Seligmann; it’s both a moving portrait of the caged cinematic lion (who died in 1985, without making another feature) and an enduringly insightful set of lessons on the art and the practice of making movies.

Orson Welles' Filmmaking Master Class I - University of Southern California - 1981 - Restored 2001 - 4K on SN: https://dai.ly/x95975q

Welles declares his desire for the session to be a dialogue; the students (who form a standing-room crowd) prove reticent, however, and he makes strenuously good-humored efforts to get them to engage—and then delivers generous, copious, blazingly uninhibited answers to their brief questions. The discussion is moderated by Henri Béhar, who also serves as the onstage translator. The time that it takes Béhar to repeat Welles’s remarks in French (and, at times, to put the students’ questions into English) lends the discussion a natural rhythm, within which Welles composes his thoughts with rhetorical flair and invests them with dramatic weight and comedic timing. Welles, who was one of the greatest and grandest of actors and also of directors, turns the event into a performance—without sacrificing a whit of candor. He brings a mighty, Shakespearean pathos and comedy to the casually structured occasion.


Orson Welles à la Cinémathèque française
Pierre-André Boutang, Guy Seligmann
France / 1983 / 1:33:11
Avec Orson Welles, Henri Béhar.
Le 24 février 1982, invité à Paris pour être décoré de la Légion d'honneur des mains de François Mitterrand, et pour présider la cérémonie des Césars, Orson Welles dialoguait avec un public essentiellement composé de jeunes auditeurs.
Numérisation d'un élément inversible 16 mm (1 116 mètres) issu des collections de la Cinémathèque française.

Copyright - All rights reserved to their respective owners.

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Read the unabridged plays online: https://shakespearenetwork.net/works/plays

Screen Adaptation - Co-Production : MISANTHROPOS – Official Website - https://www.misanthropos.net

Adapted by Maximianno Cobra, from Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens", the film exposes the timeless challenge of social hypocrisy, disillusion and annihilation against the poetics of friendship, love, and beauty.

IMDb page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6946736/

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Learning
Transcript
00:01:00I didn't say it wasn't necessary.
00:01:19I said I didn't want to be a Buddhist.
00:01:25It's always necessary.
00:01:30I didn't want to be introduced because I don't want this to seem like a formal occasion.
00:01:43This was my idea, and I hope that it will be a kind of séance, a kind of dialogue between
00:01:54us.
00:01:57I would like...
00:01:58I am more curious about you than you are about me, and I would like to ask you questions
00:02:08as well, and I would like to hear different points of view and arguments, and I would
00:02:17be... would accept with, if not with pleasure, at least with great interest, any insults
00:02:26that you may have ready for me.
00:02:37I apologize for the fact that I am not wearing my decoration.
00:02:43My suits don't have the hole that you're supposed to put them in.
00:02:54But at the same time, I don't speak to you as somebody covered with honors, but just
00:03:01an old filmmaker talking to some young ones, and I would like to know, first of all, I
00:03:09detest polls, but let's take a little poll.
00:03:13Now, how many people here are students of cinema?
00:03:38How many intend to make films their profession?
00:03:54Bravo.
00:03:57That's good.
00:04:00I like that.
00:04:03How many do not wish to be met en scène?
00:04:12They are the lucky ones.
00:04:18I hope for the sake of some of you that you will realize that the other branches of movie
00:04:26making are just as much fun.
00:04:32And above all, much less of a headache.
00:04:41And above all, much less of a headache.
00:04:51And above all, much less of a headache.
00:05:03So maybe I made one convert, but I doubt it.
00:05:12I would like to know how many of these met en scène to be.
00:05:22How many of these future directors?
00:05:30Politically engaged.
00:05:37That's a big one.
00:05:40Two?
00:05:42Two, three.
00:05:43Four.
00:05:44Five.
00:05:48Pierre-Charles More.
00:05:57That stops right now.
00:05:59Stops right now.
00:06:00Back.
00:06:01About ten feet you get a much better shot.
00:06:03Zoom.
00:06:11That's the first lesson of the met en scène.
00:06:15That's the first lesson of the met en scène.
00:06:20However, be very careful with the zoom.
00:06:23Don't use it too much.
00:06:30Now then, is there among you, how many people are primarily interested in
00:06:40entertaining the public without any other consideration?
00:06:50Then we have two who are engagés and three who are interested in entertaining the public.
00:06:57That leaves us a very interesting group in the middle that I don't understand.
00:07:03I take it then, and you must correct me if I'm wrong,
00:07:13that those of you who have said, who have declined to raise your hands on the word
00:07:23entertainment are perhaps thinking that you want to make films which are serious
00:07:31rather than films which carry a message.
00:07:34Or am I wrong?
00:07:53Does anybody want to comment on that?
00:07:55Does anybody want to comment on that?
00:08:05No comment?
00:08:26Because pure entertainment, by that I wasn't speaking of rigolo,
00:08:30a film that you're going to laugh at.
00:08:38It's a film made primarily to amuse the public, either by terrifying them
00:08:44or making them laugh or exciting them sexually or for any other reason.
00:08:56That is what I mean by a film whose pure intention is entertainment.
00:09:12Stand up, would you?
00:09:20Quiet in the back there.
00:09:25A second lesson for the director.
00:09:42No argument. I was not searching for boring film directors.
00:09:47You're not looking for film directors who want to make boring films.
00:09:51I don't think that... I believe that those among us who are directors
00:10:00who believe that they have something to tell the public besides diversion
00:10:07do not set out to be boring.
00:10:21And they do not consider themselves light or unimportant.
00:10:33I would ask a moment of 30 seconds of silence while we meditate on the name Molière.
00:10:42If you don't mind, I would ask a moment of 30 seconds of silence while we meditate on the name Molière.
00:10:52Very funny, very serious, very true, never boring.
00:11:04Clearly with an intention to entertain the public and to inform people of what they are about.
00:11:11Fine, my turn.
00:11:16And maybe I failed, but there we are.
00:11:19Let's hear from somebody who... one of the gallant minority
00:11:26who consider themselves in preparation for film directing
00:11:36as the bearers of some political truth.
00:11:41I would like to hear the voice and the speech of those of the gallant minority
00:11:49who have failed to be perfectly committed on the political level in their films.
00:11:54And I also warn you that I am not part of the CIA.
00:11:59Silence.
00:12:01There were five committed there.
00:12:05Now you mustn't be ashamed.
00:12:07My goodness.
00:12:09You are the Molière of the 80s.
00:12:16Who? You? Oh no, my God.
00:12:19I'm a petit maître of an art form which has not yet entirely proven itself to be an art form.
00:12:31However, when I say I'm a petit maître, it is not out of modesty.
00:12:40It's because I consider all the other directors petit maîtres.
00:12:50And most of them are tri-petit maîtres.
00:13:01I would say, since nobody asked me...
00:13:21Yes, I'm studying cinema at the University of Saint-Denis.
00:13:25I'm studying cinema at the University of Saint-Denis.
00:13:36Someone who goes to the University of Saint-Denis is already politically engaged in a desire to make a film.
00:13:41And the conditions are frightening in Saint-Denis.
00:13:43Isn't that right?
00:13:45Then you must immediately steal an 8mm camera and make a movie about the conditions in that direction.
00:13:55Steal it.
00:14:02They don't have any camera.
00:14:04But if you steal it, you go in the store.
00:14:07Steal it, go in the store.
00:14:15I have a few comments to make. I'm not a student in cinema, but I have the intention of making films.
00:14:20And in a way, I'm very happy not to go to a cinema school.
00:14:26When I was your age, I had the same opinion.
00:14:31I never went to a cinema school.
00:14:33Cinema or anything else.
00:14:37I now see that cinema schools have improved so much recently that I'm tempted to change my mind.
00:14:55I confess that my statement is a little Jesuitical.
00:15:04Now, I see a comment over there.
00:15:08I'm a student of film at ESSEC. What do you think is most important to teach the film students?
00:15:21Not to go to movies.
00:15:22Make them, even if you have to draw them.
00:15:34Marry me, please.
00:15:41Like a herring.
00:15:43From an argument on the translation.
00:15:57Thank you.
00:15:58Everybody is happy now.
00:16:01And my point is that in order for a professor, however good he is, to engage the interests of his pupils and to fill up the time, he is going to soak them in movies.
00:16:21And you who have joined cinema schools have already spent too much time in movie theaters.
00:16:31It's certain, because the enthusiasm for making films comes from going to them.
00:16:48That's true of all kinds of entertainment.
00:16:50Nobody ever asked, no community of people, either in a cave or on the top of a mountain or in an educated Italian city-state, ever said, where is the theater?
00:17:09No community of people, either in a cave or on the top of a mountain or in an educated Italian city-state, ever said, where is the theater?
00:17:20Where are the actors?
00:17:23Nobody wants the actors.
00:17:29We have to make them want it.
00:17:30We have to beat the drum and get them inside and make them fall in love with the theater, the opera.
00:17:43So, granting that this is so.
00:17:49If you will grant me that it is.
00:17:50If you will grant me that it is.
00:17:53We must understand that you are people who have fallen under the spell of the most wicked of all the muses.
00:18:13My God, it's Bob Dylan.
00:18:20This one.
00:18:25No.
00:18:27No.
00:18:29I say it's wicked and perverse because it's too expensive.
00:18:38When Picasso said that nobody could ever stop him from painting.
00:18:51He was asked by Léger, who told me this story.
00:18:58What will you do if they put you in prison?
00:19:02And he said, I will paint with my shit.
00:19:09In the cinema, we manage to do that without so much unpleasantness.
00:19:20Why?
00:19:44You fell in love with an impossible mistress.
00:19:51At least in France, you get the money in proportion to who comes in.
00:19:55In America, they have something called creative accounting.
00:20:00Which means you never see anything.
00:20:21Now, you have other reasons to be happy that you live in France.
00:20:27Because although you read in the papers every day that the French cinema is falling down.
00:20:36I began reading that first about 1947.
00:20:40I began reading that first about 1947.
00:20:44I began reading that first about 1947.
00:20:47I began reading that first about 1947.
00:20:53The fact is that unlike other countries, you are the authors of your films if you ever are lucky enough to make them.
00:21:11And that is not true in America.
00:21:13It's not true in most of the countries of the world.
00:21:17And it is something to make a movie and to feel that you are the author, legally.
00:21:29And it is a glorious part of the French law that I am speaking of.
00:21:34I know nothing about the rest of it.
00:21:36And it is a glorious part of the French law that I am speaking of.
00:21:39I know nothing about the rest of it.
00:21:48But when you have the good fortune and the bad fortune of being French.
00:21:52Because the bad luck of being French is that you have a difficulty in reaching an international public.
00:22:08There are several very interesting reasons for this.
00:22:13One of them is the fact that you all want to be directors.
00:22:17The first one is that you all want to be directors.
00:22:23If there were a few more of you who wanted to be actors, we might have some vedettes.
00:22:29And if we had vedettes, we would be able to sell French movies easily all over the world.
00:22:40But there have only been two directors in the history of the world.
00:22:44Who have brought the public in, large quantities, because of their name.
00:22:55I will name the two, and when I tell you that I detest both of them,
00:23:05I will shock you to your bones fifty percent.
00:23:13Jusqu'au bout, au moins 50%.
00:23:44In France it is different, because you will see films by Renoir and a number of other people whose names I do not know.
00:23:53And others whose names I do not know, because I live in a country that belongs to him.
00:24:05But it is true that you cannot fill a room with your only name.
00:24:14And your first job, after what I said earlier about the community of people who do not want to know where the theater is, where the cinema is,
00:24:28now that they have one, of theater or cinema, they will not go there to find out what the director does.
00:24:38And this is a very good, wholesome situation.
00:24:44Excellent.
00:24:46Because the director, like the orchestra conductor, has become...
00:24:54gonflé.
00:25:02Their importance is, you know, the great old music used to be played by the orchestra,
00:25:09and the concertmeister, the first violinist, they got along very well without these incredible hands
00:25:16who jump up and down and weep tears and so on, calling themselves conductors.
00:25:33All right.
00:25:39Between the first violinist and the orchestra, forgive me.
00:25:42And neither, as it is done a bit now, with puppets who act like sick people and who pretend to be orchestra conductors.
00:25:58And the director of the theater...
00:26:01Wait a minute, the director of the theater is an invention that dates back 250 years.
00:26:06Maybe 200.
00:26:09It was always the chief actor with the assistance of the stage manager who put on the play.
00:26:20Nowadays, I think largely inspired by the cinema,
00:26:25there is a new giant walking across the planet who is called the conductor or the director.
00:26:43Now, this is not to say that we have not seen unforgettable things on the screen,
00:26:50which were the work of great directors.
00:27:00It's not to say that we have not seen great theater, which was the work of great directors.
00:27:13But the theater and the cinema must not depend on the director.
00:27:20People always answer that by saying yes.
00:27:24What's important is the story, the script.
00:27:33They are absolutely wrong.
00:27:37The story and the script is the third most important thing.
00:27:44Because you can make a wonderful film about nothing.
00:27:49Look at Fellini.
00:27:56The most important thing in a movie is the actor.
00:28:03And everything which is in front of the camera.
00:28:07And everything which happens in front of the camera.
00:28:29And the decadence of cinema, because there is a certain decadence in cinema,
00:28:33comes from the glorification of the director,
00:28:37who is no longer the servant of the actor, but his master.
00:28:50Because the work of a director is to discover in the actor something he did not know.
00:28:56The actor did not know that he had seen it.
00:29:04The work of a director is to choose, if you will.
00:29:12And to a certain extent, to create.
00:29:20But a large part of what he applauded and praised as creation
00:29:27was there when he started to applaud and praise.
00:29:34That veil that hung over the river, it was there.
00:29:43And you are intelligent enough to shoot it.
00:29:47So that the director should be very intelligent, preferably not intellectual.
00:29:59Because the intellectual is the enemy of all the performing arts.
00:30:04Because the intellectual is the enemy of all the performing arts.
00:30:16No, since I'm not talking about actors.
00:30:25I beg you, let's love them, respect them, and help them to be great.
00:30:34They are the ones who have made cinema unforgettable.
00:30:43At the end of my lecture, I would like someone here to call me a liar.
00:30:57I do not agree when you say that you should not go to the cinema,
00:31:00to see films, but rather to write them.
00:31:03You have already been submerged by films created by you.
00:31:06I do not agree with you.
00:31:11It is also good to enter the dream of others.
00:31:15It is necessary.
00:31:31You must not be castrated.
00:31:38Can you get to the point of the question, if you have a question to ask?
00:31:42No, it's interesting.
00:31:45We have gone after castration, where can we go?
00:31:52When you were talking about intelligence for the cinema, for the movie,
00:31:57were you speaking with your eye of Panther?
00:32:01With your what?
00:32:03Eyes of Panther, Panther eyes.
00:32:06Eyes are all I have left, you know.
00:32:11I don't know how Sigmund Freud got into it,
00:32:14but I would be glad to get him out as quickly as possible.
00:32:22I know that you are trying to speak,
00:32:24but you spoke about writing, for example.
00:32:27Writing has absolutely no connection with the theatre arts.
00:32:38The writer for the theatre, the writer for the cinema,
00:32:42is doing something else before the cinema is made.
00:32:46He is operating the way a novelist is operating,
00:32:49or a journalist, or a poet.
00:32:55He is alone.
00:32:59And everything about the work of the director
00:33:02consists of working with many people
00:33:06and extracting from all of them
00:33:09the maximum human richness.
00:33:25I don't want to go no further.
00:33:29I completely agree with you on the point of
00:33:33what you should do with actors.
00:33:43But I would like to know what you think about this
00:33:47about the fact that the directors are always using
00:33:50the same actors over and over again.
00:34:05You don't like that?
00:34:07You don't like that?
00:34:09I would like to know what you think about it, Mr. Wells,
00:34:12and on the other hand, what you think about the directors
00:34:15who send actors who have never seen a play,
00:34:18or simply people who are not actors.
00:34:21I believe that the best acting
00:34:25happens between actors
00:34:29who are accustomed to working together.
00:34:42He said two.
00:34:44I didn't mean it.
00:34:46OK, he didn't mean it.
00:34:51There's a kind of terrible jury.
00:34:53Yes, at home.
00:34:55We're both on that.
00:35:02Yes, because a company of actors,
00:35:07whether they are in the theater or in the...
00:35:10seem to be the favorites of a director,
00:35:13such as Renoir had, such as John Ford had...
00:35:20such as John Ford had, such as Renoir had...
00:35:23they become a kind of family.
00:35:26And they understand
00:35:29the thoughts of the others before they are spoken.
00:35:34And they are able to produce
00:35:37more force, more human energy,
00:35:41because they have grown into a single unit.
00:35:51Because the grand exception to this is the real star.
00:35:59And the great star is an animal
00:36:02absolutely separate from actors.
00:36:09He may be, or she may be,
00:36:13the greatest actor in the world.
00:36:16But he is not like actors.
00:36:21The vocation of being a star is separate
00:36:24from the vocation of being an actor.
00:36:31It is very close to wanting to be president of the United States.
00:36:45There was a gentleman there.
00:36:48You said that Mr. Wright denounces
00:36:51the passion of the author as a single entity.
00:36:55But doesn't he always try
00:36:58to impose his signature on the film,
00:37:01to be an author?
00:37:03How does he work on this contradiction?
00:37:06What you just said,
00:37:08the author now arrives in a cinema
00:37:11where the author must escape,
00:37:12trying to impose his mark on the film
00:37:14by being the author par excellence.
00:37:16The vision that Mr. West has
00:37:18is the author of cinema par excellence.
00:37:27This is simply a question of apetit.
00:37:35I love cinema so much that I want to do it all.
00:37:42This is how a lot of young actors feel
00:37:45while they are still supposed to be acting.
00:37:54These are the ones who ask you for motivation
00:38:00and beg a director to wait
00:38:03until the actor can see
00:38:05whether he can manage it or not.
00:38:13These are unfortunate creatures.
00:38:21They will die like other animals do on our planet.
00:38:28Because when I'm an actor and not a director,
00:38:34knowing the misery of being a director
00:38:37combined with the great joy,
00:38:45I leave these strong emotions to the director
00:38:48and wait until lunch.
00:39:02I'm sorry, my question is a little personal.
00:39:05What are the greatest events in your life
00:39:08in relation to your work as a film star?
00:39:18I don't know.
00:39:20I'll try to answer.
00:39:29The greatest moment is always
00:39:31when you know the money is in the bank.
00:39:35The greatest moment is always
00:39:37when you know the money is in the bank.
00:39:42It sounds cynical.
00:39:45Not at all.
00:40:04It's as if you were painting
00:40:07and you were waiting for a light to come down
00:40:10in the middle of the night
00:40:12to add colors the next morning
00:40:14and you find the empty box the next morning.
00:40:16But when you find the box full of colors,
00:40:18that's a great moment.
00:40:28I don't want to give a cynical answer,
00:40:31but unfortunately,
00:40:33cinema is made up of many moments
00:40:37which are intended to add up to a great moment.
00:40:41So we never enjoy that moment.
00:40:44It belongs to the public.
00:40:58I know, however, directors
00:40:59who run their pictures every night
00:41:02in their homes,
00:41:04project them,
00:41:06and see them, you know,
00:41:08to the point of orgasm.
00:41:17But it's clear that those people
00:41:19are ready to be taken away
00:41:21by the gentleman in the white boots.
00:41:30All right.
00:41:55In school, you should be making movies.
00:41:59Not letting the professor tell you
00:42:01about Eisenstein and D.W. Griffith.
00:42:19You will acquire the eye cinematographic
00:42:24of those people
00:42:26who made the movies you went to see.
00:42:30The more virgin our eyes are,
00:42:34the more we have to say,
00:42:37the most detestable habit
00:42:40in all modern cinema
00:42:43is the homage.
00:42:50I don't want to see another goddamn homage
00:42:52in anybody's movie.
00:42:54There are enough of them
00:42:56which are an homage.
00:43:00I don't want to see another
00:43:02homage in any movie.
00:43:04There are enough of them
00:43:06which are an homage.
00:43:08Now, of course you must see films,
00:43:11and you must see great films.
00:43:13I said don't be marinated,
00:43:16don't soak yourself in films.
00:43:18Now, the argument against what I'm saying
00:43:21is that the world is full.
00:43:23All the best young directors
00:43:25are soaked in films.
00:43:38And they have managed
00:43:40to rise above that
00:43:42and to be remarkable cinéastes.
00:43:49You are in the presence
00:43:51of a speaker
00:43:53who is not only paradoxical
00:43:55but confused.
00:44:08Confused, yes.
00:44:12The jury.
00:44:14We have an academy of French
00:44:16in the Grand Prémier.
00:44:22Who is that?
00:44:24Lula.
00:44:37Hundreds of bad ones.
00:44:47Two or three that were very good.
00:44:51But that wasn't the question.
00:44:53It's a statement of very dim
00:44:55historical facts.
00:45:04The difference between
00:45:05acting in a film
00:45:07you direct yourself?
00:45:08No.
00:45:09The way he said it now
00:45:11is the difference between acting
00:45:12a film that you don't direct
00:45:14and directing a film
00:45:15in which you don't appear.
00:45:19His question, not mine.
00:45:28I'm sorry.
00:45:30I don't want to make fun of you.
00:45:33To act in a film
00:45:34in which you direct yourself
00:45:41is to have a very good friend
00:45:43behind the camera.
00:45:48But a very strict friend.
00:45:50Much more strict than any director
00:45:52I ever worked with.
00:46:00I never worked with...
00:46:02No director was ever as strict
00:46:04on me.
00:46:06Do you understand me?
00:46:08As I am on myself
00:46:10when I direct.
00:46:17But I also get help.
00:46:19Sometimes one of the actors
00:46:21or maybe the operator
00:46:23of the camera
00:46:24or the second operator
00:46:25will look at me and say,
00:46:26you know.
00:46:29I understand, you know.
00:46:35He's fired the next day.
00:46:48I would like to ask you
00:46:51how did you acquire
00:46:53the basics of making films?
00:46:55Did you watch a particular movie?
00:46:58Yes, you watched
00:47:00The Man in French.
00:47:01That's the question.
00:47:02The Man in French.
00:47:03I asked the question in French.
00:47:16I didn't.
00:47:20I began...
00:47:22The first day that I directed a film
00:47:24was the first day
00:47:26I had ever been on a movie set.
00:47:33I was...
00:47:35I was...
00:47:37illuminated
00:47:40by
00:47:42the grace of total ignorance.
00:47:50And I was surrounded
00:47:52by my friends
00:47:54who had been with me
00:47:56in the theater for years.
00:48:00I believed
00:48:02that it was the job
00:48:04of the director
00:48:06to arrange the lights.
00:48:11So for the first ten days
00:48:13I arranged the lights.
00:48:18And after ten days
00:48:19somebody took me aside
00:48:20and said,
00:48:21that's usually the work
00:48:22of the cameraman.
00:48:29So I apologized to him
00:48:33and he said,
00:48:34the reason I wanted
00:48:35to work with you
00:48:36was because
00:48:37you had never made a movie.
00:48:43And I thought
00:48:45your ignorance
00:48:46would teach me something.
00:48:49And he said it did.
00:48:53I said,
00:48:54but now there are things
00:48:55I don't understand.
00:48:56That I have to trust
00:48:59the script girl
00:49:00or something
00:49:02left, right, and so on.
00:49:03I don't know what that is.
00:49:13And the lenses and all that.
00:49:15I suppose I should really
00:49:16stop for a year and learn.
00:49:18He said,
00:49:19no you only need
00:49:20about three hours.
00:49:28So we stopped
00:49:32I went home with him.
00:49:34We spent three hours
00:49:36and I learned everything.
00:49:41Now,
00:49:42I didn't learn everything
00:49:43because I was so intelligent.
00:49:47I learned everything
00:49:48because it's so simple.
00:49:53What you see
00:49:54is what you get.
00:50:02I would like to ask you a question.
00:50:03You were
00:50:04an actor,
00:50:05an author,
00:50:07you worked for the radio,
00:50:08you made movies.
00:50:10Now,
00:50:11with the means of video,
00:50:12could we
00:50:13transcribe
00:50:14an imagination
00:50:15as important
00:50:16as the one in the cinema?
00:50:17Another question is...
00:50:25Another question,
00:50:26we lend you a bottle
00:50:27by saying
00:50:28it is as vulgar
00:50:29to make movies
00:50:30as it is to make money.
00:50:31Now,
00:50:32your movies are
00:50:33practically
00:50:34posterity.
00:50:35What do you think
00:50:36of the attitude
00:50:37we have
00:50:38in front of this posterity
00:50:39as spectators?
00:50:47I feel young
00:50:48and happy
00:50:49and I want to make movies.
00:50:51Above all,
00:50:52don't get stuck
00:50:53in the posterity.
00:51:01That
00:51:02quasi-useless profession
00:51:05continued
00:51:06to the age of 95.
00:51:23And
00:51:24in the same...
00:51:25with the same
00:51:26certain
00:51:27lack of utility,
00:51:29I would like to continue
00:51:30to the same age.
00:51:40I do think
00:51:41working for posterity
00:51:42is vulgar.
00:51:47Because posterity
00:51:48is just as big
00:51:49a whore
00:51:50as
00:51:51the present.
00:51:53Popularity today
00:51:54on the Champs-Élysées
00:51:55is no different
00:51:56than popularity
00:51:57in anybody's
00:51:58Panthéon
00:51:59of great names.
00:52:01Because
00:52:02we may very well
00:52:03have chosen
00:52:04the wrong people.
00:52:15We don't know.
00:52:17We keep discovering
00:52:18painters
00:52:19from 300 years ago
00:52:20that we discover
00:52:21are great,
00:52:22that nobody
00:52:23talked about.
00:52:24So,
00:52:25how many
00:52:26will never be discovered?
00:52:36Sir, I believe
00:52:37we should work
00:52:38in the constant
00:52:39recognition
00:52:42of the fact
00:52:43that we are
00:52:44lucky to be working.
00:52:54And that
00:52:55poverty is too great
00:52:57and the joy
00:52:58of our métier
00:52:59is too enormous
00:53:01to confuse it
00:53:02with rewards
00:53:04or ultimate
00:53:05justice.
00:53:15Particularly
00:53:16since
00:53:19any intelligent
00:53:20person knows
00:53:21that there is no
00:53:22justice in the world.
00:53:26So,
00:53:27to put your foot
00:53:28in the door
00:53:29of posterity
00:53:30is to be
00:53:31in a certain sense
00:53:32walking the streets.
00:53:39He's had his hand
00:53:40up all day long.
00:53:41Where?
00:53:42There.
00:53:43Yes.
00:53:44Yes.
00:53:45There he is.
00:53:47He's got
00:53:48his hand up
00:53:49all day long.
00:53:50Where?
00:53:51There.
00:53:52Yes.
00:53:53Yes.
00:53:55You spoke earlier
00:53:56about the respect
00:53:57of the actors.
00:53:58I'd like to ask
00:53:59why, if you often
00:54:00steal their voices,
00:54:01why, starting
00:54:02with Macbeth
00:54:03and especially
00:54:04in Confidential Report
00:54:05and The Trial,
00:54:06do you often
00:54:07dub
00:54:08a large number
00:54:09of other characters
00:54:10or do you sometimes
00:54:11simply dub
00:54:12a part
00:54:13of their words?
00:54:16Rosalind Macbeth
00:54:17was our teller.
00:54:19In Macbeth,
00:54:20you dubbed
00:54:21Seward.
00:54:23Oui.
00:54:24He couldn't talk.
00:54:25Yes.
00:54:29He was...
00:54:30In the case
00:54:31of Othello,
00:54:32we didn't have
00:54:33any more money.
00:54:37I'm a very cheap
00:54:38actor for dubbing.
00:54:39You can get me
00:54:40in my own pictures
00:54:41for almost nothing.
00:54:46It was not
00:54:47to be a virtuoso
00:54:48of different voices.
00:54:51I just didn't have
00:54:52the money
00:54:53to bring those actors.
00:54:54Some of them
00:54:55were working
00:54:56on other pictures.
00:54:57Others...
00:54:58All of them
00:54:59wanted a lot of money.
00:55:00I couldn't afford
00:55:01not to do it.
00:55:02I thought I would
00:55:03fool you all.
00:55:04Turned out
00:55:05I fooled nobody.
00:55:21In fact,
00:55:22the answer to a great
00:55:23many questions
00:55:24having to do
00:55:25with my oeuvre
00:55:29ended up with the fact
00:55:30that I didn't
00:55:31have any money.
00:55:42You will find
00:55:43as you go through life
00:55:44that that experience
00:55:45is not unknown
00:55:47to cinema.
00:55:51When I gave
00:55:52my first press conference
00:55:53in France
00:55:56which was with
00:55:57Jean Cocteau
00:56:00Ensemble
00:56:02and they asked
00:56:03what is the most
00:56:04important thing
00:56:05for the young
00:56:06cinéastes
00:56:07and we answered
00:56:08Ensemble
00:56:09as though it would
00:56:10be rehearsed
00:56:11money.
00:56:13We were asked
00:56:14what is the most
00:56:15important thing
00:56:16for the young
00:56:17cinéastes
00:56:18and we answered
00:56:19Ensemble
00:56:20as though it would
00:56:21be rehearsed
00:56:22money.
00:56:23And all of the
00:56:24people who asked
00:56:25us were deeply
00:56:26shocked
00:56:27and thought
00:56:28we were making
00:56:29fun.
00:56:30But we were
00:56:31just simply
00:56:32telling the truth.
00:56:33You have
00:56:34thanked,
00:56:35you have played,
00:56:36you have directed,
00:56:37I just wanted
00:56:38you to know
00:56:39that you are
00:56:40not alone.
00:56:41You are
00:56:42not alone.
00:56:43You are
00:56:44not alone.
00:56:45You are
00:56:46not alone.
00:56:47You are
00:56:48not alone.
00:56:49I just
00:56:50wanted you to
00:56:51know
00:56:52that this
00:56:53is a
00:56:57a
00:56:58feeling
00:56:59that
00:57:00God
00:57:01has made.
00:57:07Because
00:57:08you use
00:57:09the absolute
00:57:10extreme
00:57:11of
00:57:12creativity
00:57:14and there
00:57:15is no
00:57:16necessity
00:57:17brains at all. You don't have to think. You just paint. It's the perfect expression, it's
00:57:29like love, making love. Same thing with sculpture, except sculpture makes many technical problems
00:57:40which interrupt this love affair because it's difficult to get this thing up and so on. To
00:57:51wake up in the morning to the smell of turpentine and to see in front of you a blank canvas
00:58:03like you see the dawn rising. It's to be the most fortunate of artists. But all you people
00:58:16who are for the most part going to be metres en scène, you are going to have to deal with
00:58:22the most difficult material in the world, human beings. You are going to have to deal
00:58:33with the most difficult material in the world, human beings. You can't squeeze them out of anything.
00:58:41I wanted to know if it was for economical reasons that you have made most of the movies in black and white?
00:58:51Est-ce pour des raisons économiques que vous avez fait des films en noir et blanc pour des choix artistiques?
00:58:56For artistic reasons. And for ego reasons. I'm an actor and an actor is, there is no performance in colour
00:59:11in the history of movies the equal of performances in black and white.
00:59:16Le noir et blanc c'est le grand ami de l'acteur.
00:59:31And I had to go all over Europe before I could find a country sufficiently ignorant of the general conditions of world film distribution
00:59:41before I could make Falstaff. It was only in Spain that they didn't know that everybody wanted movies in colour.
00:59:51Il a fallu que je parcours toute l'Europe jusqu'à découvrir un pays qui n'était pas suffisamment au courant des développements techniques du cinéma
00:59:59pour trouver un endroit où je puisse faire Falstaff. Le noir et blanc ça a été l'Espagne.
01:00:04And also colour is very difficult to work with. It's the cameraman's dream because it does the work of the cameraman for him to a large extent.
01:00:17C'est très difficile de travailler la couleur. C'est de la couleur c'est effectivement le rêve du caméraman.
01:00:21Non, c'est très facile.
01:00:23Facile.
01:00:24Très facile.
01:00:25C'est facile de travailler en couleur. C'est le rêve du cameraman parce que la couleur fait tout le travail à sa place.
01:00:31Beaucoup de travail.
01:00:33But black and white separates the men from the boys, as we say in English.
01:00:38Mais le noir et blanc, comme on dit en anglais, ça sépare les hommes des gamins.
01:00:43And black and white is thick.
01:00:47If you have seen enough black and white pictures, you are a difficult public to ask this question because you are so young.
01:00:55On se dit, si vous avez vu assez de films, pas mal de films en noir et blanc et c'est un peu difficile parce que vous êtes un peu plus jeune.
01:01:06M'échanger au grand moment que vous avez éprouvé à cause d'un acteur.
01:01:13Et vous vous souviendrez le plus souvent du noir et blanc.
01:01:17Because we have removed one element of reality.
01:01:26We were luckier before when we didn't have sound.
01:01:34But we have been moving steadily backwards as we improve technically.
01:01:39Et puis nous avons amélioré notre technique, nous avons marché à reculons.
01:01:47Au sens poésie du cinéma.
01:01:54Ça a l'air d'être des affirmations très solides.
01:01:58Mais si vous êtes de la vie contraire, allez-y.
01:02:02Vous êtes vraiment beaucoup trop gentil avec moi.
01:02:05Je voudrais poser une question à propos du procès dans Sun West.
01:02:12Souvent quand on pense à Kafka, on imagine toujours un homme perdu au milieu de hauts murs, de murailles qui l'écrasent, qui sont le symbole d'une société.
01:02:22Dans le film que vous avez fait, vous avez adopté ce point de vue, c'est-à-dire qu'on voit des décors démentiels, très différents, très hétérogènes.
01:02:30Quand on lit Kafka, on a souvent l'impression, c'est-à-dire que vous avez raconté une histoire étrange dans un cadre étrange.
01:02:37Quand on lit Kafka, on a souvent l'impression qu'il se passe une histoire étrange dans un cadre très familier et très normal.
01:02:44La symbolisation de ça étant par exemple la métamorphose qui nous montre un homme qui se transforme en insecte dans le cadre très petit bourgeois d'une chambre tout à fait normale.
01:02:52Je voulais donc savoir si en adaptant le livre de Kafka, vous avez voulu respecter le point de vue de Kafka dans son oeuvre, ou si vous l'avez adapté librement de votre point de vue.
01:03:03Et aussi, si vous refaisiez ce film maintenant, est-ce que vous le feriez du même point de vue ?
01:03:07Avec ces deux mesures, ou est-ce qu'au contraire vous rechercherez un réalisme de l'action pour mieux mettre en valeur, disons, l'abstraction de l'histoire ?
01:03:18Ok.
01:03:19I think that insofar as you have criticized me, I have no defense.
01:03:28Je suppose que dans la mesure où vous avez proposé une critique, je n'ai aucune défense.
01:03:34The rest of what you said, I didn't understand.
01:03:36Le reste, je n'ai pas compris. Shall I continue ?
01:03:38Yes, but we don't know what I understood and what you heard, so it's going to be difficult.
01:03:43So let me make a general statement about the Procès.
01:03:49I believe, there are many people who think I have violated Shakespeare, because I have not been religiously loyal to the text.
01:04:02And the same thing has been said even more strongly about the Procès.
01:04:07Because I have not been religiously loyal to the text, and the same thing has been said about the Procès.
01:04:24But even more strongly about the Procès, because we had the feeling, we said that I violated it myself.
01:04:33And that is entirely true.
01:04:38When you make a film, you have no loyalty whatsoever to the subject which is posing for you.
01:04:56And Kafka, for me, had certain things to say, which I could say and wanted to say.
01:05:08And what I could not say, I did not say.
01:05:14And I know that that offended the Kafkaians.
01:05:20And I apologize to them, because it was a violation.
01:05:26And that is part of the megalomania of the metronome.
01:05:37What became of all the films that you shot and made, and which we never saw?
01:05:48And will we ever have the opportunity to see them?
01:05:51There are two films.
01:05:57Actual films. One is the Don Quichotte, you will see it.
01:06:01The other is the other side of the wind.
01:06:13And I am assured by my excellent avocat that our chances are very good that you will see it.
01:06:23Because we have been, frighteningly, I have been a hostage of the Iranians for four years.
01:06:30And I am assured by my avocat that you will eventually see it.
01:06:34Because I have been a hostage of the Iranians for seven years.
01:06:41Very long time.
01:06:44But I hope to be liberated one day.
01:06:46About the films shot on different televisions.
01:06:49Those are specials, they are pure entertainment.
01:06:52Usually magic.
01:07:02There was someone who asked you a question about video.
01:07:05Whether you thought that making films with video could allow the flight of imagination.
01:07:12I am very interested in making films with video.
01:07:15We have been experimenting with it just now.
01:07:19I am very interested in making films with video.
01:07:21We have been experimenting with it just now.
01:07:28And we have seen a certain number of points that are very encouraging.
01:07:38We could say that it is four months from now.
01:07:41Before we will really be able to start an entirely new form.
01:07:50When we will be bringing tape, when we will be using tape with greater facility than we use film today.
01:08:04And with the same definition.
01:08:07And with the same definition.
01:08:15But the scientists who are working on it are very optimistic.
01:08:24I like the look of video very much.
01:08:28I like the look of video very much.
01:08:36And I like the sound of video, even if it is bad, probably because it is bad.
01:08:47And I like the control that we can have over color and other things.
01:08:51Because nowadays we are in the hands of the laboratory.
01:08:55And they are very bad all over the world.
01:08:59They are sausage factories.
01:09:02And after you do something that you hope is beautiful, it comes out looking like Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
01:09:21There is a risk of changing the imagination of the representation in relation to the means of cinema.
01:09:27And the other means that are used, I mean, the Shakespearean theater, the radio.
01:09:32It ought to.
01:09:35It ought to. It may not.
01:09:37It may not.
01:09:38That depends on the amount of energy which exists in the next generation of filmmakers.
01:09:52It's there to make a new form.
01:09:56It may end up by being an imitation movie.
01:10:01It may end up by being an imitation movie.
01:10:17Unlike these changes,
01:10:22which impose a change,
01:10:26which absolutely gave no choice to the filmmaker.
01:10:36There is a great temptation to use the electronic world as a cheap form of movies.
01:10:53It's in your hands.
01:10:56My question is about holographic cinema.
01:11:00The holographic photo and the holographic experiences,
01:11:03that is, the 3D laser cinema.
01:11:05Have you experienced holographic cinema?
01:11:11And don't you think that holographic cinema will bring us closer to theater?
01:11:16It won't bring us closer to the theater.
01:11:20Because the theater is the least real thing in the world.
01:11:29And the idea of the holographic thing is to approximate reality.
01:11:34And the idea of the holographic thing is to approximate reality.
01:11:48The charm and the glory of the theater is that there are faults in the theater.
01:11:53And the way in which we bridge that and make it real.
01:12:01These holographic images, the idea of having some damn singer in my bedroom
01:12:06at 8 o'clock in the morning, in three dimensions, terrifies me.
01:12:12The idea of having some damn singer in my bedroom at 8 o'clock in the morning,
01:12:17terrifies me.
01:12:33You said that video would be the domain of sound.
01:12:37You said that video would be the domain of sound.
01:12:43What do you think of your films when they are shown on television?
01:12:47But Immortal History was not a TV film, it was a film.
01:12:54It was partly financed by television.
01:12:59It was made on TV or cellulose.
01:13:07It was a television film, except as entertainment.
01:13:12In America I'm an entertainer, I do magic, I tell jokes.
01:13:16I have another career which you don't know about.
01:13:24Luckily, otherwise I would never have received that decoration.
01:13:37Yes.
01:13:46He's over there.
01:13:47That's the new sound.
01:13:49Yes, that's the new sound.
01:13:51You talk about the mediocrity of the labs in terms of development.
01:13:56Didn't you think of going and checking on site,
01:14:00as some filmmakers do, for example,
01:14:03to check the projection rooms?
01:14:13Of course.
01:14:20But it's also terrifying to see what happens to the film
01:14:24which is sold abroad.
01:14:27Scorsese, you know, is heading a group of people
01:14:31with an admirable project,
01:14:37which is to attempt to save color film,
01:14:41which color film has a life of 40 years at the most.
01:14:57And then it begins to change, it becomes horrible.
01:15:01But a very interesting thing came out of this project.
01:15:09Kodak has made a much better film,
01:15:13which will last much longer.
01:15:17They also remarked that they had a film which was much faster.
01:15:26And much more delicate at the same time,
01:15:33with better precision.
01:15:38And much cheaper.
01:15:42And that they'd had it for about 30 years.
01:15:46And we all said, why didn't you give it to us?
01:15:49They said you didn't ask.
01:15:56Of course they didn't want to sell it.
01:16:27It's no wonder that later on,
01:16:30there's a complete film making,
01:16:34which goes all over the industry,
01:16:37from production to screening.
01:16:42It's a scandal.
01:16:45It's a scandal.
01:16:54I'm not in a position to lead you to the barricades.
01:17:00But I wish I were.
01:17:04It's terrible, it's true.
01:17:06Is it true, everybody?
01:17:11I think it's true.
01:17:13Is it true, everybody?
01:17:16I think it's true.
01:17:18Not totally.
01:17:20Not totally.
01:17:36To be sure it was in black and white.
01:17:38It proves that even shooting in black and white,
01:17:43emotionally, it was very striking.
01:17:45Because to recolor it in memory,
01:17:48it had a certain dramatic value.
01:17:51I'm glad you answered on the shock.
01:17:55We wondered what it would become,
01:17:57the short films,
01:17:59and the films you made.
01:18:01We don't know if they'll be distributed.
01:18:04And on the other hand,
01:18:06what are you going to do tomorrow?
01:18:09What are you going to do tomorrow?
01:18:18The reason is what you make in color.
01:18:27We made two films,
01:18:29Hotel L'Eau and Les Temps.
01:18:31Les Temps de Renoir.
01:18:33I'm going to make them in color.
01:18:37There's a man over there.
01:18:53I have two films.
01:18:59And we're going to make both.
01:19:03I'm going to make a novel by Isaac Dennison.
01:19:07He was a great Danish writer,
01:19:09not very well known,
01:19:11not only in France but in the world.
01:19:15You'll have to say the name again.
01:19:17He's a great writer.
01:19:20Isaac Dennison.
01:19:22He's a great writer.
01:19:24He wrote a novel.
01:19:26Yes, exactly.
01:19:28It's totally unknown,
01:19:30not only here but all over the world.
01:19:32Published by Gallimard,
01:19:34precisely, on the left.
01:19:46And the other is an original scenario
01:19:48that I wrote
01:19:50and that I lent to an American politician.
01:19:53Did I hear Reagan?
01:19:55No, it's not about Reagan.
01:19:57Somebody said it.
01:19:59There's not enough there for a feature movie.
01:20:23I never had to alter a film
01:20:25because of a lack of money.
01:20:31No.
01:20:33I've had films modified for me
01:20:35by friends,
01:20:37both in France and elsewhere.
01:20:43But not because of money.
01:20:48Can you explain in English?
01:20:50That's fine.
01:20:54Would you care to expand on that?
01:20:56No, thank you.
01:21:09Do you seriously believe
01:21:11that I could answer that question?
01:21:16No, you don't.
01:21:18When I recently interviewed Tom,
01:21:20Eric Cajon said that
01:21:22it was not easy in America
01:21:24to raise funds to make films.
01:21:30He wanted to make a film
01:21:32on Puerto Rican and Latin films.
01:21:34In that case, it was not easy
01:21:36to find money to make such a film.
01:21:48Dear mademoiselle,
01:21:50you have chosen
01:21:52the wrong
01:21:54director.
01:21:58Because
01:22:00Ilya Kazan is a traitor.
01:22:08He is a man who sold
01:22:10to McCarthy
01:22:12all his companions
01:22:14at a time
01:22:16when he could continue
01:22:18to work in New York
01:22:20at a high salary.
01:22:26And having sold all of his people
01:22:28to McCarthy,
01:22:30he then made a film called
01:22:32On the Waterfront,
01:22:34which was a celebration
01:22:36of the informer.
01:22:42And therefore,
01:22:44any question
01:22:46which uses him as an example
01:22:48can be answered by me.
01:23:00I have to add
01:23:02that he is a very good
01:23:04director.
01:23:06He is an excellent director.
01:23:10It is true.
01:23:14Of course.
01:23:20Is there no subject
01:23:22which presents difficulties in France?
01:23:24Is it difficult in France to make a film?
01:23:42You said that the main charm of the theater
01:23:44was the fake.
01:23:46What do you think of it for the cinema?
01:23:48Is it the same thing?
01:23:50Is it also, as you seem to do in your films,
01:23:52a fusion completely?
01:23:54No.
01:23:56Because the theater
01:23:58is a communal experience.
01:24:04And the cinema
01:24:06can never be anything
01:24:08except the experience
01:24:10of one person.
01:24:14Everyone sitting in the
01:24:16salle at a movie is a single person
01:24:18watching that movie.
01:24:20Even if everybody laughs.
01:24:30You cannot make out of a cinema
01:24:32an audience like we have now.
01:24:40Because that white thing behind us
01:24:42is dead.
01:24:44And that thing back there
01:24:46that turns it on
01:24:48is a dead machine.
01:24:54So all you can do
01:24:56with the cinema
01:24:58is to imitate dreams.
01:25:04But you can do a damn good job of it.
01:25:06But you can do a damn good job of it.
01:25:36I like the show. I like it.
01:25:40I like it.
01:25:42I also like the total absence of it.
01:25:54What did he say?
01:25:56He would like this thought
01:25:58to sort of bring out something in your mind.
01:26:06I'm ashamed.
01:26:08I'm ashamed.
01:26:10I'm ashamed.
01:26:12I think that these things,
01:26:14profondeur de champ,
01:26:16the special styles
01:26:18that I've discovered
01:26:20in one filmmaker
01:26:22and another
01:26:24have to do with
01:26:26a great many accidents.
01:26:28I think that profondeur de champ
01:26:30and all these stylistic clauses
01:26:32have to do with accidents.
01:26:42I started with profondeur de champ
01:26:44because that's how my eye sees.
01:26:50And then I discovered that my eye doesn't see like that.
01:26:58It doesn't mean nothing.
01:27:00And I'd like to make a film like that.
01:27:02I'm going to make a film like that next year.
01:27:20That's a year from now.
01:27:24If I'm with you.
01:27:28I have three questions.
01:27:40I'm not against color.
01:27:44I only say that it is the best
01:27:46that black and white is better for actors.
01:27:48Because everybody's face
01:27:50looks as though it's too pink
01:27:52or too white
01:27:54or too black
01:27:56or too blue.
01:28:08And it does not
01:28:10pound at you the way black and white does.
01:28:12But I love color films
01:28:14and greatly admire the masters
01:28:16of color.
01:28:20And I've made color films
01:28:22and I propose to make another one right away.
01:28:36Two more questions.
01:28:38I'm not finished.
01:28:40I'd also like to know what he thinks
01:28:42of the fact that the film is taken out of the set.
01:28:52The last two questions.
01:29:04Ask him if he agrees to answer.
01:29:08The question is...
01:29:10Coppola's Apocalypse Now
01:29:12was a subject
01:29:14that Orson Welles
01:29:16would have liked to make
01:29:18as a first film
01:29:20instead of The Citizen Kane.
01:29:26Please.
01:29:28Since it's a film you wanted to make,
01:29:30what is your opinion
01:29:32about the way it was constructed
01:29:34and then
01:29:36the acting of the main actor?
01:29:40Brando.
01:29:42Because
01:29:46Coppola has an admiration
01:29:48for you.
01:29:50We can extrapolate a little
01:29:52and we could even believe
01:29:54that instead of Brando
01:29:56he would have put
01:29:58Orson Welles in his place.
01:30:02Do you think it's possible
01:30:04that in Coppola's mind
01:30:06actually Marlon Brando was impersonating Orson Welles
01:30:08or taking Orson Welles' place?
01:30:14The difference
01:30:16was about three million dollars.
01:30:22I would love to have played the part.
01:30:26And since you are asking me as an actor
01:30:28I can assure you
01:30:30I would have been much better.
01:30:34Much better.
01:30:36I swear to God, Father.
01:30:38And also to the Godfather.
01:30:44This is the last question, gentlemen.
01:30:46Thank you.
01:31:04Yes.
01:31:06Sure.
01:31:12Yes.
01:31:16I don't think it's as interesting.
01:31:18I'm going to do one on
01:31:20on
01:31:24I think it's more interesting
01:31:26The Lady from Shanghai.
01:31:28It's got more anecdotes.
01:31:30I'm interested in Paris right now.
01:31:32You do?
01:31:34Yes.
01:32:00You do?
01:32:02Yes.
01:32:30You do?
01:32:32Yes.
01:33:00You do?
01:33:02Yes.

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