Volker Schlöndorff: “Film is a very powerful medium, so you have an obligation to use it with extreme care”
Film director Volker Schlöndorff (b. 1939 in Wiesbaden, Germany), who gained worldwide fame and popularity with his highly acclaimed film version of “The Tin Drum” (originally titled &#…
Fred Zinnemann: “I always wanted to make films that were more than just entertainment”
It all seems so long ago now, but the memory is still very vivid. It was early 1993 when I first got in touch with Fred Zinnemann—merely by accident, really. To me, he was always one of the greates…
Édouard Molinaro: “Film is not only an art, it’s also an industry, so you have to make compromises”
Two time Academy Award-nominee film director and screenwriter Édouard Molinaro (1928-2013), the man behind the internationally acclaimed French-language film classic “La cage aux folles”…
Richard Donner: “Martin Ritt changed my life. He put me on the road that I’m on now”
In 1951, an aspiring and ambitious young actor named Richard Donner played a small part in a TV production of “Of Human Bondage” (in the series “Somerset Maugham TV Theatre”…
Roman Coppola: “Music and film were particularly important to our family life”
Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Roman Coppola is undoubtedly an all-round craftsman who is very productive behind the screen: as a leading member of the Coppola film dynasty—his father is the …
Peter Hyams: “I give actors a tremendous amount of freedom because I like their performances”
Peter Hyams (b. 1943; picture, on the set of “Narrow Margin”) is a very accomplished, all-round and versatile filmmaker who debuted at age 28 as screenwriter-producer of “T.R. Baskin” (…
William Wellman, Jr.: “Directors like my father brought their life experiences to the screen”
Irene Mayer Selznick, daughter of studio mogul Louis B. Mayer and wife of independent Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, once described film director William Wellman (1896-1975) as a ‘shoot-up-t…
Mike Connors: “I didn’t want to just walk through the part of Mannix when it was so successful”
Screen and television actor/star Mike Connors (born 1925 as Kreker Ohanian, of Armenian descent) gained worldwide fame and recognition when he was playing detective Joe Mannix in the long-running T…
Martin Scorsese: “There’s always the budget, but I am more concerned about the creative freedom”
Martin Scorsese (b. 1942), considered to be one of America’s most significant and influential filmmakers of his generation, was the guest of honor at the Cinémathèque française in Paris only very r…
“Now, Voyager”: why the 1942 screen classic with Bette Davis and Paul Henreid will never age
“Box office dynamite—that’s ‘Now, Voyager’.” Those are the first words of Naka’s “Now Voyager” Variety film review, as published August 19, 1942. Con…
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