Stanley Kubrick生平(中英对照,作业:P)

2005-06-23 13:21 | Random

某课的作业,我英语也很一般,有些地方翻得莫名其妙的,呵呵。
资料来源:IMDB
翻译过程中最让我激动的是他的一句语录:
“一部电影就是——或者说应该是——更接近音乐而非更接近小说。”

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Stanley Kubrick 生于纽约,虽然在校成绩不怎么样却仍被认为非常的聪明。1940年,为了让他的学业能有所起色,Kubrick的父亲Jack(一名内科医生)将他送到California州的Pasadena和他的叔叔Martin Perveler一起住。1941年当他为了在语文小学的最后一年回到纽约Bronx的的时候,他对学习的态度和成绩似乎都没有任何改变。为了找到一些东西来提起儿子对求胜的兴趣,Jack教Stanley下国际象棋。Kubrick充满热情地进入了游戏并迅速成为了熟练的棋手。国际象棋后来成为了影响Kubrick的重要的一环,不仅成为了对付那些不合作的演员的工具,并且成为了他电影中具有美感的主旨的源泉。

Jack Kubrick送给儿子一台照相机作为生日礼物的决定,无疑是最为聪明的举动:Kubrick成为了一个如饥似渴的摄影者,并经常为了在一个能提高技艺的朋友的暗房冲洗照片而在纽约穿行。在给《观察》杂志主动提供了一张照片之后,Kubrick开始与他们的摄影师合作并在十七岁时得到了一份学徒摄影师的工作。

在之后的几年里,Kubrick拥有了《观察》的定期任务,并开始对电影充满渴望。和他的朋友Alexander Singer一起,Kubrick打算进入电影行业发展,并在1950年把他的积蓄投入拍摄一部纪录片《搏击的日子》(Day of the Fight, 1951)。随之而来的是几部委派的纪录片(《飞行的牧师》Flying Padre,1951和《航海家》The Seafarers,1952),而在中央公园的对投资者的吸引和他的快速的下棋策略,使Kubrick得以在California拍摄了《恐惧与欲望》(Fear and Desire,1953)。

拍摄这部影片并不是一次愉快的经历;Kubrick与高中时期恋人Toba Metz的婚姻没有在攻击中幸存下来。除了对电影本身的混杂的观点以外,Kubrick显而易见的导演才华被得到了良好的关注。Kubrick之后的两部电影《杀手之吻》(Killer’s Kiss,1955)和《凶杀》(The Killing,1956)使他得到了好莱坞的关注,并且在1957年在《光荣之路》(Path of Glory,1957)中执导了Kirk Douglas的演出。之后Douglas让Kubrick接管了《斯巴达克斯》(Spartacus,1960)的制作,其中某些原因是想让Kubrick在这样大的项目中灰心丧气而在之后变得更加顺从。但不管怎么说这并没奏效:Kubrick接管了整个计划并将他的构想和标准溶入电影之中。很多剧组成员对他的风格大为不适:摄影师Russell Metty向制片人抱怨说Kubrick抢了他的饭碗。Kubrick的回答是让他坐在那儿什么都别干。Metty照办了,具有讽刺意味的是他因此获得了奥斯卡最佳摄影的金像奖。

Kubrick的下一个计划是在《One-Eyed Jacks》(1961)中执导Marlon Brando,但谈判失败了,Brando自己完成了导演工作。开始不再迷恋好莱坞并经历了又一次婚姻失败之后,Kubrick移居英国,并在那里他完成了之后的所有电影。虽然获得了飞行执照,但据说Kubrick对飞行十分的恐惧。

Kubrick的第一部英国电影是《罗丽塔》(Lolita,1962),这部电影进行了精心的构筑和策划,以避免违反当时拥有左右电影商业成功的审查制度。《奇爱博士》(Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,1964)对Kubrick来说是冒了一次极大的风险;在这之前,“核武器”从没被用作喜剧的题材。最初稿是一个戏剧,Kubrick觉得他所写的太多的想法都太有趣而不是严肃。这部电影的评论和商业成功使Kubrick在任何计划中得到了经济上和构思上他所渴望的自由。在这个时期,Kubrick的注意力变得多样化,并且他经常有好几个计划和各种各样的舞台来发展:《蓝月亮》(Blue Moon,一个关于好莱坞第一部色情电影的故事),《拿破仑》(Napoleon,一个传记体的历史史诗,在工作室的类似计划中损失后被放弃),《战时谎言》(Wartime Lies,根据Louis Begley的小说改编)和《狂想曲》(Rhapsody,一个性心理题材的惊悚小说)。

他完成的下一部电影是和科幻小说家Arthur C. Clarke合作的《2001太空漫游》(2001: A Space Odyssey,1968),该片被赞为有史以来最优秀的电影,并为之后的科幻电影建立了标准和基调。Kubrick随之拍摄了《发条橙》(A Clockwork Orange, 1971),并发生了和《罗丽塔》相同的争论 – 这次不仅仅是电影中对性的描写,还包括暴力。《巴里•林顿》(Barry Lyndon,1975)见证了他的专业工作和个人生活上的转折点。他对工作的苛刻的要求和对剧组职员的完美主义在这里成了一个传奇。演员们被要求完成一系列的表演并没有休息。在爱尔兰拍摄这部电影还包括使用了军队,Kubrick接到了通知说爱尔兰共和军已经宣布把他当成一个明确的目标。制作组迅速撤离了这个国家,Kubrick对隐私和安全的渴望使他成为了前所未有的隐遁者。

在被拒绝执导《驱魔人》(The Exorcist,1973)之后,Kubrick制作了他自己的恐怖电影:《闪灵》(The Shining,1980)。关于对演职员的苛刻要求又一次传了出来。Stephen King(该片所依据小说的原作者)据说很不喜欢Kubrick的改编(的确,他后来自己编写了他自己的《闪灵》(The Shining,1997)的剧本)

Kubrick之后作品的时间间隔开始变得非常大:《全金属外壳》(Full Metal Jackets,1987)七年之后才发布。在这个时期,Kubrick的孩子们已结婚并大幅重修他们的房子。在放映了被评论界认为是描写人性阴暗面的《野战排》(Platoon,1986)之后,《全金属外壳》继续了Kubrick的评论赞誉和成功票房的传说。

在90年代,Kubrick开始和Brian Aldiss在一个新的名叫《人工智能》(Artificial Intelligence)的科幻电影进行一次次的协作,但进程非常缓慢并挪到了后台,直到Kubrick所期望的特效技术成为了新的标准。

Kubrick回到了他之前的计划中,但遇到一系列的问题:《拿破仑》是已经完全没希望了,《战时谎言》(现在叫《雅利安文件》The Aryan Papers)在Steven Spielberg宣布拍摄《辛德勒的名单》(Schindler’s List,1993)时被放弃,因为在材料上非常的相近。

在缓慢地准备制作《人工智能》的时候,Kubrick把《狂想曲》和《蓝月亮》混合在一起并宣布这是他的下一个计划,名为《大开眼戒》(Eyes Wide Shut,1999),由Tom Cruise和Nicole Kidman夫妇主演。在经历两年的空前保密的制作之后,这布电影在上映时成为了典型的评论与大众意见的两极分化;Kubrick称该片为自己最优秀的电影。

特效技术在这个时期迅速成熟,Kubrick也迅速开始进入《人工智能》(Artificial Intelligence: AI ,2001),但在1999年3月7日晚上睡觉时不幸遭遇了一次致命的心脏病发作。

Kubrick去世后,Spielberg透露他们两个是经常交流电影制作艺术的好友;并同时对双方各自的艺术理念非常尊重。《人工智能》是他们经常讨论的话题;Kubrick曾经讨论说Spielberg应该导演这个电影,因为这是个更适合他的计划。基于这曾关系,Spielberg接手了这个电影的导演工作并完成了Kubrick最后一个计划。

Kubrick对自己最后一个计划到底有多少想法,他究竟想最终让电影如何呈现出来,成了这个传奇电影制作者最后的谜。


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Stanley Kubrick电影的特征

几乎他所有的电影从某些角度来说都有旁白。(《2001太空漫游》在剧本中有旁白,《闪灵》有一些稀疏的标题卡)

所有电影都是改编自小说的,包括他最初的两部电影《杀手之吻》和《恐惧与欲望》

经常大段地拍摄夸张的高度、平行的墙,比如《全金属外壳》的开头,《闪灵》中的迷宫和旅馆走廊以及《2001太空漫游》中的电脑房间。

他的电影有一个灭绝人性的共同主题

对称画面成分和很长的放大缩小段落

构筑三角冲突

表现激烈情绪的大特写

经常使用CRM114作为密码或号码。CRM-114是《奇爱博士》里的解码号码,在《2001太空漫游》中的木星探索的“许可编号”是CRM114,《发条橙》中Alex在鲁道维奇医疗中心治疗时被用的是“114血清”

所有Kubrick的电影中都有一个关键段落是在浴室发生的
过高的片比和没完没了的镜头需要,据说他拍摄《闪灵》时花了130万英尺的胶片,成片的时间为142分钟,因而他只使用了不到1%的拍摄内容,使他的片比达到了102:1,而正常的片比一般是5到10:1。
他的妻子参与影片制作。他的第一个妻子Toba Etta Metz Kubrick是《恐惧与欲望》的对白导演。他的第二个妻子Ruth Sobotka Kubrick是《杀手之吻》中芭蕾舞段落的那个芭蕾舞演员,并同时兼任舞台指导。Kubrick的第三任,也是最后一个妻子Christiane Harlan Kubrick在结婚之前在《光荣之路》中出演唯一的女性角色(那个唱歌的德国女孩)。她同时为《发条橙》和《大开眼戒》画了许多另类风格的画。另外,她的哥哥Jan是Stanley的助手并从《巴里•林顿》开始就一直是Kubrick的执行制片。另外,他的女儿Vivian Kubrick就是那个在《2001太空漫游》中想要一只夜猴作生日礼物的小女孩。

经常使用既存音乐(比如在《2001太空漫游》中使用“蓝色多瑙河”和“查拉图斯特拉如是说”)

他的所有电影结尾都有“THE END”,当后些年因为要上结尾字幕而已经不时兴“THE END”的时候,他把“THE END”放到了结尾字幕的最后。

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Stanley Kubrick语录

“我在学校从没学到任何东西,并且在19岁之前没有看过一本有价值的书。”

“一部电影就是——或者说应该是——更接近音乐而非更接近小说。”它应该书情绪和感受的积累。而隐藏于情感之后的主题、主旨等都是次要的。”

“我不想和你在意义上作任何的争论,也不想提供任何东西,因为我发现让电影自己来说是最好的办法。”

“任何获得电影导演特权的人都知道这点,即使这可以像在游乐园碰碰车里写《战争与和平》,当你最终达到目的是,生命中没有什么愉悦能和感受相提并论。”

“艺术存在于重组生活,但它不能创造生活。”

“我认为学校的一个重大错误就在于教会孩子们任何东西,包括用恐惧去对待初始的动机。害怕得到不好的成绩、害怕不能和自己的班级在一起,等等。爱好能产生一个例如像害怕核爆炸一样害怕爆竹那样的差距。”

“大国总是表现得像一帮强盗,而小国们则像妓女。”

“能被写下来,或能被思考的东西,它就能被拍成电影。”
“如果达芬奇在帆布底下写上:‘这位女士的微笑是因为她对爱人隐瞒了一个秘密’的话,我们还能怎样来赞美《蒙娜•丽莎》?这将桎梏观看者的对真实的态度,我不希望这会发生在《2001太空漫游》身上。”

“银幕是一个充满魔力的媒介。它有如此的威力去变化情绪与心境而保留趣味,这是其他任何艺术类型都别想做到的。”

“把它称作被启发的懦弱吧,如果你愿意的话。实际上,许多年来我发现我只是不喜欢飞行,我开始觉得稳妥的安全区域在商业飞行广告上从没被提及。所以我觉定乘船旅行,把我的机会留给冰山。……我惧怕飞机。我回避了几次飞行,但是我想,如果非得这么做,我大概会的。可能这是个无知则危险的例子。有一次,我有一个飞行执照并有160小时在一个单引擎轻型航行器上飞行。不幸的是,那些所做的只是让我觉得对大型飞机的不信任。”

“我相信伯格曼、德西卡和费里尼是世界上仅存的三个非艺术投机者的电影人。我这么说是因为他们不是只坐着等待一个好的故事到来,然后他们去拍。他们在他们的电影里有着一个观点并不断地表达出来,并且他们电影的素材都是由他们自己原创的。”

“我的一部分问题是我不能驱散那些已经成年累月积攒的东西。有些人写了很多完全出格的东西,但却不断地重复直到每个人都相信。比如我读到过我在汽车里戴了个橄榄球头盔。”

“我从没完成过一个获得巨大成功的电影。我的声誉提升得很慢。我想你可以说我是个成功的电影人,在这方面来说很多人可以比我更好。但我的任何一部电影都从未得到过一致肯定的评论,也没有一部在商业上一鸣惊人。”

“我从罪犯和艺术家身上发现一个奇特的弱点,他们都不像他们所应该的那样去生活。任何悲剧故事都应该具有与其相冲突的东西。”

“罪犯和士兵至少有一个优点是在这个许多人学会接受一些虚无的世界上对抗着什么们东西或为了什么东西,去攻击一系列不真实的东西去为了获得普通的尊重……这很难说是谁参与了这个巨大的阴谋,是罪犯、士兵还是我们。”

“我不认为作家或画家或电影制作者因为他们有许多独特的东西想说而活动。他们有许多东西他们感受到。他们喜欢艺术的类型;他们喜欢文字或喜欢颜料的气味,或赛璐珞和照片或者和演员一起工作。我不认为任何天才的意识家曾有过说教的观点的引导,即使他们认为自己是。”

“或许这听起来很荒唐,但毕竟年轻电影制作者应该做的最好的事是拿着一个相机或胶片并拍摄一部电影。”

“当给自己买了一堆白纸之后,一个电影制作者几乎拥有和一个小说家相同的自由。”
“这个星球的毁灭对整个宇宙的空间来说没有任何影响。”

“我相信毒品对于观众来说比艺术家更有用。我想对单一的世界的幻想和对身边环境事物的吸收的重要性以及对和平和满足的普遍深入的预感并不是一个艺术家的理想的空间。它使创造性的,在冲突、碰撞和动乱中成长的性格平静下来。一个艺术家的卓越必须存在于他自己的工作中;他不能在他自己和他的潜意识之间存在任何人造假象。其中有一点促使我反对LSD的是所有我知道的使用它的人在区别他们真正喜欢和刺激的东西与一些毒品致使的看起来像那么回事的感觉不错的东西之间有一种特殊的无能。他们看起来完全失去了他们评判能力和并使自己脱离那些生活中最刺激的区域。也许当一切东西都美的时候,美也就不存在了。”

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Stanley Kubrick was born in New York, and was considered intelligent despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would produce better academic performance, Kubrick's father Jack (a physician) sent him in 1940 to Pasadena, California, to stay with his uncle Martin Perveler. Returning to the Bronx in 1941 for his last year of grammar school, there seemed to be little change in his attitude or his results. Hoping to find something to interest his son, Jack introduced Stanley to chess, with the desired result. Kubrick took to the game passionately, and quickly became a skilled player. Chess would become an important device for Kubrick in later years, often as tool for for dealing with recalcitrant actors, but also as an artistic motif in his films.

Jack Kubrick's decision to give his son a camera for his thirteenth birthday would be an even wiser move: Kubrick became an avid photographer, and would often make trips around New York taking photographs which he would develop in a friend's darkroom. After selling an unsolicited photograph to Look Magazine, Kubrick began to associate with their staff photographers, and at the age of seventeen was offered a job as an apprentice photographer.

In the next few years, Kubrick had regular assignments for "Look", and would become a voracious movie-goer. Together with friend Alexander Singer, Kubrick planned a move into film, and in 1950 sank his savings into making the documentary Day of the Fight (1951). This was followed by several short commissioned documentaries (Flying Padre (1951), and _Seafarers, The (1952)_ ), but by attracting investors and hustling chess games in Central Park, Kubrick was able to make Fear and Desire (1953) in California.

Filming this movie was not a happy experience; Kubrick's marriage to high school sweetheart Toba Metz did not survive the shooting. Despite mixed reviews for the film itself, Kubrick received good notices for his obvious directorial talents. Kubrick's next two films Killer's Kiss (1955) and The Killing (1956) brought him to the attention of Hollywood, and in 1957 directed Kirk Douglas in Paths of Glory (1957). Douglas later called upon Kubrick to take over the production of Spartacus (1960), by some accounts hoping that Kubrick would be daunted by the scale of the project and would thus be accommodating. This was not the case, however: Kubrick took charge of the project, imposing his ideas and standards on the film. Many crewmembers were upset by his style: cinematographer Russell Metty complained to producers that Kubrick was taking over his job. Kubrick's response was to tell him to sit there and do nothing. Metty complied, and ironically was awarded the Academy Award for his cinematography.

Kubrick's next project was to direct Marlon Brando in One-Eyed Jacks (1961), but negotiations broke down and Brando himself ended up directing the film himself. Disenchanted with Hollywood and after another failed marriage, Kubrick moved permanently to England, from where he would make all of his subsequent films. Despite having obtained a pilot's license, Kubrick is rumored to be afraid of flying.

Kubrick's first UK film was Lolita (1962), which was carefully constructed and guided so as to not offend the censorship boards which at the time had the power to severely damage the commercial success of a film. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) was a big risk for Kubrick; before this, "nuclear" was not considered a subject for comedy. Originally written as a drama, Kubrick decided that too many of the ideas he had written were just too funny to be taken seriously. The film's critical and commercial success allowed Kubrick the financial and artistic freedom to work on any project he desired. Around this time, Kubrick's focus diversified and he would always have several projects in various stages of development: "Blue Moon" (a story about Hollywood's first pornographic feature film), "Napoleon" (an epic historical biography, abandoned after studio losses on similar projects), "Wartime Lies" (based on the novel by Louis Begley), and "Rhapsody" (a psycho-sexual thriller).

The next film he completed was a collaboration with sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is hailed by many as the best ever made; an instant cult favorite, it has set the standard and tone for many science fiction films that followed. Kubrick followed this with A Clockwork Orange (1971), which rivaled Lolita (1962) for the controversy it generated - this time not for only for its portrayal of sex, but also of violence. Barry Lyndon (1975) would prove a turning point in both his professional and private lives. His unrelenting demands of commitment and perfection of cast and crew had by now become legendary. Actors would be required to perform dozens of takes with no breaks. Filming a story in Ireland involving military, Kubrick received reports that the IRA had declared him a possible target. Production was promptly moved out of the country, and Kubrick's desire for privacy and security have resulted in him being considered a recluse ever since.

Having turned down directing a sequel to The Exorcist (1973), Kubrick made his own horror film: The Shining (1980). Again, rumors circulated of demands made upon actors and crew. Stephen King (whose novel the film was based upon) reportedly didn't like Kubrick's adaptation (indeed, he would later write his own screenplay which was filmed as "The Shining" (1997) (mini).)

Kubrick's subsequent work has been well spaced: it was seven years before Full Metal Jacket (1987) was released. By this time, Kubrick was married with children and had extensively remodeled his house. Seen by one critic as the dark side to the humanist story of Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket (1987) continued Kubrick's legacy of solid critical acclaim, and profit at the box office.
In the 1990s, Kubrick began an on-again/off-again collaboration with Brian Aldiss on a new science fiction film called "Artificial Intelligence (AI)", but progress was very slow, and was backgrounded until special effects technology was up to the standard the Kubrick wanted.

Kubrick returned to his in-development projects, but encountered a number of problems: "Napoleon" was completely dead, and "Wartime Lies" (now called "The Aryan Papers") was abandoned when Steven Spielberg announced he would direct Schindler's List (1993), which covered much of the same material.

While pre-production work on "AI" crawled along, Kubrick combined "Rhapsody" and "Blue Movie" and officially announced his next project as Eyes Wide Shut (1999), starring the then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. After two years of production under unprecedented security and privacy, the film was released to a typically polarized critical and public reception; Kubrick claimed it was his best film to date.

Special effects technology had matured rapidly in the meantime, and Kubrick immediately begain active work on Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001), but tragically suffered a fatal heart attack in his sleep on March 7th, 1999.

After Kubrick's death, Spielberg revealed that the two of them were friends that frequently communicated discretely about the art of filmmaking; both had a large degree of mutual respect for each other's work. "AI" was frequently discussed; Kubrick even suggested that Spielberg should direct it as it was more his type of project. Based on this relationship, Spielberg took over as the film's director and completed the last Kubrick project.

How much of Kubrick's vision remains in the finished project -- and what he would think of the film as eventually released -- will be the final great unanswerable mysteries in the life of this talented and private filmmaker.


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Trade marks of Stanley Kubrick’s films

[Narration] Nearly all of his films contain a narration at some point (2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)) contains narration in the screenplay and The Shining (1980) has some sparse title cards).

Adapted every film he made from a novel, excluding his first two films, Killer's Kiss (1955), and Fear and Desire (1953).

Often features shots down the length of tall, parallel walls, e.g. the head in Full Metal Jacket (1987), the maze and hotel coridors in The Shining (1980) and the computer room in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

His films have a common theme of dehumanization.

Symmetric image composition and long "zooming out" and/or "zooming in" sequences [zoom].

Constructs three-way conflicts [three-way].

Extreme close-ups of intensely emotional faces [faces].

He often uses the sequence CRM114 in serial numbers. CRM-114 is the name of the decoder in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), the Jupiter explorer's "licenceplatenumber" in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is CRM114, and in A Clockwork Orange (1971) Alex is given "Serum 114" when he undergoes the Ludovicotreatment

Bathroom: All of Kubrick's films feature a pivotal scene that takes place in a bathroom.

Known for his exorbitant shooting ratio and endless takes, he reportedly exposed an incredible 1.3 million feet of film while shooting The Shining (1980), the release print of which runs for 142 minutes. Thus, he used less than 1% of the exposed film stock, making his shooting ratio an indulgent 102:1 when a ratio of 5 or 10:1 is considered the norm.

Involves his wives in his movies. His first wife, Toba Etta Metz Kubrick, was the dialogue director for Stanley's first feature film Fear and Desire (1953). His second wife, Ruth Sobotka Kubrick, was in Killer's Kiss (1955) as a ballet dancer named Iris in a short sequence for which she also did the choreography. Kubrick's third, and final, wife, Christiane Harlan Kubrick, appeared (as Susanne Christian) in Paths of Glory (1957) before she married him as the only female character (a German singing girl) in the movie. She also did some of the now-infamous paintings for A Clockwork Orange (1971) and some more for Eyes Wide Shut (1999). In addition, her brother, Jan, was Stanley's assistant for A Clockwork Orange (1971) and the executive producer for all of Kubrick's films starting with Barry Lyndon (1975) and going through The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Also, his daughter, Vivian Kubrick, is the little girl who asks for a Bush Baby for her birthday in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Almost always uses previously composed music (such as The Blue Danube and Thus Spake Zarathustra in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968))
All of his films end with "The End", when this became out of style in later years because of the need to run end credits, he moved "The End" to the end of the credits.

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Personal quotes

"I never learned anything at all in school and didn't read a book of pleasure until I was 19 years old."

"A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later."

"I would not think of quarreling with your interpretation nor offering any other, as I have found it always the best policy to allow the film to speak for itself."

"Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling."

"Art consists of reshaping life but it does not create life, nor cause life."

"I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker."

"The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes."

"If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed."

"How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas: 'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover.' This would shackle the viewer to reality, and I don't want this to happen to 2001."

"The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle."

"Call it enlightened cowardice, if you like. Actually, over the years I discovered that I just didn't enjoy flying, and I became aware of compromised safety margins in commercial aviation that are never mentioned in airline advertising. So I decided I'd rather travel by sea, and take my chances with the icebergs [...] I am afraid of aeroplanes. I've been able to avoid flying for some time but, I suppose, if I had to I would. Perhaps it's a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. At one time, I had a pilot's licence and 160 hours of solo time on single-engine light aircraft. Unfortunately, all that seemed to do was make me mistrust large aeroplanes."

"I believe Bergman, De Sica, and Fellini are the only three filmmakers in the world who are not just artistic opportunists. By this I mean they don't just sit wait and for a good story to come along and then make it. They have a point of view which is expressed over and over and over again in their films, and they themselves write or have original material written for them."

"Part of my problem is that I cannot dispel the myths that have somehow accumulated over the years. Somebody writes something, it's completely off the wall, but it gets filed and repeated until everyone believes it. For instance, I've read that I wear a football helmet in the car."

"I've never achieved spectacular success with a film. My reputation has grown slowly. I suppose you could say that I'm a successful filmmaker - in that a number of people speak well of me. But none of my films have received unanimously positive reviews, and none have done blockbuster business."

"I've got a peculiar weakness for criminals and artists, neither takes life as it is. Any tragic story has to be in conflict with things as they are."

"The criminal and the soldier at least have the virtue of being against something or for something in a world where many people have learned to accept a kind of grey nothingness, to strike an unreal series of poses in order to be considered normal.... It's difficult to say who is engaged in the greater conspiracy - the criminal, the soldier, or us."

"I don't think that writers or painters or filmmakers function because they have something they particularly want to say. They have something that they feel. And they like the art form; they like words, or the smell of paint, or celluloid and photographic images and working with actors. I don't think that any genuine artist has ever been oriented by some didactic point of view, even if he thought he was."

"Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all."

"A filmmaker has almost the same freedom as a novelist has when he buys himself some paper."

"The destruction of this planet would have no significance on a cosmic scale"

"I believe that drugs are basically of more use to the audience than to the artist. I think that the illusion of oneness with the universe, and absorption with the significance of every object in your environment, and the pervasive aura of peace and contentment is not the ideal state for an artist. It tranquilizes the creative personality, which thrives on conflict and on the clash and ferment of ideas. The artist's transcendence must be within his own work; he should not impose any artificial barriers between himself and the mainspring of his subconscious. One of the things that's turned me against LSD is that all the people I know who use it have a peculiar inability to distinguish between things that are really interesting and stimulating and things that appear to be so in the state of universal bliss that the drug induces on a "good" trip. They seem to completely lose their critical faculties and disengage themselves from some of the most stimulating areas of life. Perhaps when everything is beautiful, nothing is beautiful."


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Sean: You're just a kid. You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking
about.You've never been out of Boston.So if I asked you about art you’d probably
give me the skinny on every art book ever written...Michelangelo? You know a
lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual
orientation, the whole works, right? But I bet you can't tell me what it smells
like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up
at that beautiful ceiling. Seen that.....If I asked you about women you'd probably
give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a
few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman
and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. I ask you about war, and you'd probably--uh--throw
Shakespeare at me, right? "Once more into the breach, dear friends." But you've
never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and
watched him gasp his last breath, looking to you for help. And if I asked you
about love y'probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman
and been totally vulnerable. Known someone could level you with her eyes. Feeling
like! God put an angel on earth just for you...who could rescue you from the
depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it’s like to be her angel and to
have that love for her to be there forever. Through anything. Through cancer.
You wouldn't know about sleeping sittin’ up in a hospital room for two months
holding her hand because the doctors could see in your eyes that the term visiting
hours don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, because that only
occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you've ever
dared to love anybody that much. I look at you; I don't see an intelligent,
confident man; I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius, Will.
No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But
you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine and
you ripped my fuckin' life apart. You're an orphan right? Do you think I'd know
the first thing about how hard ! your life has been, how you feel, who you are
because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally, I don't
give a shit about all that, because you know what? I can't learn anything from
you I can't read in some fuckin' book. Unless you wanna talk about you, who
you are. And I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't wanna do that, do you, sport?
You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.