A preview of our upcoming interview with the iconic director behind this month's To Rome With Love...
"When you make a film, it's like [being] a chef who makes a meal. After you work all day in the kitchen dicing and cutting and putting the sauces on, you don't want to eat it. And that's how I feel about the films. I work on it for a year. I've written it, I've worked with the actors, edited it, put the music in, and I just never want to see it again. And when I begin a film, I always think I'm gonna make The Bicycle Thief or Citizen Kane, and I'm convinced this is gonna be the greatest thing that's ever hit celluloid. And when I see what I've done afterward, I'm just praying that it's not an embarrassment to me, and so I've never been satisfied or pleased with a film that I've done. I've never looked at any of them afterwards...I just cringe when I see them. I don't like them because there's a big gap between what you conceive in your mind when you're writing it, and you don't have to meet the test of reality. You're home, you write, and it's funny and it's beautiful, and it's romantic and dramatic. And then you have to show up on a cold morning, and the actors are there, and you don't have enough of this, and this goes wrong, and you make a wrong choice on something, and you screw up here, and you see what you get the next day, and you can't go back. There's such a difference between the idealized film in your mind and what you wind up with that you're never happy. You're never satisfied. So, for me, I've never liked any of them, and I'm always thankful that the audience bails me out in spite of my disappointment."
And this includes his 1977 classic, Annie Hall (*Stay tuned for more on HIH's interview with Woody).
- Hiko Mitsuzuka (@TheFirstEcho)
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