Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Film That Changed My Life

and a regional editor at AOL’s Patch.com .

More excerpts from the book The Film That Changed My Life .

JOHN WATERS (director of Hairspray ) on The Wizard of Oz

“And when they throw the water on the witch, she says, ‘Who could ever have thought a good little girl like you could destroy all my beautiful wickedness?’ That line inspired my life. I sometimes say it to myself before I go to sleep, like a prayer.”

JOHN WOO (director of Face/Off ) on Rebel Without a Cause

“I love James Dean. After I saw this movie, I began to dress like him. I combed my hair like him, but I couldn’t afford to buy the wax, so I had to use water. I even talked like him.”

JOHN LANDIS (director of Animal House ) on The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

“Everything about a movie, and I mean this sincerely, is who you are and where you are when you saw it. Because it’s hard just to say, ‘This movie is a piece of shit,’ because depending on who you were and where you saw it, it can be a great and important thing. There are great films that are completely misunderstood because the people weren’t ready for them. Or they were seeing them under bad circumstances. There are too many wonderful films that people disregard.”

TAKE ONE This interview marks the first in a new series in which Elder talks with directors about films that influenced their career paths and, alternately, films they feel have been lost. This first conversation is excerpted from Elder’s new book, The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on Their Epiphanies in the Dark ($16.95, Chicago Review Press, filmchangedmylife.com ). Future original installments will appear in the Film section.

Source: http://chicago.timeout.com

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