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You are always cheating for the audience.

William Friedkin

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William Friedkin
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: August 29
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Television Director
Chicago
Illinois
Vilijam Friedkin
Cheating
Audience
Always

More quotes by William Friedkin

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All the great countries are at odds with one another over something, and yet if they don't cooperate they're going to blow up.
William Friedkin
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The digital process gives me total control over how I want the film to look. The films look like they did when I was first looking through the viewfinder.
William Friedkin
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Even with some of the best action films like 'The Bourne Ultimatum,' which is a great action film with a great chase sequence, so much of it is computer-generated. But that doesn't bother me. I think it works. It's fantastic.
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The studios are making fewer films. They are making more expensive films. Profits are tougher to come by. Not only because of the expense of production. But also because of the expense of promotion and hype. To boil that all down, it's more about hype than it is about filmmaking.
William Friedkin
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The art of movies is to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief. They need to use their imaginations.
William Friedkin
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There is a thin line between the policeman and the criminal. The best cops are always crossed. The best cops are the ones who are able to think like criminals. But for a quirk of fate, they might have been criminals.
William Friedkin
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You don't need great actors to do a 3D picture. All of this condescending stuff that they put out? Oh, we will always need actors. Bullshit! They are able to take anybody and put some markers on them, and have them walk through an empty room. Then they paint in the background.
William Friedkin
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I don't go to the movies much anymore. There's very little that draws me. I watch mostly the older stuff, and I often don't sit through the new films.
William Friedkin
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With all of my films that are on DVD and Blu-ray, I have spent weeks with them in a color timing room. Just changing or enhancing them. I have been desaturating the color. Sometimes I will make a scene bluer or redder. I do use the new medium. I believe in it.
William Friedkin
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You don't leave the film alone. You have a new audience, and you have a new medium. Why would you leave it alone? Film is not an antique. It's not a relic. It's not a Leonardo da Vinci. I don't want someone painting over a da Vinci or Rembrandt. But these movies aren't that.
William Friedkin
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Star Wars is one of a handful of films that changed the zeitgeist forever.
William Friedkin
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Sure, you could go out and make Jaws today. But all of the sequels to Jaws weren't good. They are all worthless. The Godfather II is the only sequel that I have ever seen that is as good as or better than the original.
William Friedkin
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The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor's work can take place, so that the actor can create. And in order to do that, you have to communicate, communicate with the actors. And direction is about communication on all levels.
William Friedkin
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But the audience is right. They're always, always right. You hear directors complain that the advertising was lousy, the distribution is no good, the date was wrong to open the film. I don't believe that. The audience is never wrong. Never.
William Friedkin
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I have control over every single frame on Blu-ray. If I want a scene bluer, I get that scene bluer. Originally, there was some fluctuation with the prints. If you made a thousand, or a few thousand prints, there is no control over any of that. But now I can make a master using the digital process.
William Friedkin
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I don't look back or analyze my films. I just make them. It's for someone else to look at.
William Friedkin
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I have seen lampoons of my work. And I have really enjoyed them. But I would never do another version of The Exorcist.
William Friedkin
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With The Exorcist we said what we wanted to say. Neither one of us view it as a horror film. We view it as a film about the mysteries of faith. It's easier for people to call it a horror film. Or a great horror film. Or the greatest horror film ever made. Whenever I see that, I feel a great distance from it.
William Friedkin
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Technique is of less interest than character and story.
William Friedkin
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We all wind up the same way, no matter what our goals or ambitions are. We have nothing at all to say about how we got into this world or how are going to leave it.
William Friedkin