John Frankenheimer famous quotes

03-26-2025

Casting is 65 percent of directing.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Casting #Filmmaker
There are two things I will never do in my life. I will never climb Mount Everest, and I will never work with Val Kilmer again. There isn't enough money in the world.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Two #Hiking #World
The accolades usually come when you're dead or too old to get a job
-- John Frankenheimer

#Jobs #Accolades
I've found that the more experts you have on a movie, the less control the director has.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Directors #Experts #Found
I mean, this whole digital revolution is really eroding the director's importance on a movie because, number one, just from a practical standpoint, with floppy disks and the ability to put all of the film onto a disk, more people have access to the movie.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Mean #Numbers #People
I really, really love directing films.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Film
I think all great actors - and I don't classify myself as one of them, incidentally - but I think all great actors listen well and I've learned that from a lot of the very good actors with whom I've worked - to really listen to what people say.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Thinking #People #Actors
I think I've made some pretty decent films in the '80s and '90s.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Thinking #Film #Made
I think that you can't make a movie without a script. But you also can't make movies without actors. You also can't make movies without technicians. And there has to be just one person in charge of everybody, and to me that one person is the director.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Thinking #Directors #Actors
The whole thing of this business is to retain your enthusiasm and, in a sense, retain your innocence and try to practice as much humility as possible.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Humble #Humility #Practice
If you don't cast well, you can be in real trouble.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Real #Trouble #Casts
One of the first lessons you learn as an actor is to listen.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Actors #Lessons #Firsts
So I've had really great assistant directors for my last seven movies.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Directors #Assistants #Lasts
The first assistant director is just so important that the choice of that person is critical to the movie.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Choices #Important #Directors
The first thing I can really tell you is I really love the work.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Firsts
I look at actors very closely. It's not an accident when the actors excel.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Looks #Actors #Accidents
I have gotten to a point in my life where I don't want to have dinner with someone I don't like.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Want #Dinner
One of the other things I think that I've been able to do in my life, is to listen well
-- John Frankenheimer

#Thinking #Able #Life Is
The world is full of beautiful girls. But they're not Angelina Jolie. She's fun, honest, intelligent, gorgeous and divinely talented. She brings a hell of a lot to the party.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Beautiful #Girl #Fun
And I kind of feel that I have a responsibility to the people that invest their time and money with me to show up on the set every day and do the best of which I am capable.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Responsibility #People #Kind
If you cast the picture correctly, you have a whole lot of leeway. You can make mistakes in other aspects but pull it off with the right actors.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Mistake #Actors #Aspect
I feel that my job is to create an atmosphere where creative people can do their best work.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Jobs #People #Creative
It's very eclectic, the way one chooses subjects in the movie business, especially in the commercial movie business. You need to develop material yourself or material is presented to you as an assignment to direct.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Needs #Way #Assignments
A disk unbeknownst to the director can go to the producer in another city or in another office and that producer can edit behind the director's back much easier than in the old days. Since these dailies are now put on videotape, more kinds of people have access to dailies.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Cities #People #Office
And in Hollywood, you know, everyone is an expert. Most of them are expert editors. They can't direct, they can't write, they can't act, but, by God, they all think they can edit.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Writing #Thinking #Editors
But I really am very active in the choice of the line producer with the producer of record and the distributing company, because I've had some terrible, terrible experiences with some line producers, particularly in cable.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Choices #Records #Lines
First, speaking for myself, I don't want to ever be in a position where I'm telling other directors how to make movies, because I don't think it's any of my business.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Thinking #Directors #Want
Historically the director has been the key creative element in a film and we must maintain that. We must protect that, in spite of the fact that there is new technology that's continually trying to erode that.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Technology #Keys #Creative
The importance of the assistant director cannot be overemphasized.
-- John Frankenheimer

#Directors #Assistants #Importance

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