then there’s Fellini, who is a tremendous inspiration. I like La Strada and 8 ½ —but really all of them and, again, for the world and the characters and the mood, and for this level, which you can’t put your finger on, that comes out in each one.
I love Hitchcock. Rear Window is a film that makes me crazy, in a good way. There’s such a coziness with James Stewart in one room, and it’s such a cool room, and the people who come into this room—Grace Kelly, for instance, and Thelma Ritter—it’s just so fantastic that they’re all in on a mystery that’s unfolding out their window. It’s magical and everybody who sees it feels that. It’s so nice to go back and visit that place.
FELLINI
I was shooting a commercial in Rome, and I was working with two people who had worked with Fellini. He was in a hospital in northern Italy, but we heard he was being moved down to Rome. So I said, “Do you think it’d be possible to go over and say hello to him?” And they said, “Yeah, we’ll try to arrange that.” There was an attempt on a Thursday night that fell through, but Friday night, we went over. It was about six o’clock in the evening in summer—a beautiful, warm evening.Two of us went in and were taken into Fellini’s room.There was another man in the room and my friend knew him, so he went over and talked to him. Fellini had me sit down. He was in a little wheelchair between the two beds, and he took my hand, and we sat and talked for half an hour. I don’t think I asked him much. I just listened a lot. He talked about the old days—how things were. He told stories. I really liked sitting near him. And then we left.That was Friday night, and Sunday he went into a coma and never came out.
KUBRICK
Stanley Kubrick is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers, and he did me a great honor early in my career that really encouraged me. I was working on The Elephant Man , and I was at Lee International Studios in England, standing in a hallway. One of the producers of The Elephant Man , Jonathan Sanger, brought over some guys who were working with George Lucas and said, “They’ve got a story for you.” And I said, “Okay.”
They said, “Yesterday, David, we were out at Elstree Studios, and we met Kubrick. And as we were talking to him, he said to us, ‘How would you fellas like to come up to my house tonight and see my favorite film?’ ” They said,“That would be fantastic.” They went up, and Stanley Kubrick showed them Eraserhead . So, right then, I could have passed away peaceful and happy.
I like of all Kubrick’s films, but my favorite may be Lolita . I just like the world. I like the characters. I love the performances. James Mason is phenomenal beyond the beyond in this film.
INLAND EMPIRE
We are like the spider.
We weave our life and then move along in it.
We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.
This is true for the entire universe.
UPANISHADS
When we began, there wasn’t any INLAND EMPIRE , there wasn’t anything. I just bumped into Laura Dern on the street, discovering that she was my new neighbor. I hadn’t seen her for a long time, and she said, “David, we’ve got to do something together again.” And I said,“We sure do. Maybe I’ll write something for you. And maybe we’ll do it as an experiment for the Internet.” And she said, “Fine.”
So I wrote a fourteen-page monologue, and Laura memorized all fourteen pages, and it was about a seventy-minute take. And she was so phenomenal. I couldn’t release it on the Internet because it was too good, and it drove me crazy, because there was something about this that held a secret for more. And I would ponder over this thing. And something more would emerge. And that would lead to another scene. But I wouldn’t know what in the world it was, and it didn’t really make much sense. But then, another idea would come for another scene. And maybe
I love Hitchcock. Rear Window is a film that makes me crazy, in a good way. There’s such a coziness with James Stewart in one room, and it’s such a cool room, and the people who come into this room—Grace Kelly, for instance, and Thelma Ritter—it’s just so fantastic that they’re all in on a mystery that’s unfolding out their window. It’s magical and everybody who sees it feels that. It’s so nice to go back and visit that place.
FELLINI
I was shooting a commercial in Rome, and I was working with two people who had worked with Fellini. He was in a hospital in northern Italy, but we heard he was being moved down to Rome. So I said, “Do you think it’d be possible to go over and say hello to him?” And they said, “Yeah, we’ll try to arrange that.” There was an attempt on a Thursday night that fell through, but Friday night, we went over. It was about six o’clock in the evening in summer—a beautiful, warm evening.Two of us went in and were taken into Fellini’s room.There was another man in the room and my friend knew him, so he went over and talked to him. Fellini had me sit down. He was in a little wheelchair between the two beds, and he took my hand, and we sat and talked for half an hour. I don’t think I asked him much. I just listened a lot. He talked about the old days—how things were. He told stories. I really liked sitting near him. And then we left.That was Friday night, and Sunday he went into a coma and never came out.
KUBRICK
Stanley Kubrick is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers, and he did me a great honor early in my career that really encouraged me. I was working on The Elephant Man , and I was at Lee International Studios in England, standing in a hallway. One of the producers of The Elephant Man , Jonathan Sanger, brought over some guys who were working with George Lucas and said, “They’ve got a story for you.” And I said, “Okay.”
They said, “Yesterday, David, we were out at Elstree Studios, and we met Kubrick. And as we were talking to him, he said to us, ‘How would you fellas like to come up to my house tonight and see my favorite film?’ ” They said,“That would be fantastic.” They went up, and Stanley Kubrick showed them Eraserhead . So, right then, I could have passed away peaceful and happy.
I like of all Kubrick’s films, but my favorite may be Lolita . I just like the world. I like the characters. I love the performances. James Mason is phenomenal beyond the beyond in this film.
INLAND EMPIRE
We are like the spider.
We weave our life and then move along in it.
We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.
This is true for the entire universe.
UPANISHADS
When we began, there wasn’t any INLAND EMPIRE , there wasn’t anything. I just bumped into Laura Dern on the street, discovering that she was my new neighbor. I hadn’t seen her for a long time, and she said, “David, we’ve got to do something together again.” And I said,“We sure do. Maybe I’ll write something for you. And maybe we’ll do it as an experiment for the Internet.” And she said, “Fine.”
So I wrote a fourteen-page monologue, and Laura memorized all fourteen pages, and it was about a seventy-minute take. And she was so phenomenal. I couldn’t release it on the Internet because it was too good, and it drove me crazy, because there was something about this that held a secret for more. And I would ponder over this thing. And something more would emerge. And that would lead to another scene. But I wouldn’t know what in the world it was, and it didn’t really make much sense. But then, another idea would come for another scene. And maybe
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