Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A film director who won five Oscars and directed classics including High Noon, From Here to Eternity, and A Man for All Seasons.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:14Do you feel those films – like The Nun's Story and The Day of the Jackal – are still very much a part of you, or are they just labels that people pull out with your name?
They are part of me, of course, but uh it's the distant past. Uh at my age, I'm eighty three, it's all very far away, really.
Presenter asks
6:07And what of anti-Semitism? How blatant was that in Vienna?
Anti-Semitism is something that's endemic in Austria. It's always been there. And when there is a crisis, it flares up. … there were snide remarks being made and gradually fist fights. Then boys started coming in with swastikas in the lapels.
Presenter asks
7:18I wonder how much that whole experience, that Austria of your youth, influenced the rest of your life.
It's a very good question. I think it influenced me enormously. Because I always felt drawn to subject in which the leading character is some sort of an outsider.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
10:47So what was it that you saw in those films that made you know you wanted to spend your life in the cinema?
I just had a feeling that I could contribute in some way, that I could make it go, make it work.
Presenter asks
16:33And do you think that that [documentary training] has influenced your approach to film making for the rest of your life?
Enormously, because for instance in the nun's story, not being a Catholic, I didn't know very much about it. … I spent one whole year in preparation to get the feeling of the rhythm.
Presenter asks
31:34Do I also infer from everything you said that you were never really in films, in the cinema, for the money? That wasn't really your motivation, or indeed one of them.
Well, don't misunderstand. It isn't that I don't like money, obviously it does, but it's not the end all. … I think there must be another reason why we are here, and I don't think it's an accident. You wouldn't have things like the Ninth Symphony or the Pyramids or the Acropolis if it were an accident.
“My baby brother, who was two years old, would burst into tears each time I played the violin, and we also had a small fox terrier who would howl.”
“Anti-Semitism is something that's endemic in Austria. It's always been there. And when there is a crisis, it flares up.”
“The Germans say the situation is serious but not hopeless. And the Austrians say the situation is hopeless but not serious.”
“I think there must be another reason why we are here, and I don't think it's an accident. You wouldn't have things like the Ninth Symphony or the Pyramids or the Acropolis if it were an accident.”