When I find some reality about the characters. My deepest fears and mysteries don\u2019t come from fantasies, they come from believable stories, about real human-beings and the thin line between good and evil, that\u2019s in everyone. And if I see that in a film script, which is rare, I\u2019m attracted to it.<\/p>\n
Was your success determined also by the fact you never played by the rules?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes I\u2019m sure following that has contributed. I had no fear in declining to work with Basquiat, Prince, Mike Tyson. I even told Blake Edwards I didn\u2019t like the script of the \u2018Peter Gunn\u2019 movie he asked me to direct.<\/p>\n Were the stories you made up for your childhood friends, somehow anticipating the genre of films you eventually made as an adult?<\/strong><\/p>\n In hindsight I think that\u2019s true, I didn\u2019t know it at the time. Life is lived forward. But can only be understood backward.<\/p>\n Do you think you\u2019ve lived the American Dream considering you started in the mailroom of some TV studios?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, I was very conscious and I believed that the American Dream could be attained. So I took every opportunity that came along, I realised at a very early age that you have to be \u201csimpatico\u201d with everybody that you are working with in order to achieve your vision.<\/p>\n You started out with documentaries, do you ever miss that kind of film-making?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, I see great documentaries being made now, especially in America, and there\u2019s a documentary playing at this festival, it\u2019s Errol Morris\u2019 film about Donald Rumsfeld: \u2018The Unknown Known\u2019, I can\u2019t wait to see it. He made an amazing documentary, \u2018The Fog Of War,\u2019 about Robert McNamara, who was the American Secretary of Defence, under Kennedy and was responsible, in his mind, for the Vietnam War and he admitted responsibility in this documentary.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve always been very sensitive to justice, your first documentary was about Paul Crump\u2019s case…<\/strong><\/p>\n He was an African-American who was going to the electric chair, when I heard about him. I became a film-maker because I wanted to save his life, a kind of court of last resort and I had never made a film before, I had done live television. But I learned how to make a documentary to save his life, which it did.<\/p>\n During that period you wanted to become a reporter, why did you change your mind?<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t, I simply got more opportunities from television and very soon after that cinema.<\/p>\n Do you feel a special bond with \u2018The French Connection\u2019 since you won your first Academy Award with it?<\/strong><\/p>\n I feel very close to a number of my films: \u2018The French Connection,\u2019 \u2018The Exorcist,\u2019 especially \u2018Sorcerer,\u2019 \u2018Crusing,\u2019 \u2018To Live And Die In L.A.,\u2019 \u2018The Boys In The Band,\u2019 \u2018Rules Of Engagement,\u2019 \u2018Bug\u2019 and \u2018Killer Joe.\u2019 I\u2019m very close to those films.<\/p>\n You often find inspiration in art history…<\/strong><\/p>\n Many great painters that I got to see over and over again have influenced me. For example, the first visit I make when I come to Venice is to the Accademia to see Paolo Veronese\u2019s \u2018The Feast In The House Of Levi,\u2019 which is a great masterpiece and a small painting by Giorgione called \u2018La Tempesta.\u2019 The image of the poster of \u2018The Exorcist\u2019 was inspired by Magritte.<\/p>\n
![\"the](\"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/the-exorcist1.jpg\" "\\"the")
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