A little Seinfeld wisdom

From the Seinfeld episode The Understudy. A distraught Elaine Benes shambling around on a rainy night jostles a man with an umbrella. He is J Peterman. They have this exchange.

Elaine: Oh, God! I'm so sorry. I don't even know where I'm going.

J Peterman Well that's the best way to get some place you've never been

.

The thought just passed through my head but:

Has a reading of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" ever inspired anyone to become an architect?
.
.

Richard Matheson on the (incredible) Shrinking Man

This short exchange is lifted from an interview with the novelist- screenwriter Richard Matheson (IMDb page) which appears on a site hosted by the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation.


RM: Yes, because I waited until they wanted my novel! There are other ways to do it now, but back then I think that was the best way. My book was not called the Incredible Shrinking Man (as it if is often referred to), it was just called The Shrinking Man. The phrase Incredible Shrinking has became part of the American language. I just saw it in Weekly Variety yesterday.

WS: In other words the producer added it to the title.

RM: Yes. My feeling is, it’s already pretty incredible that a guy is shrinking! Why add the adjective?

A Lesson in acting for Hume Cronyn

Charles Jehlinger was one of the most important - even if largely unknown - acting teachers in America. He taught at the American Academy for Dramatic Art for more than fifty years. The legend is that he taught Cecil B De Mille in his first class and Robert Redford in his last class. In his memoir The Ragman's Son Kirk Douglas dedicates three pages to reminiscences of Jehlinger. Likewise, Hume Cronyn in his memoir A Terrible Liar dedicates three pages Jehlinger. Cronyn tells of Jehlinger getting in his face on day and telling him,

"You're a fool, boy. Oil and water won't mix. You can't criticize and create at the same time. You're a fool."

Jerry Stiller on Michael Richards

On the "Inside Look" on the Seinfeld DVD for the episode "The Doorman". Jerry Stiller says, speaking of Michael Richards, that he has a "mercurial mind in a weightless body".

Eric Rohmer on scriptwriting

Transcribed from the Parlons Cinema interview released as a special feature on the Criterion DVD for La Collectioneuse. Eric Rohmer speaking at just 27:00,

"A story either comes about by chance or it's the fruit of a thought process that takes a long time to develop. Very few films have truly original scripts. Today's [1976] scripts aren't very original although perhaps more than before but on the other hand they lack the compelling power of earlier cinema. Scripts used to be adapted from existing stories that were thrilling, interesting enthralling to the audiences. Now scripts are pages from private journals so the audience isn't interested even if it's a very refined intellectual one."

at about 37:00

"I think that perhaps the great discovery that made the New Wave possible wasn't the 16mm or hand-held camera but the tape recorder."