Vidor Quotes & Sayings

There is a time somewhere in each of our lives, certainly before we reach the age of thirty, when our youth achieves a kind of perfection. A glorious time when we are perfectly balanced between youth and maturity, between optimism and worldliness, between idealism and inertia. It is a brief period, lasting only a year or perhaps a few of them, when it is clear that we have finally become all we are ever going to be. — Lee Vidor

In my opinion, the motion picture is the greatest medium of expression ever invented. It embraces all the other arts. The films that have the greatest unity, the greatest overall strength, and give the most satisfaction to the viewer, have been those in which a guiding hand was imposed in every section of the film's many divisions. — King Vidor

I chose the American ones, more or less the last five years of the silent era, because those are the ones that aged the best in the way they tell the story. One, it's about human beings with context. It's a very classical story with feelings, with laughter, melodrama and it really works, the good ones - Murnau's American movies, John Ford's Four Sons, King Vidor's The Crowd, or the (Josef) von Sternberg movies. You can watch it now and it still works. I mean they are really, really good pieces so this is where I tried to work. — Michel Hazanavicius

A simple story filmed with limited sets can often be more effective than a costly extravaganza. provided it had depth and allows the audience to identify with the character. — King Vidor

As Titanic began production, there was an immediate chemistry between Barbara and myself - a lot of looks across the room. At this point Barbara Stanwyck was a legendary actress, universally respected for her level of craft and integrity. She also had the most valuable thing a performer can have: good taste. Besides a long list of successful bread-and-butter pictures, Barbara had made genuine classics for great directors: The Bitter Tea of General Yen and Meet John Doe for Frank Capra, Stella Dallas for King Vidor, The Lady Eve for Preston Sturges, Ball of Fire for Howard Hawks, and Double Indemnity for Billy Wilder. Barbara carried her success lightly; her attitude was one of utter professionalism and no noticeable temperament. As far as she was concerned, she was simply one of a hundred or so people gathered to make a movie - no more, no less. — Robert Wagner

Officially I'm not playing any more. I've stopped. My time is up. Everything has been a lot of fun. — Romario

There is the story in every man's heart of human progress. I believe every one of us knows that his major job on Earth is to make some contributions, no matter how small, to this inexorable movement of human progress. — King Vidor

In Hollywood, the cameraman lights the star. In Europe, he lights the set. — King Vidor

In The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thomson argues that Brennan should have won awards for even better performances in To Have and Have Not (1944), My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948), The Far Country (1955), and Rio Bravo (1959). Thomson counts no less than twenty-eight high caliber Brennan performances in still more films, including These Three (1936), Fury (1936), Meet John Doe (1941), and Bad Day At Black Rock (1955). Brennan worked with Hollywood's greatest directors - John Ford, Howard Hawks, William Wyler, King Vidor, and Fritz Lang - while also starring in Jean Renoir's Hollywood directorial debut, Swamp Water (1941). To discuss Brennan's greatest performances is also to comment on the work of Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Spencer Tracy, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Anne Baxter, Barbara Stanwyck, Lana Turner, Linda Darnell, Ginger Rogers, Loretta Young, and many other stars. — Carl Rollyson

The Screen Directors Guild was organized solely by and for the motion picture director ... We are not anti-anything: The Guild being formed for the purpose of assisting and improving the director's work in the form of a collective body, rather than as an individual, as was necessary in the past. — King Vidor

The director is the channel through which a motion picture reaches the screen. — King Vidor

Meditation, then, is a state of mind in which the 'me' is absent. And therefore that very absence brings order. — Jiddu Krishnamurti

Marriage is not a word; it is a sentence. — King Vidor

They were offered the choice between becoming kings or the couriers of kings. The way children would, they all wanted to be couriers. Therefore there are only couriers who hurry about the world, shouting to each other - since there are no kings - messages that have become meaningless. They would like to put an end to this miserable life of theirs but they dare not because of their oaths of service. — Franz Kafka

The quickest way to correct the other fellow's attitude is to correct your own. — King Vidor

It was closer to manual labor than shooting a film. I always think of something Michael Caton-Jones told me: 'Pain is temporary. Film is forever.' — Leonardo DiCaprio

I am joining the more than 200,000 women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. We are a testament to the importance of early detection and new treatments ... I am inspired by the brave women who have faced this battle before me and grateful for the support of family and friends. — Sheryl Crow

This book's title, Rough Beauty , conveys Anderson's conviction that the hard scrabble lives of most of the residents of Vidor, Texas, are worthy of our attention, but it also conveys that he does not seek to beautify their lives by removing the crude edges. — Anne Wilkes Tucker

I can't believe you're going to sacrifice your archery mojo for MacReive." Lucia would forfeit her fantastical skill with a bow if she was unchaste. "Who am I going to hang out with when your a talentless nobody? — Kresley Cole

My father ... raised me to make up my own mind. The way he did this was by yielding to me when I asked, even when I was foolish. I lived through it; and I know my own mind; and he will do what I ask him. — Robin McKinley

Take it from me, marriage isn't a word - it's a sentence. — King Vidor