Quotes by John Frankenheimer

About John Frankenheimer:

John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Seven Days in May (1964), The Train (1964), Seconds (1966), Grand Prix (1966), French Connection II (1975), Black Sunday (1977), and Ronin (1998).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I've found that the more experts you have on a movie, the less control the director has.

John Frankenheimer

If you cast the picture correctly, you have a whole lot of leeway. You can make mistakes in other aspects but pull it off with the right actors.

John Frankenheimer

If you don't cast well, you can be in real trouble.

John Frankenheimer

One of the first lessons you learn as an actor is to listen.

John Frankenheimer

The accolades usually come when you're dead or too old to get a job.

John Frankenheimer

The first assistant director is just so important that the choice of that person is critical to the movie.

John Frankenheimer

The importance of the assistant director cannot be overemphasized.

John Frankenheimer

Then I usually leave the choice of the second assistant director and any other assistant directors to the first assistant director, who will choose because he or she is responsible for the conduct and the efficiency of the second assistant directors.

John Frankenheimer

There are so many effects and so many things that are done digitally now that it's so hard for the director to really control the process, because there are more and more experts that come in.

John Frankenheimer

The first thing is that we're being attacked by both the Writers Guild and the Producers Guild. Both of these groups are trying to diminish the importance and strength of the director. They're trying to do it through both frontal and side attacks.

John Frankenheimer

Historically the director has been the key creative element in a film and we must maintain that. We must protect that, in spite of the fact that there is new technology that's continually trying to erode that.

John Frankenheimer

I think that you can't make a movie without a script. But you also can't make movies without actors. You also can't make movies without technicians. And there has to be just one person in charge of everybody, and to me that one person is the director...

John Frankenheimer

You have to really work with someone who you think is going to be a collaborator, who you think understands what you want to do with this movie and how you want to do it.

John Frankenheimer

Author Bio

  • NameJohn Frankenheimer
  • Descriptionfilm director
  • BornFebruary 19, 1930
  • DiedJuly 6, 2002
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionFilm Director; Film Producer
  • AwardsPrimetime Emmy Award