"In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call 'photographs of people talking.' When we tell a story in cinema we should resort to dialogue only when it's impossible to do otherwise. I always try to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between." - Alfred Hitchcock (1899â1980), from Hitchcock/Truffaut
70 - 6
"When I was in Shortridge High School in Indianapolis 65 years ago, a twerp was a guy who stuck a set of false teeth up his butt and bit the buttons off the back seats of taxicabs. (And a snarf was a guy who sniffed the seats of girlsâ bicycles.) And ... I consider anybody a twerp who hasnât read Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government. Want a taste of that great book? He says, and he said it 169 years ago, that in no country other than ours has love of money taken a stronger hold on the affections of men. Okay?" - Kurt Vonnegut
49 - 2
Quotes from Stanley R. Jaffe, Paramount Studios youngest President (29th August 1970, New York City) at the age of 30:
âThe imagination of our children is blunted on television, and their thinking is done for them.â
âThe head of distribution shouldn't be reading scripts and telling people to make movies⌠I don't get that, truthfully. I just don't get it. I will never get it.â
"What I chose to make as a studio head was professional. What I choose to make as a producer is personal."
27 - 2
Tim Robbins, âThe Shawshank Redemptionâ star and âMystic Riverâ Oscar winner, recently said that heâs worried about the future of movies given how much algorithms now dictate what viewers watch. And in most cases, the algorithm is leading people to more of the same and not anything unique.
The Shawshank Redemption was made on a budget of $25 million and went on to make $73 million at the worldwide box office. It was nominated for seven Oscars, Robbins compared this with the wealth of movies freshly available on streaming platforms. âYou go on Netflix right now, you see what films are coming out and you tell me that thatâs the future of cinema?â Robbins said. âWeâre in big trouble.â
Robbins currently stars on the Apple TV+ science-fiction series âSilo,â which is now in its second season. He told The Guardian that âShawshankâ is one of the reasons heâs holding on to hope that the algorithm can somewhat be defeated given that most audiences rejected the prison drama when it opened in theaters in 1994.
âWeâre at 30 years now [on from]Â Shawshank Redemption,â he said. âWhen it came out it got good reviews, it got nominated for Academy Awards, but nobody saw it. It was VHS and [Ted] Turner playing it on his television channel [Turner Classic Movies] that changed that. That is a beloved movie. It remains on top of IMDb as the most favored movie of all time. So I know that a quality movie, a quality television show, will last. Whether itâs a hit or not is irrelevant compared to what people are going to think about it in 10, 15, 20 years.â
Robbins hasnât made a movie since 2019âs âDark Watersâ and explained that heâs now very picky when it comes to selecting roles because âI donât want to waste my time on a set doing something frivolous. I donât want to be there for the sake of being there.â
67 - 16
You are invited to a Watch Party for Motorama (1991)
Sunday, December 22, 2024
@ Noon PST/3 PM EST/8 PM GMT
A Donald P. Borchers Production, music by Andy Summers.
Cameo appearances by Martha Quinn, Flea, Michael J. Pollard, Meat Loaf, Drew Barrymore, Garrett Morris, Susan Tyrrell, Mary Woronov, Allyce Beasley, Shelley Berman, Jack Nance, John Laughlin, Dick Miller, John Diehl, Robert Picardo, Charles Tyner, Sandy Baron, Vince Edwards, Paul Willson, Robin Duke, Irwin Keyes, and Craig Sheffer (uncredited)
https://youtu.be/0uUz988Dwo8
Join myself, veteran B-movie producer Donald P. Borchers, and surprise cast & crew members, as well as other guests in the chat box for a live discussion during the viewing.
watch video on watch page
14 - 0
Kurosawa expressed the heavy disappointment he felt when he watched contemporary American movies that failed to do anything meaningful with the genre frameworks of action and sci-fi.
During a conversation from the 1990s with Maani Petgar that was published in "Cinephilia & Beyond", Kurosawa explained: âRegarding American cinema, I could say that much better films were made in the past. Todayâs American cinema provides the wrong service to the audience. Violence and car crashes are often seen. What pleasure is there in watching such scenes? Old American films expressed human problems quite well, but these days, the American cinema has problems.â
Drawing a comparison with Hollywood classics that had a different approach, he added: âThere is no doubt that a film like Jurassic Park is interesting, but there used to be more impressive films in the past. In contrast, films like those of [Abbas] Kiarostami touch the heart and are very beautiful. These new sci-fi, action films, are good but they are not cinema.â
90 - 25
The ARKOFF Formula: Samuel Z. Arkoff's triedâandâtrue "ARKOFF Formula" for producing a successful low-budget movie.
A - Action (exciting, entertaining drama)
R - Revolution (novel or controversial, steams and ideas)
K - Killing (modicum of violence)
O - Oratory (notable, dialogue and speeches)
F - Fantasy (acted-out fantasies comment to the audience)
F - F***ication (sex appeal for young adults)
Later, the AIP publicity department devised a strategy called "the Peter Pan syndrome":
1 - A younger child will watch anything that an older child will watch.
2 - An older child will not watch anything that a younger child will watch.
3 - A girl will watch anything a boy will watch.
4 - A boy will not watch anything a girl will watch.
Accordingly, to capture the largest audience, zero in on the 19 year old male.
27 - 8
You are invited to a Watch Party Saturday, April 1, 2023
7 PM PST/10 PM EST
Robert Kurtzmanâs âThe Demolitionistâ (1995)
https://youtu.be/1N4an8wBzPY
Join famous make-up artist/director Robert Kurtzman, veteran B-movie producer Donald P. Borchers, and surprise cast members in the chat box for a live discussion during the viewing.
watch video on watch page
16 - 14
âI found that the best way to handle [filmmakers] was to hang medals all over them⌠If I got them cups and awards theyâd kill themselves to produce what I wanted. Thatâs why the Academy Award was created.â
- Louis B. Mayer
28 - 0
"I gave a speech, as one does, as one ages, to a room of students of the theatre, of film, of the performing arts. They shone with ambition, but I soon found myself annotating virtually every sentence I uttered, and this is not terribly comfortable: It badly alters the flow of things. They looked at me blankly when I mentioned Tennessee [Williams], and I had to throw out the play titles, at which they nodded their heads and murmured the names of Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. That was their reference to Tennessee Williams. It seemed not to matter that a man, a person, had written the play that became the film that became something they did in a scene in a class. There was no line of succession. They did not know who Julie Harris was or Bette Davis or Harold Clurman or the Group Theatre and Lee Strasberg was a building where you could take classes. Now it is alarming to be old, and nothing makes a person feel quite so old as to talk of one's influences and of things that he feels are important and to have several hundred blank faces look at you with bewilderment. I don't want to annotate everything, and I think there is a serious lack of investment or intention toward this thing, this art, this craft to which you aspire. I think you have to know more than what is current and 'hot,' to use a loathsome word. I think you have to be familiar with the foundation of the work and understand it's what you're standing on."--Mike Nichols/Interview with James Grissom
22 - 0
Hello World!
My name is Donald P. Borchers. I am an Independent Producer who makes lots of movies, mostly outside of the studio system. My IMDb, Wikipedia and Film Archive links are below.
Subscribe today to join me and follow my life's journey through movies, television and radio. Experience a FREE online Film Studies colloquium through my commentary videos, discussing my movies and my life.
I properly registered original copyrights for all of my full length feature productions. Some of my movies are under partial license in certain territories. In those territories, you will not see that particular movie. I have posted links (not the movie, itself) for my movies that are fully licensed to third parties.
And I post movies that are in the Public Domain.
Enjoy!