The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Ivan Triesault: Von Ellstein

Quotes 

• Jonathan : Mr. Von Ellstein, am I to understand that you consider this scene complete?

  Von Ellstein : I do.

  Jonathan : Well I don't. You call that directing?

  Von Ellstein : That is what I have been calling it for 32 years.

  Jonathan : Why, there are values and dimensions in that scene you haven't begun to hit!

  Von Ellstein : Perhaps they're not the values and dimensions I wish to hit. I could make this scene a climax. I could make every scene in this picture a climax. If I did, I would be a bad director. And I like to think of myself as one of the best. A picture all climaxes is like a necklace without a string: it falls apart. You must build to your big moment. And sometimes you must build slowly...

  Jonathan : Look, when I want a lecture on the aesthetics of motion pictures, I'll ask for it. And it won't be on my time, and it won't be a cover-up for a shallow and inept interpretation of a great scene! To be a director, you must have imagination.

  Von Ellstein : Whose imagination, Mr. Shields? Yours or mine?

• Von Ellstein : There is only one answer to that. You see this picture one way, and I another. It'll be done your way, but not by me, and not by any other director who respects himself. You know what you must do, Mr. Shields, so that you will have it exactly as you want it? You must direct this picture yourself.

  [Von Ellstein starts walking away, stops and turns to Shields] 

  Von Ellstein : To direct a picture, a man needs humility. Do you have humility, Mr. Shields?