A Decade Under the Influence

I was watching the beginning of this documentary on the IFC. Good stuff. Coppola talks about how he would go into talk to a studio executive when he first got started as a filmmaker...he would go in with the attitude that "I know exactly what the audience wants and I know this film will make lots of money." He argued that the method can only work when you first get started making films, once you have a track record, it of course, no longer applies.

There is so much to be learned from these guys, Friedkin, Scorcese, Coppola, Altman...one thing that I think gets forgotten, is that despite having the reputation of making "personal" films, these guys were out there making genre movies to make a buck. Altman made genre films that subverted the genre....granted, but still, they were genre films versus say, French New Wave films that were interested in showing human experience, memory, etc.