My work, come to think about it, does seem often to consist of filming scenes I’ve experienced myself that I want to bring back, scenes I’d like to live through and scenes I’d be afraid to live or relive. With that system, which is worth what it’s worth, once the theme is chosen, the script almost writes itself, and I don’t fuss too much over whatever significance comes out of it.
François Truffaut
From: Interview by Serge Daney, Jean Narboni, and Serge Toubiana, Cahiers du Cinéma, no. 316, October 1980
First Steven Spielberg, who is, if you make movies, if you direct movies, this is somebody who can help you. You look to his movie for solutions. He usually found a way to do it right. He’s one of my favorites.
To reproach Hitchcock for specializing in suspense is to accuse him of being the least boring of filmmakers; it is also tantamount to blaming a lover who instead of concentrating on his own pleasure insists on sharing it with his partner. The nature of Hitchcock’s cinema is to absorb the audience so completely that the Arab viewer will forget to shell his peanuts, the Frenchman will ignore the girl in the next seat, the Italian will suspend his chain smoking, the compulsive cougher will refrain from coughing, and the Swedes will interrupt their love-making in the aisles.
The introduction alone makes Hitchcock/Truffaut worthy of a place in your personal library. Plenty of ideas and tips to inspire writers and filmmakers alike.
Floodlights and Goalposts 