published on
Nothing is so terrible
as a pretentious movie.
I mean, a movie that aspires
for something really terrific
and doesn't pull it off is shit, it's scum,
and everyone will walk on it as such.
And that's what poor filmmakers,
in a way, that's their greatest horror,
is to be pretentious.
So here you are, on one hand,
trying to aspire to really do something,
on the other hand,
you're not allowed to be pretentious.
And finally you say, "Fuck it! I don't care
if I'm pretentious or not pretentious,
or if I've done it or I haven't done it."
All I know is that
I am going to see this movie,
and that, for me,
it has to have some answers.
And by "answers,"
I don't mean just a punch line.
Answers on about 47 different levels.
It's very hard to talk about
these things without being very corny.
You use a word like
self-purgation or epiphany,
they think
you're either a religious weirdo
or, you know,
an asshole college professor.
But those are the words for the process,
this transmutation,
this renaissance, this rebirth,
which is the basis of all life.
The one rule that all man,
from the time
they first were walking around,
looking up at the sun,
scratching around for food
and an animal to kill,
the first concept that,
I feel, got into their head
was the idea of life and death.
That the sun went down
and the sun went up.
That the crop, when they learned
how to make a crop, it died.
In the winter, everything died.
The first man, he must have thought,
"Oh, my God, it's the end of the world!"
And then all of a sudden,
there was spring,
and everything came alive,
and it was better!
– Francis Ford Coppola