Xixax Film Forum

The Director's Chair => The Director's Chair => Topic started by: O. on October 11, 2011, 01:11:57 PM

Title: What do directors do between films?
Post by: O. on October 11, 2011, 01:11:57 PM
I'm not talking about directors like Spielberg who always have something on the grill, I'm talking like:

Sofia Coppola
Paul Thomas Anderson
Gaspar Noé
Stanley Kubrick (when he was alive)
etc

These sort of directors, that have long gaps between films. I'm not convinced some of them spend 3 or 4 years working on a script, or if they are, they're not working on it every day as if it were a day job. So what else do they do really? Especially someone like Noé, who's made so little in such an enormous span of time, with films that haven't even grossed an awful lot. How does he stay afloat financially? I can understand PTA dropping off in productivity in order to raise his kids but, dang, what else would he do with this time?

Let's discuss this, and it's not limited to the directors above. Any director, really.
Title: Re: What do directors do between films?
Post by: Reel on October 11, 2011, 01:37:28 PM
I always wondered what Quentin Tarantino really meant when he said he was "living life" for that six years between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill. I figured he just meant doing blow and fucking a lot of whores.
Title: Re: What do directors do between films?
Post by: O. on October 11, 2011, 02:08:05 PM
And what the hell was Terrence Malick doing for 20 years? Probably earning a holy degree in voice-over.
Title: Re: What do directors do between films?
Post by: pete on October 11, 2011, 02:15:54 PM
he's a bird guide.
Title: Re: What do directors do between films?
Post by: mogwai on October 11, 2011, 02:17:19 PM
Kubrick was busy renovating his kitchen
PTA got rid of the monkey on his back
QT developed a stutter after Jackie Brown and took a lengthy time out
Spike Jonze was just lazy
Title: Re: What do directors do between films?
Post by: Pubrick on October 12, 2011, 01:14:09 AM
O the ridiculous question of how do people who make a million dollars every few years "stay afloat financially" has been covered conclusively in How does PTA pay the bills (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=10943.0) the answer is simple: quite easily if he is not a stupid idiot.

i think we should focus instead on the wider theme of your question which has not yet been covered elsewhere, though without research i think we'll just be speculating. i speculated about Malick's transitional epochs between films/careers as a response to this post  (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=1195.msg293981#msg293981). feel free to fill in the rest of the blanks.

i think we know the answer to what kubrick did in all his years without a film as the many biographies about him explain that in the time between films he was obviously raising a family but careerwise he was either searching for a story to turn into his next film, developing the script and researching the hell out of that story, or overseeing the theatrical and home video release of his previous films. he also spent a lot of time with his family, talking to millions of people on the phone about every topic imaginable, moving house, having selected friends and colleagues over for dinner, feeding his numerous dogs and cats, screening a lot of films and watching the simpsons, roseanne, NFL games..

from his example i think we can surmise that even the most seemingly eccentric and hermitic directors live a fairly normal life. the ones that are the opposite, like Tarantino or maybe Gaspar Noe for example, hang out with famous people because they want to party.. or for other reasons that are not hard to come by in the news or gossip rags. it is only a mystery when someone decides to live a normal life in between films, like kubrick or malick, that is when people start wondering what extraordinary things are these geniuses up to.

well, mallick walked the earth.