Jack Garfein

“John Cassavetes, well, I had a very interesting experience with him because you know, I discovered Ben Gazzara in The Strange One, End as a Man, and John used him and John was very concerned because he wanted me to make another film. He loved my films. I ran into him one day on Wilshire Boulevard and he said, "Jack, how come you don't make another film?" I said, "Well, you know, you," I said, "you're an actor, you earn money. So you get money and I admire you because you use the money to make movies, but," I said, "I don't get that kind of money. So I can't, I haven't been able to do it." "Okay Jack, I'll call you tomorrow." He calls me and he says, "All my cameras, editing room, it's all available to you, Jack. Go ahead, start making your movie."”

“Jean Renoir, one of my favorites. I met him. I had dinner with him and we talked about acting. And Renoir said to me, which he later repeated in a film, he said that he learned the most important thing about film acting from Michel Simon and Louis Jouvet. He said what they did, what they taught me, he said, is that the actors mustn't start acting, they must discover the character and they do that by talking and listening to each other and see what emerges. And I, these films I've never seen, so I'm looking forward to seeing that.”

“Carl Dreyer. One of the great influences on my life. When I saw The Passion of Joan of Arc, astonishing film, a silent movie, and then Day of Wrath, which I remember very well. The Passion of Joan of Arc and Day of Wrath, one of the great films ever made.”

“And I met David Lean because I, he, he did, he directed for the same producer, Sam Spiegel, that did End as a Man, did The Strange One. And David Lean didn't like him very much. We met, we had dinner one night and we discussed the unhappiness with which Mr. Spiegel put both of us through. In my case, as he said, he would never let him interfere with his work as a director with the actors. And, but you know, I was very young when I worked with Spiegel. So he came to the set, started to talk to the actors, and I called George Stevens and I said, "What do I do about him?" He said, "Throw him off the set, Jack." So, you know, I was all of 25, gonna throw Sam Spiegel off the set. So I went and I called Elia Kazan. I said, "This is what George Stevens told me." Kazan said, "Jack, don't worry about it. He's been thrown off bigger sets than yours." Okay.”