Max Schreck relaxing between takes & creeping everyone out on the set of Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror(1922, dir. F.W. Murnau) (via)

During the filming of Nosferatu, Schreck reportedly stayed in character at all times, even when the cameras weren’t rolling, and the cast and crew never saw him out of full makeup and costume. While this immersive approach to acting is commonplace now, it was unusual back then and his appearance & behavior led to wild rumors that Schreck actually was a vampire. If this photo is indicative of Schreck’s demeanor around the set of Nosferatu, the crew’s wariness was entirely understandable. 

Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922, dir. FW Murnau) (entire film online here)

Czech poster art for Belle de Jour (1967, dir. Luis Bunuel) Artist: Karel Machálek

Catherine Deneuve on promotional tour for Belle de Jour (1967, dir. Luis Bunuel)

“I prefer to be associated with Belle de Jour than a lot of other things, frankly. I think it’s a great film. I was very lucky to do films like that, and like Umbrellas of Cherbourg, at a young age. I think it was great luck for an actor to be involved with very important directors young, because it gives you another view of cinema.”

What, in particular, did they teach her? “It’s not what they taught me,” she says, “it’s what I learned through the making of the film. It’s like being with intelligent people - it’s very difficult to say or to know what you’ve learned, because sometimes you learn without them trying to say anything. I suppose you always read things differently, you see things differently, when you’ve done films like that.”

(via)

Hedy Lamarr (w/ husband John Loder) in a Los Angeles courthouse, confronting two men suspected of burglarizing her home. Hedy is not amused.

Says TIME magazine, April 29th, 1946 edition: “Hedy Lamarr lost $19,000 worth of warmth and beauty to burglars who called while she was out. Among the missing: a chinchilla coat ($5,000), her engagement ring ($12,000). Hedy bought a gun.” (via)

Hedy Lamarr in Ekstase (1933, dir. Gustav Machaty)

The Tell-Tale Heart (1953, dir. Ted Parmelee), based on Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 short story of the same title. The animated short film be seen online here & here. 

“Why will you say that I am mad? See how calmly I tell this story to you.

Listen:

It starts with the old man. An old man in an old house. A good man, I suppose. He had never harmed me. I didn’t want his gold, if gold there was. Then what was it? I think…I think it was…his eye. Yes, that eye … the eye. That. His eye staring. Milky white film. The eye. Everywhere. Everywhere, in everything. Of course, I had to get rid of the eye.”

The Tell-Tale Heart (1953, dir. Ted Parmelee), a surrealistic animated short film based on Poe’s short story & narrated by James Mason (full film online here & here)

“The old man sprang up in the bed, crying out, ‘Who’s there?’

I kept quite still and said nothing. Presently, I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him although I chuckled at heart. I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise when he had turned in the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself, ‘It is nothing but the wind in the chimney, it is only a mouse crossing the floor’. Yes he has been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions; but he had found all in vain.

Now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.

But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder, every instant. The old man’s terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me — the sound would be heard by a neighbour! The old man’s hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once - once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done.

But for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased.  I removed the bed and examined the corpse. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.”

-Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart

The Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)

“Why do I so frequently include a levitation scene, a body rising up? Simply because the scene has a great power. This way things can be created that are more cinematic, more photogenic. When I imagine a person suspended in mid-air, it pleases me.. I find myself filled with emotion. If some fool asks me why in my last film people float up in the air, I would say: “It’s magic”. If the same question came from someone with a more acute intelligence & poetic sensibility, I would respond that for these characters love was not the same thing as it was for the author of Betty Blue. 

For me love is the supreme manifestation of mutual understanding, and this cannot be represented by the sexual act. Everybody says that if there is no ‘love’ in a film, it is because of censorship. In reality it is not ‘love’ that’s shown on screen but the sexual act. The sexual act is for everyone, for every couple, something unique. When it is put into films, it’s the opposite.”

-Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky & Margarita Terekhova on the set of The Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) (via)

“It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all.

We should long ago have become angels had we been capable of paying attention to the experience of art, and allowing ourselves to be changed in accordance with the ideals it expresses…It’s ridiculous to imagine that people can be taught to be good; any more than they can learn how to be faithful wives by following the ‘positive’ example of Pushkin’s Tatiana Larina. Art can only give food—a jolt—the occasion—for psychical experience.”

-Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema 

Originally published in the Los Angeles Times (1975), with the following caption:

“It wasn’t a plane. It wasn’t a bird. It wasn’t even Wonder Woman. It was a stunt. On Monday, stuntwoman Kitty O’Neil plunged from atop the Valley Hilton in Sherman Oaks into an inflated air bag at the pool deck, as the scene was being filmed for an upcoming two-hour special episode of the Wonder Woman series.

A Warner Brothers spokeswoman said Miss O’Neil, who is deaf, established a new high fall record and broke her own previous mark of 120 feet. After the leap, she rode to the airport for a return flight to Bonneville, Utah, where she’s attempting to set a new world land speed record* in her jet powered car.” 

*1/4 of a mile in 3.22 seconds at 396 mph

David Hedison on the set of The Fly (1958, dir. Kurt Neumann) (via)

Take it from a man who clearly knows that of which he speaks:

“In your career, you must be so careful, otherwise you get caught in a particular image and it’s hard to break.”