Jeff Baena Quotes
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Not to be negative, but I think the biggest lesson is don't trust anyone.
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I'm just trying to get an exposure and make my day.
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I know, when I was in film school, some of my films were silly, but a lot of them were more dramatic. I don't think I intentionally set out to do comedy stuff. I guess that's a consequence of coming up working with David O. Russell and skewing toward those sensibilities.
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I like collaborating with actors. I love finding that moment where it all comes together.
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One of the interesting things about the 'Decameron' itself was it was written in the Florentine dialect as opposed to the Latin vernacular - and that was mainly to have it be a piece of literature for the people as supposed to some kind of highfalutin' canon.
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When people are committed to things, and the world view they have is no longer in alignment with our world view, then it becomes funny.
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In my mind, if you went back to the Middle Ages, in Italy they'd be speaking Middle Age Italian. And at that point, it would obviously be indecipherable for us, but for the people of that time, it was just normal talking.
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In Judaism, the temple was the most holy site in the world. But if you extend that argument as a metaphor, and you say 'The world is a holy place,' and you're treating this holy place like a money-lending psycho, then Jesus says, 'This is hypocrisy!' and he'd point it out and flip it over.
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I don't like the idea of seeing a movie and it feels comfortable because you've heard it before.
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I try to keep everything under wraps. Everything I can do to make sure people don't know what they're getting themselves into, I will do it.
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I think one of the bigger issues with modern-day people is that we don't give enough credit to people from history as being real. We almost treat them as these rarified beings that didn't exist the way that we do with emotions and urges and drives.
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For me, the whole idea of performance is not being self-aware, and then sort of just experiencing.
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Comedy is all about rhythm and context, and there's all types of comedies, and it's about finding that right brand, that consistency in tone.
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It's life, so you're a constant evolution of tragedies and achievements and ups and downs. You can probably get a little bit more immune to things, but whatever is the most amount of pain you feel at any given moment feels like the most amount of pain you'll ever feel.
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I remember when I was in film school. It was my second year, and some kid did - had this really over-religious symbolism; like, it said 'John 3:16' and had angels falling over, and it was just this insane - it wasn't that great.
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Everything kind of has a message in it.
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I hate when people eat food and talk with their mouth full. I always cover my mouth when I eat, but I've had it where there's little bologna bits flying on your food.
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Having been through breakups when you get back with the person thinking it's going to work the second time - it never does.
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I am interested in all aspects of filmmaking, so I have an opinion on every aspect, so sound design, score, cinematography, editing - all that stuff I have experience doing myself, so I had a very strong idea of what I wanted, and I got, for the most part, people that were able to articulate that idea, which was nice.
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If something's really selfless, then there's really no value in it for you... there's only value in it for the world.
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If you look at zombie movies throughout history, they're always making adjustments. Even the idea of the virus zombies and the back-from-the-dead zombies... there's been tons of tweaks.
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I always knew I wanted to make movies since I was around eleven. I never thought of it as wanting to do straight-up comedy. Even now, I don't see things in terms of genre.
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My first job after graduating was working with Robert Zemeckis. I got a job a week after graduating and moving to L.A. So I got to work on 'What Lies Beneath' and 'Castaway' as a PA, which is basically like a gopher.
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Aubrey Plaza is absolutely amazing.