Barry Sonnenfeld

“My favorite movie ever made, Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Now, here’s the interesting thing about Strangelove. You never want your actors to know they’re working on a comedy. In fact, you never want anyone to know you’re making a comedy. If the wardrobe person knows you’re making a comedy, the wardrobe will be too loud. If the composer knows you’re making a comedy, there’ll be slide whistles. No one, especially the actors, should ever know you’re work...”

“Now, weirdly, if I’m not mistaken, almost like the same week practically, Fail Safe came out. Henry Fonda was brilliant in it. I assume it... Am I right? Was it Henry Fonda? Was it Henry Fonda? I’m doing great. I love this movie. It makes me so depressed. So, two movies. Same plot.”

“I was the cinematographer on Miller’s Crossing. Trey Wilson... Miller’s Crossing was written for him in the lead. They found Albert Finney. Albert came in with less than two weeks and knew every single line of dialog. Miller’s Crossing, perhaps the best lit movie I’ve ever shot. And if you look at it carefully, you’ll see that I never motivated the light. You don’t have to motivate light to make something look beautiful.”

“If you haven’t watched the Criterion Collection Blu-ray of Blood Simple’s added additional discussion between Joel, Ethan, and I, I asked Criterion and they found us a telestrator. So I literally can circle things as we’re talking. And what’s great about watching the supplemental, director-approved DVD special edition is Joel and Ethan spend the entire time making fun of me and I spend the entire time making fun of them.”

“Thin Blue Line. Errol Morris. I shot part of one of his documentaries and what was interesting about his technique is, he sets up the camera... He just sits on it, never interrupts and just lets that silence live. And also, the other thing I love about this movie is, I love Philip Glass. I love his music. I love the tension of, 'When will he ever fucking resolve this chord?' I think he does resolve a chord within The Thin Blue Line. So check it out just for the tension of his soundtrack.”