Not for nothing, I somehow missed this money quote back on September 13 when Ebert first posted it, but it’s worth remembering:
It’s fairly routine at a film festival to hear a director praise somebody else’s film. But Lone Scherfig, the Danish director of the wonderful “An Education,” went a little further than that. Of Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” she told me, “I think it may be the best film I have ever seen.” The film, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2009, couldn’t be more different than Haneke’s much-admired “Cache” (2005), about a family disrupted by the arrival of videotapes indicating someone has inexplicable access to their lives. Yet in a way it’s similar.
Lee Daniels, director of Precious:
“I’m openly gay, and I got picked on and stuff. So, you know, when I got beat up or chased, I used to pretend I was somewhere else. So I brought me into Precious,” Daniel said. “I used to pretend that I was a pirate. I pretended that I was…you know, Aladdin with his magic carpet? I’d pretend that often. Yeah, sometimes I pretended I was Cinderella. I’m going to be honest — and quoted,” he said, looking in mock worry at the row of digital recorders lying in wait on the table in front of him.
