4 Great Directors Who Hate... Other Great Directors

It seems that great directors should a priori respect and recognize each other's genius, because they belong to the same group of outstanding figures in their profession, recognized by millions of ordinary viewers as well as critics.

However, cult directors are the same ordinary people and sometimes do not hesitate to comment on the work of their no less cult colleagues.

Jean Luc Godard about Bernardo Bertolucci

Bertolucci considered Godard his idol and said that cinema was divided into "before" and "after" Godard. Unfortunately, the love was not mutual.

During the premiere of the movie Before the Revolution, which Bertolucci made under the influence of Godard, he wanted to know the French innovator's opinion, but the director simply approached him and handed him a poster with Mao, saying that it would be better to really help the revolution than to make a movie about it.

It's easier to say who Godard loved, because among those he despised or disliked were Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and many others.

David Cronenberg about Stanley Kubrick

Kubrick's movies evoked disdain and, at best, indifference in Cronenberg. And only about The Shining, Cronenberg made a rather harsh comment, saying:

"I find The Shining not to be a great film. I don't think he understood the [horror] genre. I don't think he understood what he was doing."

Ingmar Bergman about Orson Welles

Bergman was always able to speak sharply about this or that director, but it was Orson Welles who received the most attention.

Bergman considered him a fraud and empty, uninteresting and lifeless.

And even Welles' best movie, which is considered one of the milestones of cinema, earned rather dismissive (if not rude) comments from him:

"Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of, is the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless."

Spike Lee about Quentin Tarantino

Lee's enmity is more personal than professional, because it is unlikely that a director like Spike Lee will not watch the new Tarantino movie over and over again, just as the last one will not be left without an extra copy of Spike Lee's movies.

But the issue here is more prosaic – racial politics in the Tarantino movies. Lee thinks that the use of n-words in Quentin's movies is excessive.

Tarantino, in turn, has always said that he is not a racist, and although there are n-words in the movies, it is used because the members of the Black community say so.

For instance, according to Tarantino, the movie Django Unchained it's about freedom and the terrible pages of American history that should not be repeated.

Source: Far Out Magazine, The Guardian