San Francisco Film Society Oral History Project Interview with ...

MARGARITA LANDAZURI: He was becoming more of a force within the Festival, right?
CLAUDE JARMAN: Yes. He and I would end up in Cannes every year. And that would be our time. I
would always have a meeting with him. Setting a meeting with George was like nothing you’ve ever
done. I mean, he was always late, always late. I don’t mean late; I mean like three hours late. He would
say, “I’ll meet you at noon,” well, at 3:00 he’d show up. But the best thing about George was, when he’d
show up at 3:00, he probably had another meeting set for three, but that meeting probably didn’t start
until six, because he would spend all the time necessary, whatever time it took. And then he could never
say no to anything. But if he didn’t say yes, he’d mean no, but he’d never say no. And I learned that.
He’d say yes. I’d say, “OK, that’s all I wanna know.” But if he said, “Let me think about it,” that was
no. A lot of people, they never figured that out until—they’d get all frustrated. And we would travel. In
’72 we went to Moscow together. I met him in Stockholm and we flew into Moscow on Aeroflot. And
there was no such thing as security. People had bags in the aisle. And he had this fishing rod. I said,
“What are you doing with a fishing rod?” He said, “Don’t you remember when I took Bondarchuk
fishing up in my ranch? I figured maybe he might take us fishing in Moscow.” And I said, “You don’t
go fishing in Moscow. First of all, the guy’s the president of the jury; he’s gonna take an afternoon and
take you out fishing?” “Well, you know, I don’t know, maybe.”
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: (LAUGHS) And did he?
CLAUDE JARMAN: No, but it was so George. And then, in those days, the festival was in the Hotel
Russia, which is a 5,000-room hotel. It’s a huge hotel. They had the theater there, they had everything. It
was still very communist—there wasn’t freedom going on there. Each night, they would have a table:
for example, the Hungarians would have a table, the Czechs would have a table, strictly Eastern
European. And George had been up in Sweden with his brother. He had this smoked salmon, which he
would bring back to the Hungarian group. And God, it’s like these people devouring this smoked
salmon, and, “George, George!” A lot of our films, he was our contact, because he loved the Czech
films; he loved the Eastern European films. He knew all those people. So he was a great asset in
obtaining films from that particular area. But to go with George to any of those places—and I went with
him to Karlovy Vary in Czechoslovakia—same deal. He was like the king. They just absolutely love the
guy.
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