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

MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Where did that come from in him?
CLAUDE JARMAN: He just loved Eastern European film. He would spend a lot of time in Prague and
all these other places, and knew all the people. We would travel to some of these places. We went to the
Berlin Festival together. He and I, over the years, established a real rapport. He was just incredibly fun
to travel with. I mean, I would tell my staff, “I only know two things. I know I’m leaving here on July
3 rd and I’m coming back on July 20 th . I have no idea where I’m going to be during that period, because
I’m going to be with George. But I do know I’m leaving that date, and I’m coming back that date.” And
we’d be in Moscow, and I relaxed and enjoyed myself, because I knew it didn’t matter. One day moved
into the next, and we would just have this wonderful time meeting people. It was one of the highlights of
my time with the Festival, to be able to travel with him and do these things. It was just a laugh a minute,
it really was. We were over in Cannes, and he borrows my car one day. And I go to get it the next day; it
had been towed. I said, “Where’s my car, George?” He said, “Well I left it out there on the street last
night.” I said, “Well it’s gone.” And in Europe, I guess—or in Cannes, wherever it is—it took me a day
to get the car. It wasn’t like you go over here and pick it up. I had to go the police station. I had to go up
in the hills to where they towed cars, or whatever. It cost me like $500 to get it out. I came back and I
told Margie, his secretary, “He’s gonna pay this bill. I’m not gonna pay it.” Oh, too much.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: He didn’t care about details, huh?
CLAUDE JARMAN: He didn’t care.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Oh, it sounds like so much fun! Let’s go on to 1972. That was an
important year. You went from a two-week festival scaled back to ten days again. Why?
CLAUDE JARMAN: We had a lot of the same audience, and I believed in having a more concise,
action-packed ten, eleven days. And it seemed to work out. We had some good films that year. We had
Truffaut that year.
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