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

MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Oh, you were hoping to get 1900 as a Closing Night film.
CLAUDE JARMAN: That was United Artists. They were reluctant to show the film, at least in a
festival. Films that were going to be big box office potential, the distributors were always concerned
about getting a bad review before a film came out. They liked to control the release of the film. And if it
was a big film—well, you see that in all these festivals; they’re very reluctant to expose themselves to
that, because a bad review can really hurt you, no question.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Now the Festival asks to hold reviews of certain films that haven’t been
released yet.
CLAUDE JARMAN: Well, the films we wanted, I don’t think the critics would have done that. I think
they just felt, “Hey, we’re not going to go along with that.” I’m surprised if they did.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: This year, the critics complained that there were seven French films, but
none from Latin America or Africa, and few from Asia. How do you respond to that kind of—
CLAUDE JARMAN: I think that this was just the height of the French film industry. The best films
were coming out of France, and we tried to show the best films. There weren’t that many films coming
out of Senegal or India, for example. If we only were going to show 20 films—not like they do today,
where they show 100 films—we tried to show the best films that we could find. And the French were
making them. Between Louis Malle and Chabrol and Godard, Truffaut—I mean, what am I missing
here? (LAUGHS)
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: This was the year that you were hoping you would finally get Katharine
Hepburn. What were your efforts in that regard?
CLAUDE JARMAN: Oh, I think we just tried and finally gave up. She was too reclusive— I think she
was probably afraid we were going to ask her about Spencer Tracy.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Which was not yet public knowledge.
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