- "The films I want to make, I really want to be passionate about."
Terry Zwigoff (born May 18, 1949) is an American director.
Filmography:
- Louie Bluie (1985)
- Crumb (1994)
- Ghost World (2001)
- Bad Santa (2003)
- Art School Confidential (2006)
- Budding Prospects Pilot (2017)
- Acclaimed Flop: Sans Bad Santa, which was successful enough to get a sequel, none of his films made it past limited release and either under-performed or didn't make back their budgets, yet were critical hits.
- Black Comedy: His trademark. He describes his films as "darkly humorous."
- Capitalism Is Bad: A major theme in Ghost World and why he turned down an opportunity to appear in a GAP commercial."I would find it a bit disingenuous after having spent 5 years of my life making a film railing against the evils of Corporate America."
- Doing It for the Art: As he says in the page quote, he's only willing to make movies or take directing jobs if the project is something he's 110% interested in, and has turned down numerous gigs for commercials or big-budget movies. He eventually stopped making movies altogether after Art School Confidential when studios stopped investing in "small," seven-figure-budget movies and he refused to adapt to blockbusters.
- Kafka Comedy: Nearly all of the characters in his movies are either cruel, unfortunate or stupid, and it's perfectly clear that we're meant to be laughing at them and never with them.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Heavily cynical.
