Language Inspired by Filmmakers

From Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1990) British-American

Think: nail-biting suspense, droll humor, cool patrician blondes.

(One of the few directors who was able to "brand" himself with the American public.)

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From Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) British-American

Think: silent-movie slapstick, tears-and-laughter pathos.

(Score points with film aficionados by noting that he was the first true genius of cinema.)

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From Frank Capra (1897-1991) American

Think: celebration and eventual triumph of the average guy, sentimentalism.

(Probably the first nonactor movie director to be known by the general public.)

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From Orson Welles (1915-1985) American

Think: cinematic pyrotechnics done to technical and dramatic perfection.

(Spoiler alert: it's a sled!)

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From Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) American

Think: irony, emotional aloofness, deliberate pacing.

(Don't even try deciphering what the finale with the Star Child means.)

From Federico Fellini (1920-1993) Italian

Think: poetic neorealism, surrealism, and sometimes just plain weirdism.

(Carl Jung's ideas about the collective unconscious helped inspire the dreamlike images in many Fellini films.)

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From Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) Swedish

Think: deep, dark, depressing.

(Never play chess with someone who introduces himself as Death, and do not rent "Winter Light" if you're looking for a pick-me-up.)

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From Andy Warhol (1928?-1987) American

Audacious, minimalist, unwatchable.

(According to legend, when "Sleep" - an eight-hour static shot of a man snoozing in bed - played in a Los Angeles theater in 1963, 500 people started watching it and 50 remained at the end.)

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From Steven Spielberg (1947-) American

Think: exhilarating, over-the-top action sequences, childlike wonder, feel-good endings.

(And audience members who still fear deep water, even in pools.)

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