FILMOGRAPHY

During the time that we were distributing foreign films, we won more Best Foreign Film awards than any other company in the business. I did it partially to make money but also because I really wanted to distribute those films. I loved those films and thought I could do well by them. Major studios weren’t geared to properly distribute them and the afficionados hadn’t the clout to get good terms. I was able to give them more personal attention. For instance, there was a rose, I think a yellow rose, that was significant to the plot of Cries and Whispers. We had a charity screening at one of the art houses in Westwood and two of my assistants, dressed in long gowns, gave a yellow rose to the women who attended the screening. Normally we played off the art houses and that was the end of it, but we put Cries and Whispers into the drive-ins. Not many but a few. Everybody said we couldn’t do that. Ingmar Bergman thanked me when I met him at the Cannes Film Festival. I’d given him a bigger audience for his films.