"It is absolutely my conviction, that Walter Salles will figure among the great directors of our time"
About this Quote
A producer praising a director is never just a compliment; it is a stake in the ground. Arthur Cohn’s line reads like an endorsement, but it also functions as a kind of cultural venture capital. “Absolutely my conviction” does extra work: it’s not merely taste, it’s certainty, a pre-emptive defense against the industry’s habit of treating artistic greatness as a moving target until awards season blesses it. Cohn isn’t describing Walter Salles so much as trying to fix him in place within a future canon.
The phrasing “will figure among” is tellingly modest and shrewd. It avoids the absolutism of “the greatest” while still aiming for the long game: not the next box office, but the historical ledger. That’s producer language at its most effective, translating artistic intuition into reputational momentum. Cohn knows that “great directors of our time” is a club whose membership is decided as much by critical narrative, festival circuitry, and institutional validation as by films themselves. He’s participating in that narrative construction.
Context matters because Cohn is not a random fan; he’s a producer with stature and access, someone whose praise can lubricate financing, distribution, and prestige. The subtext is: take Salles seriously now, before consensus catches up. It’s also a subtle signal to gatekeepers: if you’re looking for the next “important” filmmaker to champion, here’s your candidate. In an industry allergic to risk, “conviction” becomes a sales pitch for belief itself.
The phrasing “will figure among” is tellingly modest and shrewd. It avoids the absolutism of “the greatest” while still aiming for the long game: not the next box office, but the historical ledger. That’s producer language at its most effective, translating artistic intuition into reputational momentum. Cohn knows that “great directors of our time” is a club whose membership is decided as much by critical narrative, festival circuitry, and institutional validation as by films themselves. He’s participating in that narrative construction.
Context matters because Cohn is not a random fan; he’s a producer with stature and access, someone whose praise can lubricate financing, distribution, and prestige. The subtext is: take Salles seriously now, before consensus catches up. It’s also a subtle signal to gatekeepers: if you’re looking for the next “important” filmmaker to champion, here’s your candidate. In an industry allergic to risk, “conviction” becomes a sales pitch for belief itself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Arthur
Add to List
