John Carpenter, a cursed angel in Hollywood

At film school, I was taught to fight for my ideas, to impose my vision, never to let a point of view be imposed on me. I almost always had the final cut, which is not typical in the United States.
John Carpenter, Cannes May 16, 2019

John Carpenter began his career in Hollywood in the 1970s. Artisan touches everything, he writes his stories, composes his music on the synthesizer and builds his images with impeccable framing worthy of Howard Hawks, his absolute reference. Rarely reaching the heights of the box office, it is confronted with a severe public and a critic who does not always understand its language.

Forty years later, having signed eighteen feature films, some of which have finally achieved cult status such as The Fog , The Thing , Christina , They Live … John Carpenter, exhausted by a frenetic pace of work, seems to have definitely hung up his camera to devote himself to music, playing his compositions in front of conquered assemblies.

Satisfied with this brand image, won late, John Carpenter finally savors his pleasure. But he does not hide, even today, his bitterness by evoking a career made up of so many difficult fights and so little recognition, at a time when he was fighting to manage to live from his art without having to suffer the studio pressure.

The “master of horror”, as he called himself, an atypical character, imposes himself as the absolute anti-Spielberg, always swimming against the current of fashions and expectations of the spectators. Far from the star system and journalists, the man took refuge in his ivory tower in Los Angeles. Some wounds don't heal, especially when you're a cursed angel in Hollywood.