My passion for the world of cinema and specifically for this space behind the camera is driving me today to write about one of the greatest film directors, writers and producers of all time.
Mr. Oliver Stone.
Yes. Again one of these few people who don’t come often to this world. Respect.
Born on September 15, 1946 in New York, Oliver Stone got married three times: Najwa Sarkis (1971-1977), Elisabeth Stone (1981-1993) and Sun-jung Jung (1996 -).
Yes. Najwa Sarkis is Lebanese.
Recipient of three Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express in 1978, Best Director for Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July in 1986 and 1989 respectively. In addition for the many other awards he received in his career. Until now …
Oliver Stone describes himself as a practicing Buddhist. Specifically, he has said he follows the Tibetan branch of Buddhism. He was not born into Buddhism, but adopted the faith as an adult.
Mr. Oliver Stone.
Yes. Again one of these few people who don’t come often to this world. Respect.
Born on September 15, 1946 in New York, Oliver Stone got married three times: Najwa Sarkis (1971-1977), Elisabeth Stone (1981-1993) and Sun-jung Jung (1996 -).
Yes. Najwa Sarkis is Lebanese.
Recipient of three Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express in 1978, Best Director for Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July in 1986 and 1989 respectively. In addition for the many other awards he received in his career. Until now …
Oliver Stone describes himself as a practicing Buddhist. Specifically, he has said he follows the Tibetan branch of Buddhism. He was not born into Buddhism, but adopted the faith as an adult.
Oliver Stone's father was a Jewish American stock broker. His mother was a French Catholic. Neither of Stone's parents was religious. They raised him in neither Judaism nor Catholicism. He thought of himself as a Protestant, but describes himself as not particularly religious while growing up.
“I was conceived by my father, born of my mother, suffered under both, was crucified dead and buried the third day I rose again from the dead and ascended unto heaven on the right hand of God, the father fiction from whence I shall come to judge both my mother and my father. Amen.”
That was what Oliver Stone once said.
Stone first began to become serious about following Buddhism while in Thailand during the filming of his film Heaven and Earth.
As a child, he learned more about how to achieve than he did about how to be happy. He has learned to take the feelings of others more into consideration.
In many ways Stone is now facing the greatest battle of his life: mastering his own mind. As of January 1995, he lived alone for over a year and a half. Many of his perceptions had changed. After showing up again, those around him agreed that he started getting less upset than he used to and started recovering from setbacks much more quickly. Today, Stone still has dark moods and bouts of depression, but seems better able to see these things for what they are: old enemies rising up from his past as projections of his mind, rather than signs of impending doom.
"I've had feelings of inferiority which have often turned into self-loathing and depression. But I've sometimes been able to turn that depression into melancholy and the melancholy into good work. I've also tried to turn excess into a productive thing and use it in my work. Either you use something or you don't. It is worse to be ignorant of it. Ignorance is one of the six negative emotions that Buddhism describes: pride, jealousy, desire, ignorance, greed, and anger.
Oliver Stone is a real character. Someone deep that keeps you fully alert with his wittiness. A mixture of intellectuality and craziness.
In other words, a true artist.
In regards to his film JFK, a reporter asked him who in his opinion killed the American president. Stone replied:
"You just don't get it, do you? Even the shooters don't know."
When Stone was fifteen years old, his father arranged for him to lose his virginity with a prostitute.
"What we think is secret is really seen anyway. It's a lesson in life. Nothing is really hidden. Even when you're [having sex] in your bedroom, your ancestors are watching. There are no secrets. A filmmaker prostitutes himself already by making his fantasies public, but it is at least in his power, the limited power he has, to cut the length of the revelation. You can wake up with your cup half full or half empty. That's a choice we have: how we accept our karma or start changing it.
Then I guess I’m prostituting myself by writing these articles.
Does that make me an “Oliver Stone”?
No. There’s only one. Until now …
Oliver Stone is a real character. Someone deep that keeps you fully alert with his wittiness. A mixture of intellectuality and craziness.
In other words, a true artist.
In regards to his film JFK, a reporter asked him who in his opinion killed the American president. Stone replied:
"You just don't get it, do you? Even the shooters don't know."
When Stone was fifteen years old, his father arranged for him to lose his virginity with a prostitute.
"What we think is secret is really seen anyway. It's a lesson in life. Nothing is really hidden. Even when you're [having sex] in your bedroom, your ancestors are watching. There are no secrets. A filmmaker prostitutes himself already by making his fantasies public, but it is at least in his power, the limited power he has, to cut the length of the revelation. You can wake up with your cup half full or half empty. That's a choice we have: how we accept our karma or start changing it.
Then I guess I’m prostituting myself by writing these articles.
Does that make me an “Oliver Stone”?
No. There’s only one. Until now …
