I concur. Most of these stories I already had heard about. Not hyperbole.

Also not surprising is how often the mistreated people are women or native populations.

I had not heard of most of it, but Hitchock's penchant for tormenting actresses was well known. Don't know if it is in the cracked article, but the Marx brothers were famous for abusive "antics" .

Matilda and I went to see Mirror, Mirror this morning -- it's an utter popcorn movie, but really well-made popcorn. Not the world's absolute freshest take on the story (and the swordfight was so chopped up it just irritated the hell out of my Princess Bride- spoiled self), but overall pretty decent, not too scary or violent for even a pretty young kid, and Oh. My. God. the costume and set design porn. A total mishmash of everything the designers liked from every corner of European history that even vaguely qualifies as Once Upon A Time, but so exquisitely done. Oh, the pretty! And the best large-scale chess game since Wizard Chess (possibly even a bit better -- hat cannons! ). And bonus Bollywood Lite dance number for the closing credits.

I might need to see it again. And buy the art of/making of/design of book if there is one (as there damn well ought to be).

How much of this [link] is hyperbole, and how much can be believed?

They didn't even include what I consider the most infamous abuse, which was Dreyer's abuse of the actress Rene Falconetti in The Passion of Saint Joan.

Many consider it one of the greatest film performances ever, but she also never acted again.

Also, that scream that Karen Allen gives when a snake drops on her in Indian Jones? She didn't know they were going to drop a live snake on her.

Directors are assholes, though David O. Russell seems to be the assholiest one since Hitchcock.

From what I'd read previously, the shooting of Cannibal Holocaust was alleged to have filmed actual rape and brutalization of some of the native extras, not simulated. Don't know if that's true, or how the filmmaker escaped conviction if so.

IIRC, there were such allegations, and the director had to produce the extras (alive and well) that he was accused of having killed in order to escape being charged.

Well balanced directors seem to be a rarity. While I've heard some odd stories about him and things he's said to the cast, I think the most stable director I've ever heard stories about (at least in terms of being an asshole on the set) is David Cronenberg. Go figure.

Well balanced directors seem to be a rarity

Uh, there are tonnes, because there are a metric shitload of directors? I get that they can be annoying, because their job is to tell people what to do, but if I take my actor friends at their word, some bosses suck, most are unremarkable for any sort of insanity.

Cronenberg puts it in his art!

Though The Brood was basically about his divorce.

My feeling is that it's a miracle that any movie gets made and it often takes extraordinary will (frequently unbounded by kindness) to make a movie happen.

I think of the outtake in Punch Drunk Love where Phillip Seymour Hoffman jumps off the second story of a warehouse to land on a huge stack of mattresses which flex and jetison off very painfully to the ground wherepon he groans mightily in significant pain and then gasps, "Did you get it on film?"

As long as you "get it on film" seems to be the only ethic at times.

Uh, there are tonnes, because there are a metric shitload of directors? I get that they can be annoying, because their job is to tell people what to do, but if I take my actor friends at their word, some bosses suck, most are unremarkable for any sort of insanity.

Big name-above-the-title directors? Apart from ones who were actors?