Mike Figgis Quotes

I am intrigued enough to want to continue, and also to try and work with companies like Sony on modifying the cameras and making them more user-friendly and efficient.

But I don't have such a strong desire to need to get away from filmmaking.

There's nothing quite like the idea of failing spectacularly to excite a film maker

The world is an infinitely fascinating, tragic and humorous place.

One of the things I love about cinema is the range.

I'm a huge fan of world cinema, because each country uses cinema in a very individual way.

I might have a guitar or a piano on set to play something for the actors.

I like to work my camera as if it were a musical instrument.

I would certainly say that films like Time Code and the Loss of Sexual Innocence were far more rewarding to me in terms of being able to move forward as a filmmaker.

I play piano and trumpet. I studied classical guitar.

I've spent my life hearing people trying to apologize for music.

It's difficult working with very rich actors, because inevitably they become a little spoilt, and the managers and agents tend to control things more than is healthy.

There's nothing I've done which I'm ashamed of or I thought was actually bad.

Then I became interested in drama, and almost by accident, I drifted into film.

I had no plans to be a director.

I started using film as part of live theatre performance - what used to be called performance art - and I became intrigued by film.

When I do the music, I make the musicians listen to what's happening in the film. That way they treat the dialogue as if it was a singer.

There's a sadness to the human condition that I think music is good for. It gives a counterpoint to the visual beauty, and adds depth to pictures that they wouldn't have if the music wasn't there.

I made my first film on 16mm. Then I began using 35mm.Then I began working in Hollywood. And I began to really understand how films were made by professionals. I have to say I wasn't very impressed.

The function of camera movement is to assist the storytelling. That's all it is. It cannot be there just to demonstrate itself.

Films take up so much time, and with theatre, you do have to plan a period of time that you can be free.

I've held onto little musical sketches that I thought could be useful, and the more time that I spend doing them for each film, then the more I have to draw on.

The power of sound to put an audience in a certain psychological state is vastly undervalued. And the more you know about music and harmony, the more you can do with that.