Film Quotes

The feature film business, the studio film business, feels to me like there's just nowhere else to go. It's like a record that's just skipping at the end, with the needle stuck in the run-out groove.

I will never sign anything which makes me have to do more than one film.

That's the miracle of telling a story in film: You can express something inside someone's mind.

When you see a finished film, it's very rare that it exceeds your expectations.

In Sweden, only exceptional actresses get major film parts.

As an actor, variety is the spice of life. I love theatre… it's what I enjoy the most. But a bit of TV, a bit of film, a bit of stage - what more could you ask for?

When I do film, I really take on roles and I take on characters.

There are many sides to me to who I am and my personality. I think the only thing that is rebellious about me is that I don't really have a lot of fears, as far as film industry is concerned.

We are living at a time where there are so many films available to watch through so many formats all the time. It's hard for any film to stand out in that din.

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

You need philosophy. It sounds a little pompous but I think when you direct a film, the only way to find a response to the questions you keep asking yourself is to have a philosophy.

The problem when you edit a film together, when you shoot a film, you are drawn into the moment. You want each moment to be special and full of life.

I think the purpose of test screenings is different for the studio and for the filmmaker. For the studio, I think they want to know whether the film works or not.

There is an amount of abstraction in my movies, and sometimes they don't really understand it until the film is finished.

The problem is, with a lot of children's films, they are very commercial.

I love silent cinema but don't hold it sacred. Like any branch of film there are some very boring films alongside the masterpieces.

The film industry needs to find a way to bring audiences to movie theaters. It's more of a technical trick than a revolution.

My producers give me total freedom. No one asks me for anything; they just tell me to make a good film, and that's what I do.

I've always felt that I've made films, period. I wanted to leave the "ghetto." And here I am, I'm out.

I do my films the best as I can, period. I always hope that, gradually, my honest work will reach Americans.

All of my films are based on personal experiences and beliefs. Many of my heroes are my spokespeople - and some are not!

Before my commercial success, I had difficulty doing what I wanted, but my sincere short films always won prizes in festivals. So I was ready for larger successes.

I never seem to be able to sell my films correctly in the U.S. The U.S. defends itself on its own turf.

I never feel empty. I travel a lot and I think about other films.

When I see a good film, it's like a whiplash. I run away, in order not to be influenced. Thus, the films I liked most are those I think least about.

I believe in the autobiographical concept only to the degree that I am able to put onto film all that's passing through my head at the moment of shooting.

It's only human and natural that an actor should see the film in terms of his own part, but I, as a director, have to see the film as a whole. He must therefore collaborate selflessly, totally.

My films always leave me unsatisfied, since I've always worked under fairly disastrous conditions economically.

For whatever reason, every project I do becomes sort of a cult, or a cultish show, you know, like 'Battlestar,' or even a film I did years ago, 'Kalifornia,' people refer to it as a cult film.

I find that in preparation for a drama you can do a lot of character work and develop the character and know what you want to achieve and project throughout the course of the film.

The possibilities are endless for me - Broadway, TV, music and film.

I really don't see myself being apart from music. I like doing lots of different things. I've been involved in film for quite a long time and I just like doing film.

To see the films coming out of France is to break into a vast treasure and become liberated.

The film The Last Temptation of Christ, no matter what its defenders say, was a slap in the face to Christians everywhere.

I started to shortcircuit because I had high aspirations for the film. I never told anybody that.

I would not like to have a homogeneous type of film. I wanted to go to many different kinds of ways of making cinema and telling stories and watching the country.

My job is just to make the films and then I don't have any strategy.

I think that there's a very lucid side in cinema: entering a theater and seeing the film.

I like films that are so funny, dramatic and lifelike simultaneously, that you are laughing and cringing simultaneously all throughout the film.

You would be surprised of films that people just don't see. You know what I mean? I'm always working and I'm a film buff but I'm an old school film buff.

Never take no for answer, and try to make films that turn you on.

Women get scrutinized all the time for the way they look. So if I can learn to deal with that, then I do believe I can learn to deal with people's criticisms of my film choices.

I think I might do an animated film next. I'm serious.

Making a film is like learning the ropes all over again.

When you finish a film, before the first paying audience sees it, you don't have any idea. You don't know if you made a success or a flop, when it comes to the box office.

Communists love to make films about composers, because composers compose music and don't talk subversive things.

I think everybody dreamt somehow to make a film in Hollywood, you know.

I met John when I was 18 and I was in my first John Waters film when I was 19.

My family is not at all involved in television, or film, or theatre, or any of it, really.

I think film likes me better than the theatre does for some reason.