quotations from your favorite directors

[lovejuice]

put a name in spoiler tag so we can have fun guessing.

“Wisdom and love have nothing to do with each other. Wisdom is staying alive, survival. You’re wise if you don’t stick your finger in the light plug. Love -- you’ll stick your finger in anything.”

“When I see an American flag flying, it's a joke.”

“as long as I last and as long as people allow me to do it.” :cry:

robert altman

[Ezee E]

I love Bergman's taunts of other directors.

[Rowland]

"Directing ain't about drawing a neat little picture and showing it to the cameraman. The fact is, you don't know what directing is until the sun is setting and you've got to get five shots and you're only going to get two."

"Doing cool stuff like designing shots is 1 percent of your life. The other 99 percent is holding everything together while there's total fucking chaos, maximizing the amount of hours that you have in order to get stuff, pulling shit out of your ass to fix things, being able to work on your toes."

David Fincher

[lovejuice]

"Directing ain't about drawing a neat little picture and showing it to the cameraman. The fact is, you don't know what directing is until the sun is setting and you've got to get five shots and you're only going to get two."

"Doing cool stuff like designing shots is 1 percent of your life. The other 99 percent is holding everything together while there's total fucking chaos, maximizing the amount of hours that you have in order to get stuff, pulling shit out of your ass to fix things, being able to work on your toes."

David Fincher

somehow i think they are by david lynch. at least i'm close.

[Raiders]

“I don't think that the flesh is necessarily treacherous, evil, bad. It is cantankerous, and it is independent. The idea of independence is the key. It really is like colonialism. The colonies suddenly decide that they can and should exist with their own personality and should detach from the control of the mother country. At first the colony is perceived as being treacherous. It's a betrayal. Ultimately, it can be seen as the separation of a partner that could be very valuable as an equal rather than as something you dominate.”

David Cronenberg

[Grouchy]

"Coincidences always happen if you keep your mind open, while storyboards remain the instruments of cowards who do not trust in their own imagination and who are slaves of a matrix... If you get used to planning your shots based solely on aesthetics, you are never that far from kitsch".

"Our children will hate us for not throwing hand grenades into every TV station because of commercials".

"Someone like Godard is intellectual counterfeit money when compared to a good kung-fu film".

"I'm not out to win prizes - that's for dogs and horses".

"It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid".

Werner Herzog

[Russ]

"Quite often, I don't even look through the camera. I find that I get-- by forcing accidents to happen-- I have far better luck. You get a lower batting average on images, but a higher slugging percentage."

Guy Maddin

[origami_mustache]

"To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it!"

Charlie Chaplin

[Eleven]

"A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again."

Jean Renoir

[Ezee E]

"A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again."

Jean Renoir
That doesn't make any sense.

[Derek]

That doesn't make any sense.

It makes perfect sense. It's basically the definition of an auteur.

[Watashi]

It makes perfect sense. It's basically the definition of an auteur.
Not really. I haven't seen his debut Whirlpool of Fate, but I'm sure the rest of his films aren't bits and pieces of that film.

[origami_mustache]

Do people just take quotes literally to be assholes about it or what?

[Ezee E]

Do people just take quotes literally to be assholes about it or what?
If you say something stupid, you deserve to be called on it. Even if it's Renoir

[Watashi]

If you say something stupid, you deserve to be called on it. Even if it's Renoir
"Film is Cinema, but Cinema isn't film."

[Derek]

Not really. I haven't seen his debut Whirlpool of Fate, but I'm sure the rest of his films aren't bits and pieces of that film.

:rolleyes:

Yes, really. If you guys could actually read the quote just a bit less literally, it'd make perfect sense. Renoir is obviously being playful here and talking about how a director reworks the same scenes, developing their aesthetic and working their own world views and personal concerns into each of their individual works. When he talks about the "one movie" a director makes, he's referring to the complete body of work.

[Derek]

If you say something stupid, you deserve to be called on it. Even if it's Renoir

Renoir's not the one being stupid here. Reading a quote literally that is obviously not meant to be taken that way is a whole lot closer though.

[Ezee E]

"Film is Cinema, but Cinema isn't film."
That's got Godard all over it.

[origami_mustache]

:rolleyes:

Yes, really. If you guys could actually read the quote just a bit less literally, it'd make perfect sense. Renoir is obviously being playful here and talking about how a director reworks the same scenes, developing their aesthetic and working their own world views and personal concerns into each of their individual works. When he talks about the "one movie" a director makes, he's referring to the complete body of work.

pretty sad that this even needed explaining.

[Sven]

Derek is right.

[Derek]

pretty sad that this even needed explaining.

Tell me about it. And even sadder that people are willing to brand the likes of Renoir and Godard as stupid based on quotes taken completely out of context and without any attempt to understand what they're actually trying to say.

[Watashi]

pretty sad that this even needed explaining.
pretty sad that I get called an asshole for obviously messing around.

I know these quotes aren't meant to be taken literally, I just don't find any of them that great.

[Watashi]

I guess I'll just go back to watching my superhero movies and summer blockbusters then.

[Winston*]

But how do you break a film into pieces? You could use scissors but that would more of a cut. And using your hands would be more of a rip. I suppose you could smash the film cannisters with a hammer of some sort but that would probably render the film unusable in the re-assemblage process.

[Sven]

But how do you break a film into pieces? You could use scissors but that would more of a cut. And using your hands would be more of a rip. I suppose you could smash the film cannisters with a hammer of some sort but that would probably render the film unusable in the re-assemblage process.

Liquid nitrogen bath + sledgehammer = taken care of

[Sycophant]

"A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again."

Jean RenoirExcellent quote.

[Winston*]

Liquid nitrogen bath + sledgehammer = taken care of
Are you saying the film would reassemble itself in the same manner as the T-1000?

[Derek]

I guess I'll just go back to watching my superhero movies and summer blockbusters then.

Oh, I see. Playing the martyr card so the rest of us come off as elitist for not wanting a great director to be misunderstood? So now it's elitist to be a little annoyed by someone saying a quote makes no sense because they misread it...or joked about it not making sense, even though they used no smilies so that no one could possibly tell they weren't being serious? Come on, Wats. You're better than pulling that kind of "woe is me" crap.

[Sven]

Are you saying the film would reassemble itself in the same manner as the T-1000?

Under the guided hands of a French master, but a similar process, yes. Only instead of a killer policeman, you get Anna Magnani. Some days I'm not sure which I'd prefer.

[Derek]

Excellent quote.

I don't know if this was intentional or not, but either way :lol:.

[Ezee E]

It's a pointless game so:

"In a house there is the top floor and there is the cellar. The underground filmmakers live in the same house as Hollywood, but they work in the cellar. It's up to them if they like to live in the dark. The Hollywood filmmakers are more intelligent, because they have that sunny top floor."

"It's over. There was a time maybe when cinema could have improved society, but that time was missed."

"Post-war filmmakers gave us the documentary, Rob Reiner gave us the mockumentary and Moore initiated a third genre, the crockumentary."

"People in life quote as they please, so we have the right to quote as we please. Therefore I show people quoting, merely making sure that they quote what pleases me."

"My aesthetic is that of the sniper on the roof."



if you didn't know yet, this should finish it off:

"All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun."

[Melville]

I know these quotes aren't meant to be taken literally, I just don't find any of them that great.
Oh, come now. That quote from Cronenberg brilliantly and compellingly summarized his most frequent theme.

[Watashi]

Oh, I see. Playing the martyr card so the rest of us come off as elitist for not wanting a great director to be misunderstood? So now it's elitist to be a little annoyed by someone saying a quote makes no sense because they misread it...or joked about it not making sense, even though they used no smilies so that no one could possibly tell they weren't being serious? Come on, Wats. You're better than pulling that kind of "woe is me" crap.
What the fuck? I never called you elitist. This is the second time you've called me out on this. Just because I didn't use a smilie shouldn't make it any obvious that I'm yanking your chain considering our different tastes. I like Renoir and I wasn't the one who called him stupid.

[Qrazy]

If you say something stupid, you deserve to be called on it. Even if it's Renoir

And if you interpret something poorly then what do you deserve?

[Ezee E]

And if you interpret something poorly then what do you deserve?
Money.

ANd I'm being literal.

[Derek]

What the fuck? I never called you elitist. This is the second time you've called me out on this. Just because I didn't use a smilie shouldn't make it any obvious that I'm yanking your chain considering our different tastes. I like Renoir and I wasn't the one who called him stupid.

I thought it was implied when you said "I guess I'll just go back to watching my superhero movies and summer blockbusters then." It sounded like you were trying to come off as being picked on by people who can't enjoy superhero movies or summer blockbusters, but maybe I missed your point. I know you weren't the one who called him stupid, but you did say it made no sense and I guess I missed how that was somehow pulling my leg. Anyway, sorry for misinterpreting you.

[Ezee E]

I thought it was implied when you said "I guess I'll just go back to watching my superhero movies and summer blockbusters then." It sounded like you were trying to come off as being picked on by people who can't enjoy superhero movies or summer blockbusters, but maybe I missed your point. I know you weren't the one who called him stupid, but you did say it made no sense and I guess I missed how that was somehow pulling my leg. Anyway, sorry for misinterpreting you.
So much being taken at facevalue.

[Qrazy]

"It's over. There was a time maybe when cinema could have improved society, but that time was missed."


This G quote has always irritated me, enough fatalistic bullshit.

"The field of Entertainment-Education (EE), combines communication and education theory with communicative arts to deliver primarily social development messages. Although Entertainment-Education has existed for millennia in the form of parables and fables, perhaps the most influential modern-day practitioner and theorist in the field is Miguel Sabido. In the 1970s, Sabido began producing telenovelas (soap operas or serial dramas) that combined communication theory with pro-health/education messages to educate audiences throughout Latin America about family planning, literacy, and other topics."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edutainment

Statistics were amassed and Sabido's efforts bore fruit. Social reform is very possible and more filmmakers ought to attempt it.

[Raiders]

Oh, come now. That quote from Cronenberg brilliantly and compellingly summarized his most frequent theme.

Yeah, every time I watch anything of his from the 80s (and his subsequent films to a slightly lesser degree), whether it be Videodrome, The Fly or Dead Ringers, that quote always stays in my head.

[origami_mustache]

back to the quotes!

"I don't pray because I don't want to bore God."

"They teach anything in universities today. You can major in mud pies."

"I started at the top and worked my way down. "

Orson Welles

[Qrazy]

Yeah, every time I watch anything of his from the 80s (and his subsequent films to a slightly lesser degree), whether it be Videodrome, The Fly or Dead Ringers, that quote always stays in my head.

It always stays in my loins, where it belongs.

[Winston*]

So much being taken at facevalue.

It takes a lot of time and effort to get people on an internet message board to assume all of your posts are insincere.

[Qrazy]

"An old thing becomes new if you detach it from what usually surrounds it."

"Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen."

"My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water."

"The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine."


Robert Bresson

[lovejuice]

oh, and for the heck of it.

"Do you know what directors go through? It's just hell. Like, why do I work so hard - to think I'm only going to see this movie five times and then never see it again 'cause I'm so sick of it? What is it worth, honestly?"

"For me, the great joy is to watch an audience watching what I've made. To hear not a peep from the audience at the right moment, and then to hear the laughs and the cheers."


"What I look for in a script is something that challenges me, something that breaks new ground, something that allows me to flex my director muscle. You have got to think fast in this business, you've got to keep reinventing yourself to stay on top."

ingmar bergman
actually it's michael bay.

[Eleven]

"I like to act in films, I like to shoot 'em, I like to direct 'em, I like to be around 'em. I like the feel of it and it's something I respect. It doesn't make any difference whether it's a crappy film or a good film. Anyone who can make a film, I already love. But I feel sorry if they don't put any thought in it because then they missed the boat."

John Cassavetes

"I think it's very funny to hear 'reality' and 'Hollywood films' in the same sentence. Talk about an oxymoron! I think Hollywood's perception of reality -- which millions of people seem to buy -- is so distorted and so crazy that I've always had a problem with it. Compared to it, I am a documentary film-maker: I just put on film what I see around me."

Terry Gilliam

"How lame do you have to be to spend your time like that on the Internet? Can't you do something more constructive, like surf for porn? Or go into the real world and interact with people rather than cyber-sniping."

Kevin Smith

[Sven]

"I like to act in films, I like to shoot 'em, I like to direct 'em, I like to be around 'em. I like the feel of it and it's something I respect. It doesn't make any difference whether it's a crappy film or a good film. Anyone who can make a film, I already love. But I feel sorry if they don't put any thought in it because then they missed the boat."

John Cassavetes

This quote, I love love love.

[Watashi]

This quote, I love love love.

Yeah, that is a really great quote.

[chrisnu]

“A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.”

"An audience is never wrong. An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark - that is critical genius."

“Shoot a few scenes out of focus. I want to win the foreign film award.”

Billy Wilder

[chrisnu]

:)

"Now if you're playing the movie on a telephone, you will never in a trillion years experience the film. You'll think you have experienced it, but you'll be cheated. It's such a sadness that you think you've seen a film on your... fucking telephone! Get real!"

[chrisnu]

"Usually, I don't want to sit down and listen to the director gas on about his movie. I just can't actually imagine myself sitting down and having that much to say."

Joel Coen

[megladon8]

"Living without hate for people is almost impossible. There is nothing wrong with fantasizing about revenge. You can have that feeling. You just shouldn't act on it."


Chan-wook Park

[trotchky]

"My films are intended as polemical statements against the American 'barrel down' cinema and its disempowerment of the spectator. They are an appeal for a cinema of insistent questions instead of false (because too quick) answers, for clarifying distance in place of violating closeness, for provocation and dialogue instead of consumption and consensus."

Haneke

[lovejuice]

the obvious.

"I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland."

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying."

"It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better... while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more."

"Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon."

"Don't knock masturbation, it's sex with somone I love."

[Sven]

"If it's the case that there are a lot of people who can't or don't see my films, I don't really think that's to do with me, or the nature of my films, or neglect of me. It's to do with the continuing problem of the dissemination of British films on British screens. It's to do with the domination of Hollywood. But, do I feel neglected? No, hand on heart, not at all, I feel lucky. I get to make films without even showing a script. To be honest, the fact that I'm allowed to do what I do in the way that I do it never ceases to amaze me."

Love this one:
"You will find hardly any improvising on camera anywhere in my films. It's very structured, but it's all worked out from elaborate improvisations over a long period, as you know. Literary, word-bound people often say, "Ah well, if that's the case who's the author?" Which is remarkably dumb, isn't it?"

Ooooo, good one:
"I like my films. I can't understand directors who don't watch their films after they've made them. If you don't like them, how the fuck can you expect anyone else to?"

Mike Leigh

[Russ]

”...Peace can be true, we have evidence of it... The evidence - here it is - you see here we have a miracle. Look at the pleasure that this cat has in communicating with a human being. I’m not his master, I’m only a human being. It could take exactly the same pleasure with you. Do you want to see? Take the cat...You see... Stroke it... Here it is, it’s yours. Peace is yours.”

“I ask of cinema what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs.”

"Most directors make films with their eyes; I make films with my testicles."

Alejandro Jodorowsky

[balmakboor]

"An old thing becomes new if you detach it from what usually surrounds it."

"Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen."

"My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water."

"The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine."


Robert Bresson

Are those from Notes on the Cinematographer? They're pretty damn good.

The last one sounds like it could've come from Mamet's On Directing Film.

[Qrazy]

”...Peace can be true, we have evidence of it... The evidence - here it is - you see here we have a miracle. Look at the pleasure that this cat has in communicating with a human being. I’m not his master, I’m only a human being. It could take exactly the same pleasure with you. Do you want to see? Take the cat...You see... Stroke it... Here it is, it’s yours. Peace is yours.”

“I ask of cinema what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs.”

"Most directors make films with their eyes; I make films with my testicles."

Alejandro Jodorowsky

What's your av from?

[Qrazy]

Are those from Notes on the Cinematographer? They're pretty damn good.

The last one sounds like it could've come from Mamet's On Directing Film.

Not sure just got them online but probably... but yeah I love Bresson's ideas about film... especially the use of dialogue.

[Russ]

What's your av from?
My Winnipeg, the new Guy Maddin film. Horses frozen in a lake. Yep.

[Qrazy]

My Winnipeg, the new Guy Maddin film. Horses frozen in a lake. Yep.

Awesome, I'm there.

Still need to see Archangel and some others though.

[Derek]

Are those from Notes on the Cinematographer? They're pretty damn good.

The last one sounds like it could've come from Mamet's On Directing Film.

The first, second and last are. I'm not sure about the third, but I think it may have come from an interview.

[Philosophe_rouge]

"The great innovators have always been fearless . . . I have fallen off haystacks, out of trees, over cliffs. I have been nearly drowned, shot and hanged. I have been in countless car crashes without getting a scratch. I have been alone in an office with Louis B. Mayer."

Michael Powell