John Boorman Quotes

• You can't get an actor to do something that is beyond his range, so you have to be aware of the range of the actor and, if necessary, alter the part to suit the actor.

  John Boorman

  Actors, Suits, Range

  46 Copy quote

• All the great legends are Templates for human behavior. I would define a myth as a story that has survived.

  John Boorman

  Stories, Legends, Behavior

  37 Copy quote

• I look at the story, I look at the idea and just try to think of it in terms of that whole body of myth and see where the characters fit in and what they ought to be doing-all those archetypes are there to play with.

  John Boorman

  Character, Thinking, Play

  26 Copy quote

• What is passion? It is surely the becoming of a person. Are we not, for most of our lives, marking time? Most of our being is at rest, unlived. In passion, the body and the spirit seek expression outside of self. Passion is all that is other from self. Sex is only interesting when it releases passion. The more extreme and the more expressed that passion is, the more unbearable does life seem without it. It reminds us that if passion dies or is denied, we are partly dead and that soon, come what may, we will be wholly so.

  John Boorman

  Sex, Passion, Self

  "Projections: A Forum for Film Makers, Volume 1". Book edited by John Boorman and Walter Donohue, 1992.

  54 Copy quote

• All art is fundamentally subversive, because it upsets people's perceptions, their notions about society. Therefore, art is dangerous, but good art is always making us reassess our thoughts and feelings about how we relate to other people. There are always people who fear that and want to suppress that.

  John Boorman

  Art, People, Feelings

  Interview with Joshua Klein, www.avclub.com. January 20, 1999.

  7 Copy quote

• Movie-making is the process of turning money into light. All they have at the end of the day is images flickering on a wall.

  John Boorman

  Wall, Light, The End Of The Day

  7 Copy quote

• What is passion? Passion is surely the becoming of a person.

  John Boorman

  Inspirational, Passion, Becoming

  6 Copy quote

• Black and white is much closer to the condition of
  dreaming. It links you to the subconscious and I think that was
  part of the great appeal of movies originally.. this strange otherness.

  John Boorman

  Dream, Black And White, Thinking

  8 Copy quote

• I think most films are too predictable. They follow familiar patterns. I suppose audiences like to know where they stand but I like films that take me by surprise, take unexpected turns and twists.

  John Boorman

  Thinking, Unexpected, Surprise

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

  4 Copy quote

• When actors are being defensive and defending their position, that is when you get less than good acting.

  John Boorman

  Acting, Actors, Position

  4 Copy quote

• The more extreme and the more expressed that passion is, the more unbearable does life seem without it. It reminds us that if passion dies or is denied, we are partly dead.

  John Boorman

  Passion, Doe, Unbearable

  "Projections: A Forum for Film Makers, Volume 1". Book edited by John Boorman and Walter Donohue, 1992.

  16 Copy quote

• There are always forces at work in a society, certainly in America, which are really forces of censorship -either religious bodies or zealots who are always putting pressure on things, whether it's books or art or film. And all art is fundamentally subversive, because it upsets people's perceptions, their notions about society. Therefore, art is dangerous, but good art is always making us reassess our thoughts and feelings about how we relate to other people. There are always people who fear that and want to suppress that.

  John Boorman

  Religious, Art, Book

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I love green. Green is the color of nature, trees. I'm a tree freak. I spend a lot of my time planting trees, nurturing them, and studying them. It's one of the colors I couldn't live without.

  John Boorman

  Color, Tree, Green

  Interview with Joshua Klein, www.avclub.com. January 20, 1999.

  4 Copy quote

• I only storyboard scenes that require special effects, where it is necessary to communicate through pictures.

  John Boorman

  Talking, Special, Scene

  58 Copy quote

• It's so easy to manipulate an audience, but it's nearly always clear that you are being manipulated. I think even people that are not critically attuned are aware of cynical manipulation in film.

  John Boorman

  Thinking, People, Cynical

  7 Copy quote

• In the '60s and '70s it was a great period for American films because studios were still run by individuals who worked off the seat of their pants and went along with things. At that time, they were very uncertain about what to make because of the influence of television. A lot of really terrific movies were made. But then the studios gradually became more corporate and were owned by corporations and run in that way and now they're very nervous. You see what they make - sequels, franchises and try not to take risks.

  John Boorman

  Running, Risk, Trying

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

  4 Copy quote

• All the interesting films are now being made by their subsidiaries for very low budgets. But the studios are not making money. They're making these big, very expensive pictures that take a lot of money but don't really pay for their costs. So they're having a very difficult time. I can see the system breaking down. I think the American studios are a reflection or a metaphor for American industry altogether, which is failing in the world. Its economic domination is being broken down and I think the same thing is happening to the studios.

  John Boorman

  Thinking, Reflection, Interesting

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

  4 Copy quote

• There's always been this strand of filmmaking in Britain which is like socialist neo-realism. That's always been there. I've never been part of that, really; I've been much closer to fantasy.

  John Boorman

  Fantasy, Filmmaking, Socialist

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• Black-and-white gives you that sort of parallel world. Also, it's very close to the condition of dreaming, to the unconscious.

  John Boorman

  Dream, Black And White, Giving

  Interview with Joshua Klein, www.avclub.com. January 20, 1999.

  5 Copy quote

• I'm trying to suggest a kind of Middle Earth, in Tolkien terms. It's a contiguous world; it's like ours but different.

  John Boorman

  Trying, Different, World

  4 Copy quote

• And you poor creatures--who conjured you out of the clay? Is God in show business, too?

  John Boorman

  God, Clay, Poor

  "Fictional character: Arthur Frayn". "Zardoz", www.imdb.com. 1974.

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• What we need is someone to abolish the House Of Lords, get rid of the Royal Family.

  John Boorman

  House, Needs, Royal

  Interview with Joshua Klein, www.avclub.com. January 20, 1999.

  4 Copy quote

• There are always forces at work in a society, which are really forces of censorship - either religious bodies or zealots who are always putting pressure on things, whether it's books or art or film.

  John Boorman

  Religious, Art, Book

  Interview with Joshua Klein, www.avclub.com. January 20, 1999.

  4 Copy quote

• The resistance to black-and-white is huge, in the way that you have to sell the film. It's difficult to distribute around the world.

  John Boorman

  Black And White, World, Way

  Interview with Joshua Klein, www.avclub.com. January 20, 1999.

  4 Copy quote

• Up until the middle to late '60s, it was a choice to film in black-and-white or color. But then television became so vital to a film's finance, and television won't show black-and-white. So that killed it off, really.

  John Boorman

  Black And White, Color, Choices

  Interview with Joshua Klein, www.avclub.com. January 20, 1999.

  4 Copy quote

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