Filmmaker Quotes - Page 16

• I learned early on that war forms its own culture. The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug, one I ingested for many years. It is peddled by mythmakers- historians, war correspondents, filmmakers, novelists, and the state- all of whom endow it with qualities it often does possess: excitement, exoticism, power, chances to rise above our small stations in life, and a bizarre and fantastic universe that has a grotesque and dark beauty.

  Chris Hedges

  War, Dark, Years

  Chris Hedges (2014). “War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning”, p.3, PublicAffairs

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• In Lithuania, I am known as a poet, and they don’t care about my cinema. In Europe they don’t know my poetry; in Europe, I am a filmmaker. But here, in the United States, I am only a maverick!

  Jonas Mekas

  Europe, Care, United States

  Biography/Personal Quote, www.imdb.com.

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• Filmmakers don't work for posterity. We create with celluloid and chemical pigments that don't last very long. They fade away. In 200 years there will be nothing left of our work but dust.

  Louis Malle

  Dust, Years, Long

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• You gotta make your own way. You gotta find a way. You gotta get it done. It's hard. It's tough. That's what I tell my students every day in class. I've been very fortunate. Some people might call me a hardhead, but I'm not going to let other people dictate to me who I should be or the stories I should tell. That doesn't register with me.

  Spike Lee

  Inspirational, Motivational, Class

  "Spike Lee Talks to Indiewire: 'I’m not going to let other people dictate the stories I tell'". Interview with Eric Kohn, www.indiewire.com. January 16, 2012.

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• There was one moment, and it happened in school. I had a big final exam - we were supposed to write a 20-page report on this book about Houdini. I probably would have loved reading it, but I didn't, so I just decided to make a little super-8 movie based on it. I tied myself to the railroad tracks and all that. I mean, this is kid stuff, but it impressed the teacher, and I got an A. And that was maybe my first turning point, when I said, 'Yeah, I wouldn't mind being a filmmaker.'

  Tim Burton

  Teacher, Reading, Book

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Being snarky and smug doesn't equate to providing insight, and there's more than one occasion when the filmmakers lose sight of this in their zeal to spread the Gospel According to Maher.

  James Berardinelli

  Sight, Spread, Zeal

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• In the numbing hands of pretentious filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, history does not repeat itself in any way whatsoever.

  Rex Reed

  Hands, Doe, Way

  "Year-End Roundup: What to See (and Skip) Before the Ball Drops" by Rex Reed, observer.com. December 15, 2010.

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• There's always been a struggle with filmmakers between art and industry, and you have to find a balance

  Michel Hazanavicius

  Art, Struggle, Balance

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• It's just incredible. When you're French, coming from a non-English language country, you don't even dream about Oscar recognition or nominations. It's just beyond the dream. It's something very, very special and unique. It's the highest recognition any filmmaker could dream of

  Michel Hazanavicius

  Dream, Country, Unique

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• In this land of unlimited opportunity, a place where, to paraphrase Woody Allen, any man or woman can realize greatness as a patient or as a doctor, we have only one commercial American filmmaker who consistently speaks with his own voice. That is Woody Allen, gag writer, musician, humorist, philosopher, playwright, stand-up comic, film star, film writer and film director.

  Vincent Canby

  Stars, Opportunity, Greatness

  The New York Times, July 17, 1983.

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• For me as a filmmaker, I do the projects I'm really excited about.

  Laura Ziskin

  Excited, Projects

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• I'm a filmmaker and I'm proud of the movies I've made. But in the background of my life I was also very involved in the creation of the sport.

  Joel Silver

  Sports, Proud, Creation

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• Filmmakers began to experiment with special effects almost as soon as motion pictures were invented. The history of special effects is the history of motion pictures.

  Ben Burtt

  Special, Motion Pictures, Experiments

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• It was really bizarre, that Sabzian business. You know I had no interest in being photographed before this incident. But then not just Sabzian—many other people started pretending they were me! One of them actually got married while pretending he was me! My face became publicly recognizable soon after I decided to have a few photographs of me available in public to prevent these sorts of identity thefts. It is really pathetic, if you think of it. Filmmakers and filmmaking is so popular in Iran because all other forms of expression have been denied to people.

  Mohsen Makhmalbaf

  Thinking, Expression, Iran

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• I was both charmed and moved by Midday with Buuel, Mexican filmmaker and writer Claudio Isaac's personal and very poetic recollection of his friendship with his mentor, the Spanish surrealist Luis Buuel.

  C. M. Mayo

  Mexican, Mentor, Poetic

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• Any story dealing, however seriously, with homosexual love is taken to be a story about homosexuality while stories dealing with heterosexual love are seen as stories about the individual people they portray. This is as much a problem today for American filmmakers who cannot conceive of the presence of gay characters in a film unless the specific subject of the film is homosexuality. Lesbians and gay men are thereby classified as purely sexual creatures, people defined solely by their sexual urges.

  Vito Russo

  Taken, Character, Gay

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• If you want to tell stories, be a writer, not a filmmaker.

  Peter Greenaway

  Stories, Want, Ifs

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• It seems so tragic to me that so many filmmakers are making movies up against this extra-ordinary revolution with one eye closed and two hands tied behind their backs.

  Peter Greenaway

  Eye, Hands, Two

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• My heroes among filmmakers would be people like Buñuel and Pasolini, who were of very high cinematic intelligence, but tread on a lot of toes.

  Peter Greenaway

  Hero, People, Would Be

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• Film is such an extraordinary rich medium which can handle so many different modes of operation, combining together in the same place all these extraordinary disciplines which may be executed in their own right - music, writing, picture making of all kinds, and I often feel that some filmmakers make films with one eye closed and two hands tied behind their backs.

  Peter Greenaway

  Writing, Eye, Hands

  Interview in Art and Design, no. 49,

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• I don't want to become an ivory tower filmmaker. That sounds peculiar, but I want to be a mainstream filmmaker. I want the largest possible audience that I can find - but, of course, on my terms.

  Peter Greenaway

  Ivory Tower, Sound, Peculiar

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• I studied English Literature. I wasn’t a very good student, but one thing I did get from it, while I was making films at the same time with the college film society, was that I started thinking about the narrative freedoms that authors had enjoyed for centuries and it seemed to me that filmmakers should enjoy those freedoms as well.

  Christopher Nolan

  College, Thinking, Literature

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The story of The Doors is one of the most compelling in the history of American rock music; three hugely talented musicians and a lead singer whose commitment to artistic freedom was so intense he rocketed them to a success that always hovered on the edge of chaos. As an independent filmmaker this sensibility affected me greatly.

  Tom DiCillo

  Independent, Commitment, Rocks

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• The funniest thing is that all the things every director goes through, I thought I could shortcut, but there was no getting around those issues.

  George Clooney

  Inspirational, Motivational, Issues

  "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - George Clooney Q&A" compiled by Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• I'VE NOTICED, FROM MY EXPERIENCE, IF THE EXTERNAL, EMOTIONAL CONSTRUCTION OF IMAGES IN A FILM ARE BASED ON THE FILMMAKER'S OWN MEMORY, ON THE KINSHIP OF ONE'S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH THE FABRIC OF THE FILM, THEN THE FILM WILL HAVE THE POWER TO AFFECT THOSE WHO SEE IT.

  Andrei Tarkovsky

  Art, Memories, Emotional

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