Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Film Quotes from famous persons: Daniel Day-Lewis, Aaron Stanford, Mel Gibson, Ralphie May, Minor White. The wide variety of quotes available makes it possible to find a quote to suit your needs. You’ve likely heard some of the Film Quotes before, but that’s because they truly are great.
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Being at the centre of a film is a burden one takes on with innocence the first time. Thereafter, you take it on with trepidation.
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The show is ’12 Monkeys,’ and I’m playing the role that Bruce Willis played in the original film ’12 Monkeys.’ It is a show about time travel. My character is from a future post-apocalypse, and he has been given a mission to go back in time to essentially set things right and stop the apocalypse. No big deal.
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The true treasure lies within. It is the underlying theme of the songs we sing, the shows we watch and the books we read. It is woven into the Psalms of the Bible, the ballads of the Beatles and practically every Bollywood film ever made. What is that treasure? Love. Love is the nature of the Divine.
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In any film there’s always a historical implication.
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I can make any film I want to make.
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I think there’s escapist moviemaking, and we want to be captivated and taken away. If it’s done right, you can craft an incredible film. There have been superhero films that I think are brilliant pieces of art.
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TV and film has defined my entire life.
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I want film stories to provoke a question in people about what’s going on emotionally around them and empower them in some way or ask them about themselves.
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Everybody doesn’t get to do each and every film. I don’t compete with others; I compete with myself. I have been an athlete, a sportsperson; so I know how to be competitive in a healthy way.
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I wanted to do something in film. I wanted to make my own movies. Something clicked in my brain, like, ‘Oh, I can physically act! I can go on open casting calls and audition for something.’
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I’m not afraid of being thought of as someone who is associated with film music. Why not? If it’s a good song, what does it matter?
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You can’t make anything without making mistakes, do you know what I mean? Robert De Niro‘s in the ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle’ film. There’s a lot of far greater people than me who have made mistakes in their careers… There’s loads of people who have made stuff that isn’t good and never get asked about it.
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My principal job is to make interesting and entertaining films, and I’m not proud of which format or which particular technique I use. I just wanted the film to look good.
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I don’t want to make a comfortable film. I’m not interested in that. I’m not interested in answering people’s questions; I’m interested in posing questions. I’m interested in sparking a conversation between two people about what something means. That’s enough for me, as a writer and as a director.
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I think the cinematography in ‘Mr. Robot‘ is some of the best I’ve ever seen, honestly. Not even as being part of the show but as somebody who enjoys cinema and movies in film and TV.
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Undoubtedly, there are a number of well-developed, mainly female, stars helping Miss Taylor to hold the film industry together: Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, etc. But such an insistence on cheesecake smells of bankruptcy.
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A director is a very selfish person. For him, his film is like his baby.
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A film – especially when it’s a personal film – is going to hit somebody or it’s not. There’s nothing you can do about it.
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I have always believed that when a film is being made, it has to be the director’s vision.
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I would say that no film is apolitical. There are politics in all films. Any film that is anchored in a society, any film that deals with humanity is necessarily political.
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I want to do a good, high-tech-commercial-action film. Something along the lines of Bollywood’s ‘Dhoom.’
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If I’m going to do a big film, I’m very choosy about what I do, because I think I want to continue – in fact I’m sure I want to continue – to stay in the realm of independent films with directors and writers who are just emerging with new ideas and a different vision that hasn’t really been expressed yet.
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A film is made in somebody’s head – out of their determination to do it at all.
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The script is a blueprint for the film – there are very few bad scripts that make good movies. If you really like the character and understand the utility it serves within the movie, that’s a part of my process.
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Who’s ever going to write a film in which I get the girl? Me!
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I had a really great experience so far with film acting. And most experiences from most actors, I’ve heard, are not like this. But I want a career that has many disciplines and many options.
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I can sit in front of the TV and watch an old romantic film and be transfixed.
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My family loves movies. My dad and I used to eat a huge breakfast, and then we’d just go hang out at the theater all day together. We loved movies like ‘Indiana Jones‘ and ‘James Bond.’ We were both big action-adventure movie fans. So I kind of grew up with an appreciation for film.
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‘One by Two’ is a film about two people who live in the same city and do certain things that affect each other’s lives. Yet, they are strangers. It’s difficult to put the film in any particular genre or box.
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I was a film major because, for some reason, I thought that that was a creative job that had more job opportunities. I don’t know what logic I was following, but that was my impression at the time.
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I just won’t sing and dance in a film. But when you have a chance to star in an Abbas-Mustan film, why will anyone let it go? I have been lucky to do films which have been different from each other.
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For every film that I have believed in – from ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ to ‘Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein’ – it was very difficult to find producers.
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I’m doing a film called ‘Black Mass’ where I play James Bulger. The reason to play him is obvious to me. He’s a fascinating character. It’s not like anything I’ve done before on that level. I’m very excited to slide into that skin for a little bit.
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‘Arrival‘ talks very little about language and how to precisely dissect a foreign language. It’s more a film on intuition and communication by intuition, the language of intuition.
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At the end of the day, when I kick back with some barbecue and a CokeZero in front of a blockbuster film playing within the convenience of my fully air-conditioned house, I’ll say a small prayer thanking God for the American culture.
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Los Angeles is much like Mumbai, the film industry rules the city over most other professions, so it feels like home.
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‘Matilda’ was my favorite movie to film and my favorite to watch, as well.
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I’m a bit of a shopaholic. I’ve been working in the Bollywood film industry since I was 17, and I have always been financially independent, but I think I would be useless looking after my own money.
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In my career, I have played a gangster, an ex cop, a journalist and a film director. Yet, the label of a serial kisser refuses to leave me.
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Riskin went into directing and made a film with Cary Grant which applied to the letter all the ideas which had made his comedies famous. It had everything except that little something – and the film was a failure.
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You know, the reward for ‘Captain America’ is amazing. It’s always fun to see a giant spectacle film and see the fun stuff – the special effects.
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When you make your first film at 47 and anybody but your mother goes to see it, to me, that’s a miracle.
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I didn’t set out to make this kind of picture. It just came my way. But its been going on for me for 16 years now and its wonderful for an actor to work consistently. There seems to be an insatiable audience for this type of film.
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‘Ida’ is about humanity, about guilt and forgiveness. It’s not a film that deals with an issue as such. It’s more universal.
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I have a preference for film just because of the familiarity. It’s what I know, and I sort of have nostalgia for it.
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If you have skills to pull off even a four-hour film, people will go and watch it.
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The suffragettes were quite strategic about documenting their events, and there were some good photos. And we developed a roll of film that had never been developed before!
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I really woke up one morning and said, you know, ‘I haven‘t seen a good film about the American Revolution. And all the ones I have seen haven’t been successful, but I’m going to make a successful one.’ Well, I wasn’t able to do that.
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There is a strange pecking order among actors. Theatre actors look down on film actors, who look down on TV actors. Thank God for reality shows, or we wouldn’t have anybody to look down on.
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I got into film school. I went and didn’t know anything about it. Over the course of two years, I kind of got kind of good at it. You know, I had a brief moment where I wasn’t sure if I could do it. I didn’t know you needed light to expose film.
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I didn’t see myself as a woman doing film but as a radical film-maker who was a woman.
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I think it doesn’t matter, the color of your skin; it doesn’t matter where you are from. It matters how you relate to people, how you connect with people, and the open-mindedness with which you approach the subject. That’s to me what matters when you are making a film, not who you are or where you are from.
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I think being attracted to mistakes is one of the things that film can capture in a way that theater can’t. Film can capture a moment of spontaneous life that will never be captured again.
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One of the great pleasures of going to see a Daniel Day-Lewis film: you haven’t seen him in five years. Where have you been? So, it’s a special event, right? Well, if you want to go see a movie that I’m in, it still may be a special event for you, but, you don’t feel like you don’t know where I’ve been.
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I always gravitate towards the independent side of things, just because those are the stories I always fall in love with, but you don’t really get paid, and living in Los Angeles is expensive, and I have a mortgage to pay. So it’s good to jump onto a studio film and then in all my other time do small passion projects.
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Storytelling is powerful; film particularly. We can know a lot of things intellectually, but humans really live on storytelling. Primarily with ourselves; we’re all stories of our own narrative.
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For my very first movie, ‘Roger and Me,’ I made it as part of my deal with Warner Brothers that the four people that were evicted in that film, that Warner Brothers would house – would pay their mortgage or their rent for the next two years to give them a chance to get on their feet.
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Film editing is now something almost everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistence that any art form does.
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I’ve always been sort of addicted to genre-jumping. I’ve never been in the mood to do the same thing I did last time. Hence, me going from ‘Big Love’ to romantic comedy, to period film… I can’t sit still.
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One could make money and get a career going with a low-budget horror film about killers attacking on holidays. It is always flattering to have somebody copy you.
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Every great film should seem new every time you see it.
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There was an interesting article in Los Angeles Magazine about women directors. A woman director makes one bad independent film and her career is over. Guys tend to get an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
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The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.
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A director is the captain of the ship; he gets the vision of the film much before anyone else can. While I want to experiment with characters, I know a good director means I am in safe hands.
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How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I’m portraying in the film or play.
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My only close-to-game-plan is to follow good writing. If the writing is in TV or if it’s in theater or in film, that’s it. It doesn’t really matter what the medium is.
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I think everything that you do, you’re learning. I mean, every movie that you make is like a film school; that’s one of the things that I enjoy about filmmaking.
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A film writer is very much like a party girl. While you’re good-looking and still unlined, the possibilities seem endless. But your appeal doesn’t last long and you’re quickly discarded.
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I was sent off to study in Georgia to keep me from movies. When I outgrow this film career, I will become a practicing doctor. I want to specialize in cardiology.
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It is very tough to make a short film. It’s like writing a short story, which is tougher than writing a novel. You can’t afford to faff around; you can’t indulge. You have to get to the point.
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They make three types of movies, and if you don’t make one of those three, you have to find independent financing: It’s either big-action superhero tent-pole thing, or it’s an animated film, or it’s an R-rated, raunchy sex comedy. They don’t make movies about real people.
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If a film is entertaining, it will work irrespective of anything. It should be entertaining and engaging; otherwise, it becomes a documentary.
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The best thing I can think of would be to create a union between something as beautiful and powerful and wonderful as Hollywood films and a criticism of the status quo. That’s my dream, to make such a German film.
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The most important film I made, in terms of its subject and the great responsibility I had as an actor, was a film I did about the founder of Pakistan called ‘Jinnah.’
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I’ve always said that the more ethnic you become, the more international your film becomes.
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I’m more likely to lose my temper on a film set than almost anywhere. Often the level of idiocy is so exalted that it’s impossible to comprehend.
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One of the biggest challenges in my job is letting go of the movie once you go home at night, and knowing you can’t do anything to your performance once you’ve laid it on film.
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Having had that experience… I think, what modern culture wants to see is the relationship with the woman. I don’t think you can tell a story on film nowadays where the woman simply is there for the man when he decides to settle down.
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I want to better myself with every film. My goal is to be at the highest level someday, and I know I will get there, too. I have strong work ethics.
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There was a time when I really wanted to do films, but they didn’t come my way. I would come close and the next day suddenly I’d realise that I am not a part of the film anymore. So that’s how television happened.
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As a newcomer, I am eager to try every genre of film making.
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Nowadays, there are seven music directors in one film. I had never heard of such a thing before. If one of our old music directors was told to share a score with others, he would have left the assignment.
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In musical theater you have to be very big and very animated, while film and television are more toned down.
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My idea behind the film was to show the struggles an athlete continually endures. There is always a story behind a successful sportsperson. In ‘Soorma,’ we have tried to recreate that.
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When I’m making a film, I’m the audience.
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In ‘Casino,’ there was this scene where Bob De Niro tape-records Sharon Stone‘s phone call. Then he asks her about where she’s going, and he catches her in a lie. It was a great scene, especially for Bob’s work, but we found that, in light of the whole film, it wasn’t needed.
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On set is where I feel comfortable. The red carpet stuff, talking about the film, explaining your own life, it doesn’t come naturally. It’s all necessary stuff I suppose but it’s not my strength.
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I think I’ve never really liked the idea of genre, a film that follows the rules of a genre.
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‘Mayabazar’ was the film I immensely loved as a kid. Only when I became a filmmaker about 20 years later did I realise its technical marvel and what a great epic it was. I and my visual effects supervisor, while making ‘Yamadonga,’ took two days to understand the magnification shot of Ghatothkatcha’s persona.
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I am a method actor, but I’m also a film actor as well as a method actor. Characters that don’t have humility, whether they are heroes or villains, are hard to relate to. All characters in every aspect of what we do should have humility. If they don’t, then they’re a cartoon character.
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Even though I’m an actor, I’ve gone to productions where there has been someone whose work is known in film, and you can’t take your eyes off them. It unbalances the production. Whether they’re good or not, it doesn’t matter.
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I’ll say initially acting was my first love, and that’s what I pursued. But then, so far as even my first day on a film set, and just watching how things were set up, I just said, ‘I think I want to be in charge.’ I am very much type-A. I am a bit of a control freak.
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I’m so bad at dancing that I’ve actually been in two movies where the director of the film saw me dancing and thought it was so funny that in one movie they had me do it as the mental dancing of a real simple person. The other one was, like, to-be-laughed-at dancing. That’s how bad my dancing is.
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The last scene in ‘Moonlight,’ that’s one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever seen on film in my lifetime. You see two men showing such tenderness towards each other. And it’s bold; it’s deep. It’s complex. It’s profound.
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Loveleen Tandon, the casting director of ‘Brick Lane,’ understood my capacity and suggested my name to director Sarah Gavron. The film has such universal appeal that given a chance I would like to remake it in Hindi.
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I give the spectator the possibility of participating. The audience completes the film by thinking about it; those who watch must not be just consumers ingesting spoon-fed images.
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The think that we hung the film version all on was ‘Hedwig’ on tour. On stage, it’s one theatre, one show. It just seemed natural to change it. In the film, we were able to go to flashback rather than have her talk to the audience. And we had the play to practice and to see where we had made mistakes.
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It irritates me so much the way people talk about soaps because it is far more difficult working on a soap than it is on a big studio film.
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I am just pitifully nostalgic. I can’t help but roll my eyes at myself frequently. I mean, I still shoot black-and-white film. And I am constantly reminiscing about the ‘good old days.’ I’m 28 years old. There haven’t even been that many ‘good old days.’ But still, I love to look back.
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I came out of independent film, that’s my roots.
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Everybody, and that includes an actor, wants to go to work everyday. That said, it’s better to sit at home than do a bad film. That can harm your career more than not having a release!
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What you write sets the visual style for the film. But you have to compromise your style in your first few films before people let you do what you want to do.
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Digital video is so beautiful. It’s lightweight, modern, and it’s only getting better. It’s put film into the La Brea Tar Pits.
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It’s always hard when you’re working on a project, and you’re seeing it in bits and pieces, whether that be film, television, video games, animation – you only really have perspective of what you’re interacting with.
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I think the record industry, by and large what’s left of it, is still totally homophobic. I think it’s much less so in the film industry now, but the record industry, it’s always been a man’s world.
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Nothing can be better than playing a Maharashtrian character in a Rohit Shetty film.
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There were no bizarre action sequences so to say but I broke my foot while shooting. It is a superstition where they say if an actor breaks a foot or injures himself during the shoot then the film goes on to become a hit. So let’s just say this time I take the credit for the success of ‘Dhoom 3’.
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The film of tomorrow appears to me as even more personal than an individual and autobiographical novel, like a confession, or a diary.
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We all know that one can never recreate the magic of an original film.
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I worked with Jack Nitzsche for ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo‘s Nest,’ and we’d booked a symphony orchestra. He dismissed them and came with a little man who poured water into glasses of different sizes to make a glass harmonica. And most of the music for the film was that – with some Indian flutes and some drums.
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Film has to reflect the real world.
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I do have a concern about projecting. I’ve never projected or had any reason to project before. In fact, the camera has only gotten closer to me going from TV to film.
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When the fearsome foursome of rock music, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis, decided to show up in Toronto for a rock and roll festival, I knew we had to go there to try to get them all on film.
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My whole goal was to be able to work in television and film and maintain a normal life, never be in a tabloid.
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Yes, sir, I was in the processing room watching them actually process the film.
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It was only after Pather Panchali had some success at home that I decided to do a second part. But I didn’t want to do the same kind of film again, so I made a musical.
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Audiences don’t come to theatres going by reviews. Even if a film is rated low, the collections won’t get affected.
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Being on a film set, you are always around such fantastic people. And I feel like I’ve been lucky. I feel like I’ve worked with the best of the best.
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I didn’t go to film school. I didn’t graduate college with an acting degree or a theater degree. I didn’t have the traditional route of training.
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‘Bramhotsavam’ is a celebration of families, life and togetherness. It’s a film I hold close to my heart.
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I believe that every single person attached to a film is a character and nothing more. I don’t categorize them as hero, heroine, etc.
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I’m not a frustrated concert composer, and the concert pieces I’ve done have been a small part of my work. What I’ve sought there is instruction, variation from the demands of film and relief from its restrictions.
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I think theater is very much my natural home. But the truth is that the older I’ve got, and the more I’ve written film and television, I find it incredibly hard to write theater.
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The writer must be a participant in the scene… like a film director who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work, and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least the main character.
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I feel like I’ve never been in a film that people have liked before.
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More meaningful cinema is being made, and that is the reason why you see a rejuvenated Malayalam film industry. But more films aimed at youth are needed.
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There is a lot of musical pollution in the film industry.
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The first thing that strikes a person when it comes to Southern film industries is the hard work, professionalism and the punctuality that people religiously adhere to.
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Julia Roberts most definitely would play me in the film of my life. Not just because of the hair but because she has all sides to her personality come through in films that I could just imagine her playing my crazy self so well.
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This film ‘Hero’ talks about the peace of Chinese people.
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One of my favorite films is ‘Late Spring‘ by Yasujiro Ozu. To me, it represents film as art.
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I think I would like to work with Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta and Sushmita Sen. Imagine how strong would that be if a film is made regarding women’s empowerment starring them.
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Avane Srimannarayana’ is the result of three years of hardwork and dedication which went into its making. We have made it very passionately, and for me, I am satisfied with the fact that we were able to make the film as we intended to do it in the first place.
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If you’re sitting in the audience, you probably can’t see the preparation and work that goes into creating a great scene or a great part, but I can assure you that a good film depends on lot of different things falling perfectly into place.
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I’m a film maker who started on the Atari and then went onto the Commodore 64 and the Amiga. So I possibly have a different sensibility to people who didn’t play games growing up.
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Older people say, ‘Oh I loved you in ‘Sense and Sensibility,’ and that’s the only film they want to talk about. Equally, there are people who only want to talk about ‘Galaxy Quest.’ And there’s a whole bunch of teenagers who only want to talk about ‘Dogma.’
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Before I made a film, I thought it was easy.
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Rain is also very difficult to film, particularly in Ireland because it’s quite fine, so fine that the Irish don’t even acknowledge that it exists.
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A zombie film is not fun without a bunch of stupid people running around and observing how they fail to handle the situation.
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I personally believe the film turns out better when shot in one short schedule, plus it doesn’t stress the actors.
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I’ve never made a film that I didn’t believe in, you know? However the picture turns out, I’ve always given everything to it. That’s kind of how I approach life. I can’t help it. There’s no part-way with me on anything in any area of my life.
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I think – I don’t know, maybe it’s nostalgia. But the choice, losing the choice to be able to use film is going to be – it’s gone. It’s going to be gone.
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If I bring anything to the Coen Brothers’ films, it’s my ability to change tack and create a different mood from film to film.
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‘Gandhi‘ was a well-made film but surely not my best. It had flaws, which I understand two-and-a-half decades after I directed it. I will never call it a propaganda film for the Indian Congress, but it could have been made better had I concentrated on certain minute details.
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Before I became a film major, I was very heavily into social science, I had done a lot of sociology, anthropology, and I was playing in what I call social psychology, which is sort of an offshoot of anthropology/sociology – looking at a culture as a living organism, why it does what it does.
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There are so many great actors, but I really have a lot of respect for Johnny Depp. I’ve seen a lot of movies with him in it and, even if it’s a film that wasn’t as successful as you thought it would be, I’ve never seen him put in a bad performance. My favorite actors from history have to be Steve McQueen and James Dean.
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When you’re on a set it can be very tedious and slow. It’s just not as big as when you see it on film.
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As actors, we put in our best, but when people don’t like a film, you have to learn to deal with it. I’ve learnt not to get too emotional.
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A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it.
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The film ‘Harjeeta’ is based on the remarkable true story of a underdog, who overcomes his circumstances, fights against all odds and at end, comes out as a winner.
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When you have Liam Neeson in a film, no matter how good everyone else is, it’s a Liam Neeson film. And if there’s wolves, and you’re running, it’s about Liam Neeson running from wolves.
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A documentary film is a great way of helping people understand because, somehow, when one is able to see the people involved, it lends a certain immediacy and understanding that is hard to get on the page.
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I loved doing ‘Pennies from Heaven.’ Because you have to understand that I’d been doing comedy for 15 to 20 years, and suddenly along came the opportunity to do this beautiful film. It was so emotional to me. I loved it. I don’t think it was a good career move, but I have no regrets about doing it.
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One scene is enough for a good actor to leave his mark in any film.
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I would have to say honestly I was very pleased to be in a film whether it was good or bad with De Niro, Norton and Brando even if I don’t have any scenes with them, I thought it was pretty good company to keep.
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Kubrick showed us something special. Every film was a challenge, and a direct assault on cinema’s conventions.
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Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less.
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I keep every script from every film that I ever made because it’s like a workbook of that time in my life.
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People aren’t familiar with wheelchair sports. The only film crew in Athens for the Paralympics was the documentary crew.
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I studied Shakespeare at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, and ‘Orange‘ was my first audition ever for TV or film.
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There is a strange pecking order among actors. Theatre actors look down on film actors, who look down on TV actors. Thank God for reality shows, or we wouldn’t have anybody to look down on.
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With ‘Daud,’ basically, I wanted to make a very ‘Mad Max‘ kind of a film: that was my original intention.
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I guess what I enjoy most is directing, because it incorporates all aspects of filmmaking. Directing is in the same line as acting – both are popularity contests, and in both you’re trying to tell a story through the film as a medium.
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Art is inherently political. Even trying to make a film that has nothing to do with politics is, in and of itself, a political act.
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If I could live my life all over I’d do everything the same; the film in my camera would remain the same; there’s no way lord, to leave this love behind.
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I approach every film as my first film.
318
‘Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream‘ is an intentionally angry film. How could it not be when the chance of an infant dying is five times greater on the Bronx Park Avenue than on Manhattan‘s Park Avenue just across the Harlem River?
319
I think TV is much more the writer’s medium and film is about the director and their vision and how you can collaborate with them and see that through to the end. They are so different.
320
Some day I’ll make a film that critics will like. When I have money to waste.
321
I think empathy is a beautiful thing. I think that’s the power of film though. We have one of the most powerful, one of the greatest communicative tools known to man.
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Watching ‘Moonlight,’ I just recognized this patience in the film – allowing moments to live and linger – and I just thought that was so beautiful.
324
I’m starting at USC’s film school for directing this month. I’ll try to get a semester in at a time. I’ll have to take time off for work throughout school, but it will be nice to get through a little bit.
325
The biggest challenge of any cinematographer is making the imagery fit together of a piece: that the whole film has a unity to it, and actually, that a shot doesn’t stand out.
326
The success of the film is down to the crew.
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You get an image after you act in a film, but it is not necessary that you last long because of that image.
329
In my view, the only way to see a film remains the way the filmmaker intended: inside a large movie theater with great sound and pristine picture.
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They say that theater is the actor’s medium, television is the writer’s medium and film is the director’s medium, and it’s really true.
332
My hope is that people will be repulsed by the character’s complete lack of ethics and obsession with consumerism – that’s what I was saying about the difference between the character’s message and the film’s message.
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The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.
336
Even with a big budget, you can make a niche film.
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Why should a horror film be just a horror film? To me, The Company of Wolves is a fairy tale; it’s got all those elements plus a lot more. And we know that fairy tales aren’t innocent any more.
340
I had seen ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and I thought that was a different kind of film than I’d seen before, with that kind of editing and slick camera movements.
341
The thing I do miss about the way some sequels were in the past was that each film felt like its own unique, complete tone. Now, sequels are tonal facsimiles of the ones before them, like a television series, whereas back in the past sequels would often be radically different from the ones before.
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Training in taekwondo for eight years and then being able to do it in a film was pretty amazing.
344
Many times when you make a movie, it feels like your biggest mistake. But even if a film isn’t a hit, you shouldn’t view it as a mistake.
345
There is no nepotism in the Hindi film industry.
346
For a film maker, an Oscar is like a Nobel Prize, you know. So I am very happy… delighted. There is nothing more after this. I cannot hope to get anything more prestigious.
347
It used to be that you kind of got pigeonholed into one thing – you’re either a stage actor or a TV actor or a movie actor. Today, there’s a lot of crossover with film actors doing television, which never happened before, so those lines are a little bit more blurred than they used to be.
348
Kubrick never explained the ending to us, or what his intentions were. He didn’t intend for it to be a predictable film.
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The adrenaline of a live performance is unlike anything in film or theater. I can see why it’s so addictive.
352
Film has always been a really good tool for me to communicate emotion about why I create a collection. I’m probably one of the first designers to make short films.
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That’s easy to answer: I never had any special appetite for filmmaking, but you have to make a living and it is miraculous to earn a living working in film.
357
I would love to do an action film. In college, I have played a lot of aggressive characters.
358
I love being able to come in every single day and work out and watch film and practice with guys who are all striving for the same goal.
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‘The Butler’ has virtually nothing in common with its source material, the life of White House butler Gene Allen, except for the fact that the main character of the film and Allen were both black butlers in the White House.
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On a film set, there are runners who are 19, it’s their first job, but to me they’re as important as anybody else because if they don’t do their job then nobody else can. So I don’t think anybody should be treated disrespectfully or as if they’re of a lower status.
363
What he’s done is recognise the cinematic nature of the book. It’s beautifully realised – it’s a beat film.
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It’s always really special to be at the New York Film Festival, and always a real privilege.
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‘Pride‘ is my first film with a happy ending. Before, I naively thought they were a cop-out, but now I’ve come to believe that happy endings and wish fulfilment are an incredibly important part of our cultural life.
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A successful film is a good film, and a non-successful film is a bad film. It’s as simple as that.
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A period film is a gift for a cinematographer.
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There’s something about an American soldier you can’t explain. They’re so grateful for anything, even a film actress coming to see them.
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I’m not a real film buff. Unfortunately, I don’t have time. I just don’t go. And I become very nervous when I go to a film because I worry so much about the director and it is hard for me to digest my popcorn.
381
The biggest challenge of any cinematographer is making the imagery fit together of a piece: that the whole film has a unity to it, and actually, that a shot doesn’t stand out.
382
Every single art form is involved in film, in a way.
383
I’d be happy doing anything on a film set.
384
When I am shooting, I am inside the theatre, when I am in the editing room, I am inside the theatre. I always try to feel what they will feel. I see a film, not as a director, but as the audience. If I am entertained, they will be, too.
385
Whether you’re making a million dollar film or a $100 million film there is never enough money, there’s never enough time.
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Whenever I’m doing any film, I’m always just happy to have a job and I always just put 110% of myself into it.
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A Fantastic Woman’ has been seen as very interesting and entertaining. The film has had very good reactions. We are very surprised and delighted how the characters have connected with so many people.
391
Shortkut… ‘ has a very nice, strong story. It is not one of those nonsensical comedies where characters attempt buffoonery to get laughs. It is a small film with a big heart.
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I asked the producers when I was doing ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ if they could give me a VHS recording of the film that I could show to my family, because in Mexico and Latin America, when you do a film, you don’t expect anybody to see it, especially not in the cinema.
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We shot ‘Party Girl’ on film, and I remember being told, ‘We need to get this in two takes because we don’t have a lot of film in the mag right now!’
397
I wouldn’t make an anti-American film. I’m one of the most pro-American foreigners I know. I love America and Americans.
398
As an actor, you have many tools – your body, your voice, your emotions, mentally. In film, you have your eyes because they communicate your thought process. In fact, generally in film, what you don’t say is more important than what you say. That’s not so much the case for stage.
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Tim also has enough confidence so that it always looks like a Tim Burton film, but it really is collaborative. You’re allowed to do it your way but of course he’s always going to choose his way.
401
I believe in 3D for certain kinds of films. I certainly believe in using 3D for all things in animation because animation has such clarity and so much depth of focus. It worked great with ‘Avatar‘ because 70 percent of that film is animated.
402
In Tim’s films, more than most, if you miss the tone, you don’t get the film.
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I like to see a film and then start scoring it in my mind while doing something unrelated. You just grasp a film and start working, and something unpredictable comes out from a third element. The mind, the more active it is, the more productive it is.
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I have no ambitions at all! I have none… seriously. I want to be a good father. I want to be a good husband. I want to be a good son, a good brother, a good family member. I don’t have any ambition to direct a film or write a play. I like acting.
407
People are so wonderful that a photographer has only to wait for that breathless moment to capture what he wants on film.
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It’s always good to show that what you’re doing is who you are, what you see on film in the regular season is what you’re seeing at the Senior Bowl.
410
I think I’m an actor. You can hire me. I can do a good job. But you also have to get lucky now and then. Every film-maker knows how hard it is to do a good film. You have to just make many, and see how lucky you get.
411
I think actors are very obsessed about looking different and behaving differently, but all people need is just a different film. They don’t want a different you; they want a different story.
412
The multiculturalism of Britain is one of our greatest strengths in music, literature, and visual art, but the TV and film industry doesn’t tap into the multicultural talent pool in the U.K. as much as they do in the U.S.
413
I’m really passionate about representation in film. I feel like the world is dominated by such a small group of human beings. There are so many different kinds of people that aren’t represented, that don’t have characters who look like them.
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I guess people feel that if you’re working with good directors and are known in the Hindi film industry, then you won’t work in South films. However, I believe that films have no boundaries of language, religion, or cast. If it’s a good script and a good director, I can do a film in Spanish as well.
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Given a chance, I would love to romance Tabu. I wouldn’t mind doing a film with Manisha Koirala, either. Or Madhuri Dixit.
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The problem with ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ was that it was designed to be a PG-13 movie. It was literally a horror movie for a younger generation. I was trying to do the film equivalent of teenage, young adult readers, and when they gave it an R rating, the movie couldn’t sustain an R.
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Lord of the Rings was something I always wanted to do. I read the book when I was about 25, and I was always hoping if it was ever made into a feature film that I would be involved in some way. And then I finally got it, and I was over the moon. It was fantastic news.
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A good film demands its own score, and if you are a musician, your conscience will never allow you to do something mediocre for a good film.
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‘She’s Gotta Have It’ and ‘School Daze,’ I really didn’t know what I was doing. And the biggest indicator of that was the acting. ‘Do the Right Thing‘ was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors.
434
I am not in every picture I post, and my social media is not only for film promotions. I don’t feel comfortable with that. Yes, I’ll post something promotional now and then, but rest of the time, it is like any other social media account.
435
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When I am shooting a film, then everything goes soft focus. My family also complains that I don’t give them time.
437
I feel I can rush the passer well. I feel like I can play the run even better than what I did starting off to when I got in my senior year as far as making plays in the backfield and just being able to break down film a lot better.
438
‘NRT’ is a comedy film, which has the extreme of emotions with Vijay Sethupathi and Nayanthara as the protagonists.
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There’s a great deal of mystery in film editing, and that’s because you’re not supposed to see a lot of it. You’re supposed to feel that a film has pace and rhythm and drama, but you’re not necessarily supposed to be worried about how that was accomplished.
441
I love, love, love live performance. It’s like walking a tightrope without the net. You better be on point; you better be balanced. You better have rehearsed it and seen it from every vantage so you can do what you do best. I do love film because it’s up front in your face, and hopefully you’ve got a great editor.
442
As far as I know, if you take your time, write a good script and make a good film, then give the audience time, they will accept it.
443
Both my mom and dad were quite supportive. They never ever stopped me in realizing my dreams in the film industry.
444
We once believed we were auteurs, but we weren’t. We had no idea, really. Film is over. It’s sad nobody is really exploring it. But what to do? And anyway, with mobile phones and everything, everyone is now an auteur.
445
In the Indian film industry, especially those of us who are in mainstream cinema, we invariably play a typical hero’s role. More often than not, we cater to the public perception. However, there is a latent desire in most actors to do a role where you can go all out and experiment.
446
I do believe that there are African Americans who have thick accents. My mom has a thick accent; my relatives have thick accents. But sometimes you have to adjust when you go into the world of film, TV, theatre, in order to make it accessible to people.
447
The frustrating part of it is that you’re generally known for what you did last. I’ve had the privilege of doing some very cool independent films that, a lot of the time, the general public doesn’t see unless you’re at a film festival or you’re into that kind of movie.
448
Once I started ‘Nagaram Nidrapotunna Vela’ I had to finish it. I made a wrong decision. I knew the film would be a flop and told the producer so. Everyone failed – director, producer and all.
449
Independent film is film that has thought in it. There’s no independent thought in studio films. It’s collective thought.
450
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I always believed in if you give your best, people will see it, and it moves to the next level. I got my first movie, and I gave it my best. Before I was done with that movie, I was offered my first feature film.
452
When I’m promoting a film, I’m not going to get caught up in anything else, and that includes all my personal things.
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I usually surface on social media only when there’s a film.
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And the film that I’ve seen a million times is ‘When Harry Met Sally‘ with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, and directed by Rob Reiner.
461
Film music should have the same relationship to the film drama that somebody’s piano playing in my living room has on the book I am reading.
462
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I don’t care if I get $50m to do a film.
464
My childhood dream was always to be on Broadway. I wanted to end up in TV and film. It’s kind of flipped, and I’m not mad about it, but my childhood dream is Broadway and I want to end up there.
465
Godard is incredibly brilliant, the things he says. Apparently here in France, the most interesting thing when a new film of his is going to come out are his press conferences, because he’s so brilliant.
466
You shouldn’t dream your film, you should make it!
467
Luckily, ‘Rakta Charitra’ did well in the South and I started getting a lot offers from the Tamil and Telegu film industry.
468
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People always say, ‘Oh, I’d love to work with my sibling,’ or ‘My God, I could never work with my sibling.’ It was just a natural process for us. We started collaborating on our first films and it evolved. We have a passion for film that we shared as we were growing up.
471
My biggest high is just to be in front of the camera and be on a film set.
472
Film school didn’t prepare me for the fact that you have to manage so many different personalities at every stage, and I learned nothing about what to do when a movie was finished.
473
When I first read ‘Lord of the Rings,’ I wanted to see a film of it. But at that time, the technology wasn’t there; there was no such thing as CGI.
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You have to understand that you are not making the film for yourself; you’re making it for the audience. If I am asking my audiences to buy tickets, I owe them the worth of their money, and I owe them entertainment.
476
For me, money has never been an indicator. And it is very sad that each and every film these days is being judged by the money that it makes. It’s a world that I don’t want to be a part of, and I try and stay away from that.
477
So how critics will perceive your film or your work, or whether your movie is going to make $100 million at the box office, or whether you are going to be winning any awards – well, you have no control over that.
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When you finish a film, you never want to see it again.
480
Horror film fans are pretty starved for quality. If you do something thoughtful or if you make something good, they’re so thankful for it.
481
When I made my first film, I was arrogant and over-confident.
482
With each film, you are still trying to get the length and measure right. And failure is all about others’ perception of you. When you have one success, they think you know it all. But if you fail, they think they know it all.
483
Going out at night and having a fabulous social life takes a lot out of you, and I don’t know if I have that much to give, honestly. I would rather give that time to my kids or spend that time reading a book or watching a film. I am selfish and lazy.
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With this film, ‘Need For Speed,’ with this, we had a blank canvas to work with. What we had to do was have fast cars, and that’s it.
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We shot ‘Breaking Bad‘ on film; we capture ‘Better Call Saul’ digitally. In the shooting of ‘Breaking Bad,’ we would have this steady, handheld, cinema verite sort of look, so we purposely went the opposite way with ‘Better Call Saul’ – locked in the cameras and made the movements smoother and more mechanical.
489
‘Atlas Shrugged,’ let’s face it, was probably the most important novel of the 20th century that was never a film.
490
The film ‘Slumdog Millionaire‘ portrays the spirit you feel in India. For those who haven’t been there, the film says it all.
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I would like to, especially in film, play against type and do some heavier stuff. I’m intrigued by projects that deal with problematic people and things.
494
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I can also romance a guy if I like the character and the script. Obviously, only in the film!
496
I love the Cannes Film Festival. From the lavish parties and events to the red carpet attire, this star-studded week-long event is where I get a lot of inspiration for hair and fashion.
497
I hope it’s always going to be a mix between theatre, film and radio. I’ve been very lucky living in London that you can do all that – in New York and L.A., there’s more of a structure for film in L.A. and theatre in New York. In London, our industry is smaller, but it produces brilliant work all in one place.
498
I enjoy editing when I’m directing, but when someone else is directing, that’s their film to cut.
499
Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all.
500
You should make something. You should bring something into the world that wasn’t in the world before. It doesn’t matter what it is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a table or a film or gardening-everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, ‘I did that.’
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An important part of my story is that I didn’t walk out of Planned Parenthood immediately after witnessing the ultrasound-guided abortion. It is made to appear that way in the film, ‘Unplanned,’ because they are trying to fit 10 years of my life into an hour-and-a-half-long movie.
505
You never see a teaser for a film on television that doesn’t have someone running around a corner with a gun. Have you noticed that?… I think Hollywood has as much responsibility for gun violence as the National Rifle Association.
506
In film, it’s very important to not allow yourself to get sentimental, which, being British, I try to avoid. People sometimes regard sentimentality as emotion. It is not. Sentimentality is unearned emotion.
507
When I found out this was going to be the last ‘Star Wars‘ film that was ever going to be made, I felt pretty privileged to be in it.
508
I actually came out of drama school and went into two years of working in film and television, which was a happy accident.
509
And as a director, you make 1,000 decisions a day, mostly binary decisions: yes or no, this one or that one, the red one or the blue one, faster or slower. And it’s the culmination of those decisions that define the tone of the film and whether or not it moves people.
510
When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, ‘no, I went to films.’
