Wednesday, February 15, 2017
10 Favourite Director Quotes Relay Race
10 Favourite Director Quotes Relay Race
Another one of these relay races is going around, and this time were focusing on quotes from directors. Basically, we need ten in the race at all times, and I have to take one out and replace them with another quote. I was passed the baton by Ruth at Lets Be Splendid About This a couple of weeks back - sorry for the delay. Before I get to my choice, heres who has gone before me, right from the originator:
Quentin Tarantino
"I steal from every single movie ever made. I love it - if my work has anything its that Im taking this from this and that from that and mixing them together. If people dont like that, then tough titty, dont go and see it, right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal; they dont do homages." 
Seijun Suzuki
"Why make a movie about something one understands completely? I make movies about things I do not understand, but wish to."
Pedro Almodovar
"When I make a film, I never stop uncovering mysteries, making discoveries. When Im writing, filming, editing, even doing promotional work, I discover new things about the film, about myself, and about others. That is what Im subconsciously looking for when shooting a film: to glimpse the enigmas of life, even if I dont resolve them, but at least to uncover them. Cinema is curiosity in the most intense meaning of the word."
Krzysztof Kieslowski
"You make films to give people something, to transport them somewhere else, and it doesnt matter if you transport them to a world of intuition or a world of intellect...The realm of superstitions, fortune-telling, presentiments, intuition, dreams, all this is the inner life of a human being, and all this is the hardest thing to film....Ive been trying to get there form the beginning. Im somebody who doesnt know, somebody whos searching."
Christopher Nolan
"Every film should have its own world, a logic and feel to it that expands beyond the exact image that the audience is seeing."
Paul Thomas Anderson
"I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the films abrasive and wrong-foots people then, yknow, thats great. But I hope it involves an audience. If not, thats my fuck-up."
Jim Jarmusch
"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable: originality is nonexistent. And dont both concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: Its not where you take things, its where you take them to."
Darren Aronofsky
"If you want to be a filmmaker, the best thing you can bring to the world is your own story. And if there is something that is very personal to you and something that you have your own singular connection to that if it really is important to you, there are people all over the planet that will relate to it So, the mistakes happen when you try to figure out what everyone likes because the only thing you can be sure of is what you like. And the reality is what you like ends up being what a lot of people like because we are all going through a similar story."
Federico Fellini
"Im just a storyteller, and the cinema happens to be my medium. I like it because it re-creates life in movement, enlarges it, enhances it, distills it. For me, its far closer to the miraculous creation of life than, say, a painting or music or even literature. Its not just an art form; its actually a new form of life, with its own rhythms, cadences, perspectives and transparencies. Its my way of telling a story."
Peter Jackson
"I dont quite know what an auteur is. Ive never quite understood that term, because filmmaking is such a huge team effort, you - I mean, I regard myself as being sort of the final filter, so everything that ends up in the movie is there, because its something that Id think was cool if I saw the film that somebody else had made. Im very much trying to make the film that Ive enjoyed, but Im open to ideas, I need a huge team of people to help me, everybody contributes and I try to encourage people to contribute as much as possible. I think that the job of a director really, is to sort of funnel all the creative into one centralised point of view. And the marketing is sort of something that really happens with other people, its not something that Im at all an expert in, and I regard my job at the end of the day as to make the best possible film I can, and thats really where my job stops and marketing people take over after that."Who Im taking out:
"I dont quite know what an auteur is. Ive never quite understood that term, because filmmaking is such a huge team effort, you - I mean, I regard myself as being sort of the final filter, so everything that ends up in the movie is there, because its something that Id think was cool if I saw the film that somebody else had made. Im very much trying to make the film that Ive enjoyed, but Im open to ideas, I need a huge team of people to help me, everybody contributes and I try to encourage people to contribute as much as possible. I think that the job of a director really, is to sort of funnel all the creative into one centralised point of view. And the marketing is sort of something that really happens with other people, its not something that Im at all an expert in, and I regard my job at the end of the day as to make the best possible film I can, and thats really where my job stops and marketing people take over after that."
It is kind of sad to be taking out a guy who just got in, and a guy from NZ no less, but his quote just isnt as great as the other ones (even though some of the ideas are repeated among the others). It is a good quote, nonetheless.
Who Im putting in:
As you may have read in my Zero Dark Thirty review last night, Kathryn Bigelow is one of the hugest influences in my life as both a person and a director. While her quote isnt about directing per se, it highlights an important point of cinema: it doesnt matter who the director is, and directing really is possible. This quote is something I pretty much thrive on, so there we have it.
Anyway, Ill pass the baton on to Tyler at Southern Vision, who may not blog much any more but I know hell have an interesting take on this race. Have fun!
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