Quotes About Film

Film schools are now nearly 50-50 male-female, and women are also well represented at festivals and in indie film. But what happens to them after they direct their first film or short? Where do they go? They certainly aren't being given the same opportunities as their male counterparts.

I don't think women are that vastly different from men. I'm a bit of a woman myself. But I'm not a feminist filmmaker. I'm not making a feminist thesis to prove that women are important. I just happen to make films with strong characters that are women.

'Humans' would definitely score really well on the Bechdel test - the one that tracks how well represented women are in drama.

When I started out, there were three things that made film people look at me with condescension, I was young, I was black, and I was female. I have won a certain respect, but I think the film community still sees directing as a male job.

Everybody said that a film that funny can't win because normally your Cannes winner will be something more serious. It's not very often that a film that's bordering on comedy has won in Cannes.

The song 'Bolo Naa' from the film 'Chittagong,' which got me the National Award, wasn't even promoted in India, whereas the film won laurels all over the world.

There have been many times when I've auditioned and I've actually won a different role in the same film.

The whole point of film for me is that it's such a joy. It's such a wonder. The possibilities are literally endless in terms of what you can creatively do.

There are many roles and I haven't had the opportunity to do any of them. I jokingly tell people 'Sometimes I wonder, is the film industry waiting for me to die and then say it's sad. He was a good actor. He was underrated and didn't have enough chances.'

I love films where you go into the cinema and loosen the edges of yourself and you hopefully enter into the world of the film. You're watching something unfold before you. I prefer the idea of wonder or intense wonder over shock or something.

No matter how much you've done before, you wonder if there will be a light at the end of this particular tunnel. It's the nature of the beast, and it's a part of what compels us. Every movie is a new lesson you learn making your way through it.

Getting the role in '300' saved me. I'd been out of work for 11 months after 'The Brothers Grimm.' Once the film came out and didn't do so well, the director Terry Gilliam blamed me for absolutely everything. It was pretty appalling, and I had started to wonder if I'd ever get another job again when I was asked to audition for '300.'

I would watch films like 'Frances Ha' and 'The Squid and the Whale,' and wonder why we weren't making these beautiful slice-of-life movies. Then I thought, 'Why am I not doing it?'

No wonder the film industry started in the desert in California where, like all desert dwellers, they dream their buildings, rather than design them.

I think 'Scarface' is a great film, but if you have a character like Tony Montana, you don't identify with him at all. I think it's very interesting instead to identify yourself with a character you don't like all the time. You can create a tension between the fiction and the viewer. You force the spectator to wonder about his actions.

British people might wonder 'What the hell is Kenneth Branagh doing directing 'Thor?' but the person asking that the most was Kenneth Branagh. I think he was more surprised than anyone else to find himself doing this kind of film.

I was aware that I was the first person of all time getting to direct a Wonder Woman film, and that was taken very seriously.

About the time I was 7, I got really into black-exploitation films, so I made my own Wonder Woman, but I made her black.

There was a very difficult time when a female hero was a man in a woman's body. 'Hunger Games' really changed that: a woman leading a non-woman's film in the action genre. I think 'Wonder Woman' does that on a very big scale.

I want to make great films in my lifetime, and I really want to make a great film about Wonder Woman.

Who should make a great movie about Wonder Woman? It should be somebody who loves Wonder Woman. And I know that I'm that. So let's go and try.

I wasn't a huge fan of superhero movies before I watched 'Wonder Woman.' That was a really cool film - I really like all the stunts.

When I was doing 'Ordinary People' and 'Taps,' I never wondered if it would have a lasting impression. I was just wanting to make the best film we could and do my part in that and be true to what my responsibilities were.

I never wondered whether I should be a stage actress or a movie actress.