Quotes About Films

My interest as an artist is to illuminate the lives of black folks. I definitely am focused on films that illustrate all that we are and all our nuance and all our complicated beauty and mess, and when you're telling those stories, you gotta have black actors.

I'm a huge Coppola fan. But more of 'Apocalypse Now' and 'The Conversation.' 'The Godfather' for me is, like, number three or four on the list.

There are films of mine that I've seen numerous times and other ones I've been in that I haven't seen at all. It depends on my experience making them.

I loved character actresses like Julie Walters and Alison Steadman, films like 'Nuts in May' and 'Educating Rita.' And I never get tired of watching Larry David and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.'

I like Cronenberg's early work; his '80s films had all these weird, amorphous flesh objects in them.

I will continue to make films to express my thoughts that come from my observations, from the society we live in.

The only way you can continue to make artistic films is to make an occasional one of those. They kind of keep your marketability going to the extent that people will employ you.

I can't say that I am a DVD junkie. I see most films that I want to see in the theater, and so most of my DVD-watching is catching up with the occasional movies that I missed or revisiting a film that I really care about, in which case I really want the extra channels, because it's a movie that I already love, and I want to know more about it.

While these Turkish films kept telling us that one could find the truth leaving behind this world of lies, by now I could no longer believe in the films we saw in the open-air cinemas, with ever dwindling audiences. I could no longer submit to that sentimental realm.

If dreams are like movies, the memories are films about ghosts.

Most of the American films were made in southern California, so if you were in Europe, watching those palm trees swaying in the wind with someone like Rita Hayworth gliding underneath them in a white convertible, you got all kinds of wonderfully wrong ideas about the place.

When Walt became all wrapped up in the theme parks and live-action films, we tried to get him interested in animation again," recalls Frank Thomas, one of the Studio's "Nine Old Men." "Walt said, 'If I ever do go back, there are only two subjects I would want to do. One of them is Beauty and the Beast .' For the life of me, I can't remember what the other one was.

Phil. 4:8). Notice that Paul doesn't limit that principle to spiritual things; he says if anything is excellent. Paul is telling us to train our tastes to love the higher things-things that challenge our mind, deepen our character, and foster a love of excellence-and this includes the music we listen to, the books and magazines we read, the films we watch, the forms of worship we employ.

I've certainly had a bad attitude to my job on many occasions. Not since 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'. I've been rather a good boy and really given it everything when I've accepted a part since then, because I've been given much better parts in films.

And you also have to do movies that are about commerce because that's what is required of the industry today.

What I remember myself from films, and what I love about films, is specific scenes and characters.

Audiences want to see intelligent movies.

I learned what I really love is making films, not the film business. I want to be on the set, meeting with writers, I want that freedom. I love it now.

Personally I am very pessimistic. But when, for instance, one of my staff has a baby you can't help but bless them for a good future. Because I can't tell that child, 'Oh, you shouldn't have come into this life.' And yet I know the world is heading in a bad direction. So with those conflicting thoughts in mind, I think about what kind of films I should be making.

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.

I don't think my films are going to get rid of racism or prejudice. I think the best thing my films can do is provoke discussion.

People don't read any more. It's a sad state of affairs. Reading's the only thing that allows you to use your imagination. When you watch films it's someone else's vision, isn't it?" [Interview in The Independent , 15 October 2005]

Films have bigger budgets unlike singles, so producers benefit more from them.

If 'formulaic' is somebody who is unlikely to succeed starting down a process and succeeding - then isn't that what most films are about? And art films are about people who aren't likely to succeed and then don't succeed.