Quotes About Films

Two words guided the making of 'Babel' for me: 'dignity' and 'compassion.' These things are normally forgotten in the making of a lot of films. Normally there is not dignity because the poor and dispossessed in a place like Morocco are portrayed as mere victims, or the Japanese are portrayed as cartoon figures with no humanity.

I kind of viewed '50/ 50' and 'Warm Bodies' both as my next films after 'The Wackness.' In my head, I was just like, 'I'll try the big, fun, adventure-weird movie, and I'll do the small, heartfelt comedy-drama, and one of them will probably work out, and I'll get to work more.'

I looked at films as a career from necessity but all I have really wanted is my home and children. The two things just do not work out together when one has to leave home at 5.30 am in the morning to go to the studio.

Sci-fi films are the epic films of the day because we can no longer put 10,000 extras in the scene - but we can draw thousands of aliens with computers.

I love the fact that James Ivory made films about Britain, made 'Howards End' and 'The Remains of the Day,' or that Paul Thomas Anderson made 'Phantom Thread.' They're about Britishness, but they're from an American perspective. And I actually think they're fantastic in the way that they understand Britishness.

The idea that an actress - mostly lauded for her performances in more than a dozen films - somehow represents a threat to Iran's national security is laughable at best. But in Ahangarani's case, far from anything humorous, the allegations have actually resulted in the sober prospect of real prison time.

With journalism, films always have to be to do with some personal statement of your own. As a general rule, I resist that. In the States, a question that kept coming up was this: 'How can you, as a man, talk about three women?'

Apoorva Raagangal,' 'Moondru Mudichu,' 'Avargal' - these were all my guru K. Balachander's films; I became a hero with these three films.

When I was at art school we used to make films, and we had a really very realistic manikin that we threw off a bridge, and a car nearly crashed. We all had to clear off really quickly.

Each medium has its own beauty and way of working. While television offers immense reach and long-running shows, films are shorter and they are presented differently. With theatre, it's the thrill of instant feedback.

If you are thrilled about a screenplay, execution never becomes a problem, so that's the way I have achieved 75 films.

I thought I was going to make bigger films for mass audiences. And I wanted that. I actually had in mind a James-Bondian thriller.

Right from childhood, I have enjoyed films which belong to the thriller genre. As a kid, I would read novels written by Agatha Christie and James Hadley Chase.

Here I was, having done a thriller and a horror movie - why did I have the audacity to make a romantic fantasy? How can I continue to make genre films? Well, maybe I don't want to continue to make genre films.

I've done so many genres of films in my career; I've done 91 films so far. But never a thriller. That's how 'Oppam' happened.

I was never a big fan of horror. I got into it making these films, but I don't ever see myself doing slasher movies. The kind of horror film I like is 'The Shining.' I don't really like slashers, but I love thrillers with tension.

I prefer thrillers but when it's thriller/horror, I like it. The gore is not very important to me, I prefer suspense. But I like dark films.

I like films that are gritty and hard-hitting and suspenseful. Thrillers, too.

After I tasted success with erotic thrillers, a time came when I was being offered only films belonging to that genre. The industry loves repeating a success formula, and the audience had formed a certain image of mine in their minds.

I think Tamil films will soon go the Hollywood way. There will be separate full-length humour-driven scripts, just like how thrillers and musicals are becoming successful genres.

I'm all for streaming, and I do think it's thrilling that a gazillion people can see our film the day it drops. On the other hand, I'm a fierce believer of the theatergoing experience. My hope would be that films can be enjoyed in both ways, that there's room for both.

I was really excited when films like 'Kaala Paani,' 'Maachis,' 'Chandni Bar' and others came my way. The sheer fact that I would get to portray various emotions was thrilling.

People think bigger movies are bad, and that's just not true - there's bad big films, and there's bad little ones. The bad big ones have to make their money back, so they'll push them down your throat, but the little ones just disappear if they're bad.

Of course, Hollywood is still making some excellent pictures which reflect the great artistry that made Hollywood famous throughout the world, but these films are exceptions, judging from box office returns and press reviews.