Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
There are more ways to make 'Room' badly than well.
'Room' was a particularly cohesive group, crew and cast.
I came from a classic, literate, intellectual Jewish family.
Films should have the capacity to bring you into another world.
As a small kid, I had this huge desire to be thought of as really clever.
A big part of filmmaking is gathering a group of people you can work with.
Most of my work has been independent movies outside the mainstream system.
I am an unusual Irishman. I'm probably Ireland's third most famous Jewish son.
I remember a Q&A I did in Wales where there were five people in the auditorium.
Cinema at its best can express something of the pure irreducible fact of things.
Delusion is not good; better to be realistic and then surprise yourself if you're lucky.
I'm not an academic type in term of personality. I had my share of madness as a teenager.
The style of direction in 'Room,' maybe a little bit like 'Spotlight,' tries to be hidden.
For me, I always think of the image of sweeping out my footprints as I walk through a scene.
I don't think of myself as doing good works. It's not, 'Oh, I must give these poor people a voice.'
After 'Adam and Paul,' I had offers from American agents, but I think I would have been swallowed up.
When I'm shooting, it averages out at a 16-hour day. You have two deadlines everyday - lunch and wrap.
As soon as you make some films that people like, you'll be sent material, and that can come from anywhere.
I'm a bit of a pessimist, oh yeah, and I always think the film I'm about to make is going to be a disaster.
I'm Irish; I grew up in Ireland, and it's impossible to separate my background from who I am as a filmmaker.
I think people like to have their categories clear. They want to know if it's fiction or fact, biopic or not.
The process of shooting - of choosing shots - is intuitive for me, and I just feel my way towards what seems right.
I wanted to make films that were culturally relevant in my own country, that challenged people, and that people talked about.
Ireland is a good place to start out as a filmmaker. If what you do is good, even at a very small scale, it will get recognized.
When you're shooting, there's terrible pressure, and you never switch off. Every day is like the day before an exam; it's relentless.
I'm interested in discontinuities and interruptions, people having to rewrite the narrative of their lives because of sudden changes.
Although I was really interested in physics, I think I wanted to do it because I thought it was really hard. I did theoretical physics.
I'm a big fan of American vaudeville and Hollywood silent film-era slapstick and the music halls full of ridiculous, eccentric characters.
I'm a bit of a late developer, generally. But the good thing about being a filmmaker is you still count as young all the way through your 40s.
I can think back to being four or five and not wanting to sit at the kids' table because I thought it was demeaning. I was this ridiculous little kid.
I'm not setting out to adapt books and work with books, but when really amazing stories come to you in that form, it's really hard to turn away from that.
I can just remember being broke, wondering if I had any talent - really wondering whether this was all a fantasy - but I had to get out there and keep trying.
I've been in rooms where people are discussing films that have yet to come out and saying delightedly, 'Oh, I've heard it's a disaster!' The jealousy is unseemly.
I was a bachelor for a long time, and I got into all these really lazy habits work-wise. I'd just work as long as I wanted into the night. There was no structure.
The most conventional romantic trope of all is that you put lovers under extreme pressure, where they have to make decisions that illuminate aspects of that bond.
On your first film, you think these are going to be your closest friends for the rest of your life. You form a bond, but then you go back to the rest of your life.
It's very important to have a good relationship with the crew and cast because you want to get the best out of them. They'll work really hard for you if they like you.
I think digital is getting so much better. It's harder and harder to make the argument now for film. All things being equal, though, I still prefer to capture on film.
I did go to cheder and was a bar mitzvah. We were members of an Orthodox synagogue, although we were not religious. My grandfather was Polish. He came to Ireland in the '30s.
I love the cinema, but I'm not a fascist about it. I've had some of my best experiences watching things on TV. But if I were Stalin, I would force everyone to be in the theater.
It drove me as a kid. I couldn't bear the idea that I wasn't the smartest. Then I got put in a B stream for four years at my school. And that was the making of me in a weird way.
I think that I must be the only person who left California and headed to Dublin in pursuit of a career in film. The arrow is pointing in the other direction in most people's minds.
I started to make some commercials, which was a way for me to finally make a living at last. But it was only really a couple of films in that it looked like a viable career option.
I remember as a kid being asked if I was Jewish or Irish. I said, like the glib little 15-year-old I was, 'You can be both.' Feeling very pleased with myself. Before they smacked me.
When we say 'cinematic', we tend to think John Ford and vistas and wide-open spaces. Or we think of kinetic camera movement or of a certain number of cinematic styles, like film noir.
Shooting 'Adam & Paul' was very tough. There was barely enough time, and the budget was tiny. On top of that, we shot in dangerous locations where we had little or no control or security.
The title, the name Frank, comes from this extraordinary British character Frank Friedbottom. He was very big in Britain in the '80s, but I, as an Irish kid, saw him on 'Top of the Charts.'
I was interested in the narrative of how we nurture our elite in this society: all that stuff about believing in yourself and not accepting second best. Our inner world is at odds with that.
Trying to make something as tricky as 'Room' really believable is extremely hard, and it largely rests with that relationship between the actors and the director, and the director and the crew.
Hollywood is probably the most active centre of film-making in the world, but it's also a very difficult place in which to find your voice... It was also a far more civilised industry in Ireland.