Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I consider all my films experiments.
A feature film is twenty-four lies per second.
Usually music is used to hide a film's problems.
As a private person, professionally I am invisible.
All movies assault the viewer in one way or another.
I never use soundtrack; it is always part of the story.
I consider all my films an experiment, at least in my mind.
Film is simply the most complex way you can express yourself
A strict form such as mine cannot be achieved through improvisation.
It is boring to have all the answers. Only political people have answers.
Like every filmmaker, I make my films to reach the widest audience possible.
It’s harder to write a story with just two people in a room than with 50 characters.
It's harder to write a story with just two people in a room than with 50 characters.
What we're doing for another person is more important than what we're feeling for them.
What I like are films that take me seriously, that don't treat me as more stupid than I am.
An artist is someone who should raise questions rather than give answers. I have no message.
As a European filmmaker, you can not make a genre film seriously. You can only make a parody.
It's more enjoyable to shoot in a studio on a single location with two actors... if they are good.
Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth, or at the service of the attempt to find the truth.
I'm far more relaxed with German. I'm a control freak. I like to know exactly who's saying and doing what.
On the set I make jokes I can't get too involved, or it turns into sentimental soup. I try to keep it light.
In German. I'm more sensitized to the details, to the emotions. In English, I wouldn't detect as much nuance.
I think that religion is an integral part of human needs, but the question also is how you understand religion.
The dumber people are, the more they feel the need for a broad set of shoulders they can lay their head against.
It's the duty of art to ask questions, not to provide answers. And if you want a clearer answer, I'll have to pass.
That is one of the characteristics of fascism, the idea that the state can provide all of the answers for everyone.
It's a disease of critics that once they've labeled someone, it's very hard to change their perspective. It's laziness.
Of course, we avoid death. To know something is inevitable is one thing. To accept, to truly feel it... that's different.
It's much harder to write a script that involves two people in a single location than 20 people in 30 different locations.
Never say no. It always depends on what's possible. I don't care so much where it is; it's what I want to do that matters.
It became a gamble to myself whether I was able to do the exact same film ["Funny Games"]under very different circumstances.
To decide to film a movie again shot by shot, you must be masochistic to a certain degree because it is a much greater challenge.
I try to get closer to reality, to get close to the contradictions. The cinema world can be a real world rather than a dream world.
I’ve been accused of ‘raping’ the audience in my films, and I admit to that freely — all movies assault the viewer in one way or another.
I'm not really a happy person. It's a question of temperament. I have a tendency toward melancholy. You can feel quite happily melancholic.
At its best, film should be like a ski jump. It should give the viewer the option of taking flight, while the act of jumping is left up to him.
Drama lives on conflict. If you're trying to deal with social issues seriously, there's no way of avoiding violence, which is so present in society.
I think watching a movie that simply confirms my feelings is a waste of time. That applies not only to movies, but also to books and every form of art.
Classicism becomes avant-garde when everyone else is doing their utmost to develop new stylistic forms. I think it's healthy to return to classical forms.
When ideas lead to ideology, that's a very dangerous thing. Ideology then leads to creating the image of an enemy, and it leads to the murder and massacre.
'The White Ribbon' had to be in German because of the subject matter, that was clear. But in the case of 'Amour,' it could have taken place in any country.
If I tell the audience what they should think, then I am robbing them of their own imagination and their own capacity of deciding what's important to them.
Of course I am a child of European culture. There are a number of great directors from which I learned, but there is nobody in particular I got inspired from.
Classicism becomes avant-garde when everyone else is doing their utmost to develop new stylistic forms. And I think it's healthy to return to classical forms.
I want to be able to control things and that's very difficult to do if you're not 100% in a particular language. It makes you uncertain and it makes you nervous.
I like to write for actors I know and with whom I've worked before. You can write to their strengths and weaknesses and write roles that are better suited to them.
Even the most elitist director or author who claims that he doesn't care if his works are seen or not, then I have to think that he's either a liar or a hypocrite.
If you go with the principle, you should go with the principle. If I really saw the subject very differently than ten years ago, I would have done a different movie.
If you do an original film and you want to cut a scene out you do it. But when you do a shot by shot remake you don't have that option and every scene has to work again.
You become a film critic because you're interested in film. I don't know whether knowing so much about cinema leads you to make better films, but it certainly can't hurt.