Category: In the Words of the Director
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In Werner Herzog’s Words: The Origins of Cinema
“Film is not analysis, it is the agitation of mind; cinema comes from the country fair and the circus, not from art and academicism.“ ̶ Werner Herzog Herzog’s understanding of the origins of cinema in the country fair and circus, not the academia, cannot be stressed enough. When he was making his Aguirre, the Wrath…
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In Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Words: The Danger of Symbolism in Imagery
“What I am trying to do when I use symbols is to awaken in your unconscious some reaction. I am very conscious of what I am using because symbols can be very dangerous. When we use normal language we can defend ourselves because our society is a linguistic society, a semantic society. But when you…
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In Robert Bresson’s Words: Life as a Stage and Life as a Dream
Two types of films: those that employ the resources of the theater (actors, direction etc…) and use the camera in order to reproduce; those that employ the resources of cinematography and use the camera to create. Robert Bresson, Notes on the Cinematographer Robert Bresson, a French director who gave us many masterpieces, Au Hasard Balthazar,…
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In Federico Fellini’s Words: Movies = Dreams
Talking about dreams is like talking about movies, since the cinema uses the language of dreams; years can pass in a second, and you can hop from one place to another. It’s a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something, as in a dream. Federico Fellini…
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In Michael Haneke’s Words: Hidden
“I like the multiplicity of books, because each book is different in the mind of each reader. It’s the same with this film – if 300 people are in a cinema watching it, they will all see a different film, so in a way there are thousands of different versions of “Caché (Hidden)”. The point…
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In Béla Tarr’s Words: Evolution in the Understanding of Art, Life and Cinema
“At the beginning of my career, I had a lot of social anger. I just wanted to tell you how fucked up the society is. This was the beginning. Afterwards, I began to understand that the problems were not only social; they are deeper. I thought they were only ontological and when I understood more…
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In Martin Scorsese’s Words: Cinema and Spirituality
When we talk about personal expression I’m often reminded of [Elia] Kazan’s film America America – the story of his uncle’s journey from Anitolia to America; the story of so many immigrants who came to this country from a very, very foreign land. I kind of identified with it and was very moved by it. Actually,…
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In Paul Verhoeven’s Words: Leap Into the Unknown
Verhoeven compared making RoboCop with making Elle and once said that the experience was a “leap into the unknown”. He elaborates it in an interview: So you go to an unknown part of the world where you don’t know the people, and that’s frightening. But also, at the same time, if you do it, it turns…
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In Yasujirô Ozu’s Words: The Change of Seasons
I tried to show the collapse of the Japanese family system through showing children growing up. Yasujirô Ozu Ozu’s post-war work, during the time when he made his most memorable films, is characterized by the same theme which is presented over and over. In his own words, he presents the “collapse of the Japanese family…
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In Stanley Kubrick’s Words: 3 Most Consistent and Original Contemporary Directors
I believe Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio De Sica, and Federico Fellini are the only three filmmakers in the world who are not just artistic opportunists. By this I mean they don’t just sit and wait for a good story to come along and then make it. They have a point of view which is expressed over…
Vigour of Film Lines 