Film Quotes

“What I remember myself from films, and what I love about films, is specific scenes and characters.”
― Harmony Korine

“The dangerous temptation of wildlife films is that they can lull us into thinking we can get by without the original models -- that we might not need animals in the flesh.”
― Doug Peacock, Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness

“Titanic I thought was the most dreadful piece of work I've ever seen in my entire life. Another film that I think is equally bad was American Beauty. So badly acted and directed. But people like that.”
― Robert Altman, Robert Altman: Interviews

“If Wagner lived today, he would probably work with film instead of music. He already knew back then that the Great Art Form would include a sort of fourth dimension; it was really film he was talking about.”
― Harmony Korine

“It's tough, man. Unless it's a tentpole, sequel, remake, or over-the-top comedy, that's all the studios are even doing. They've kind of admitted they're not in the business of doing anything else. The slightest level of irony or intelligence and, boom, you're out of the league, you're done.”
― Richard Linklater

“To think you cannot fight fate is only an act of surrender.”
― John Duigan

“Who wants to spend three months making a fucked-up version of their movie?”
― Quentin Tarantino, Cinema Speculation

“It reminds me what Uma Thurman once said about actors improvising: "What most actors call improvising is just stammering and swearing. But another word for improvising is writing. And that's not what you pay actors to do.”
― Quentin Tarantino, Cinema Speculation

“There are very few perfect movies. This is okay, since in the pursuit of cinematic art, perfection shouldn't be the goal. Nevertheless, when it's accomplished (even by accident), it's an achievement.”
― Quentin Tarantino, Cinema Speculation

“I don't know how he died, where he died, or where he's buried. But I do know I should've thanked him.”
― Quentin Tarantino, Cinema Speculation

“Then the movie started playing like a real movie. But frankly, a more real movie than we were used to.”
― Quentin Tarantino, Cinema Speculation

“Elvis movies weren't real movies, they were "Elvis Presley movies”
― Quentin Tarantino, Cinema Speculation

“Even if you know nothing about the process of filmmaking…you can sense the fear, excitement, and risk that went into a scene like that. For the writer to conceive it, for the director to facilitate it, for the actors to execute it, and for the editor to hinge it to the flow of a thousand other moments with as much gambled on them.”
― Patton Oswalt, Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film

“I felt like I was in the TV show and I was the main character, but I'm the only one who doesn't know about it. Everyone's playing their role, but not me. I'm just simply living my life.”
― Lenka Dvorcakova, Crazy game called Life

“Death is nothing more than the victory of time. To make fast bodily appearance is to snatch it from the course of time, to stow it in the hold of life.”
― André Bazin, What is Cinema? Volume I

“So then . . .” I began. “Why did humans congregate to watch movies?”

“Because humans valued stories over logic,” said Parent_1. “It was another of their flaws.”
― Lee Bacon, The Last Human: A Novel

“The most spectacular photographs are not taken by you; they are gifted to you by nature.”
― Andrei Matei

“Kasabalarda hayat bozkırda yapılan yolculuklara benzer. Her tepenin ardında 'yeni ve farklı bir şey' çıkacakmış duygusu, ama her zaman birbirine benzeyen, incelen, kıvrılan, kaybolan veya uzayda tekdüze yollar.”
― Ercan Kesal, Evvel Zaman

“Se i film scomparissero dal mondo.
Una cosa è il fenomeno per cui un oggetto sparisce dal mondo, un'altra è la realtà a esso collegata. In altre parole, quello che pesava maggiormente non era la scomparsa dell'oggetto fisico in sè, ma la portata della sua scomparsa. La scomparsa di qualcosa non può essere espressa in cifre. Anche gli oggetti più piccoli, impossibili da riconoscere a occhio nudo, nel loro piccolo potevano avere un impatto enorme sulle nostre vite al punto da stravolgerle da cima a fondo.
Anche tutte le cose in apparenza superflue erano in realtà preziose per il mondo. Insieme, plasmavano i contorni delle figure umane. Io stesso sono l'insieme degli innumerevoli film che ho visto e dei ricordi che hanno evocato. Un insieme di sequenze in cui si vive, si piange, si grida, si ama. In cui si susseguono le belle canzoni, i paesaggi commoventi, le immagini nauseanti. Immagini che albergavano nel mio animo assieme alle persone che mi avevano accompagnato in quelle stesse avventure. Io sono i miei ricordi, i mille e più film visti fino a questo momento. Ogni singolo frammento di memoria era meraviglioso e commovente. Uno dopo l'altro, ho cominciato a disporli in sequenza e sgranarli al pari di un rosario. Stavo costruendo la mia corona di preghiera, dove speranza e disperazione erano tenute insieme da un filo. Non mi ci è voluto molto per comprendere che tutte le coincidenze della vita costituivano una sola, grande inevitabilità.”
― Genki Kawamura, If Cats Disappeared from the World

“I want to be a tugboat captain,' he says. But God made him a poet, and he must make the best of that.”
― Lindsay Anderson, Never Apologise: The Collected Writings

“Kurosawa, who included My Neighbor Totoro on a list of his 100 favorite films, considered Miyazaki a role model for Japanese film culture: “It’s anime, but I was so moved….I cried when I watched Kiki’s Delivery Service.”
― Jessica Niebel, Hayao Miyazaki

“Life itself is only a vision, a dream. Nothing exists save empty space and you. And you, are but a thought.”
― Mark Twain

“...the familiar and much-told myth of Hercules. Early versions of the story are found on decorated Greek vases, from around the sixth century BC. A recent version can be found in the Iron Man films.”
― John Sutherland, A Little History of Literature

“Films, more than any other media, have saved my life.”
― Don Roff

“I cut a forlorn figure as I tramp through the streets of Ginza in the pouring rain, killing time before the 7 p.m. showing of director Kiju Yoshida's 1973 film Kaigenrei at the National Film Center.”
― David Kintore, Silver Screen Cities Tokyo & London

“Cinemas always go way up in my estimation if their bar stocks interesting beers like Texels Skuumkoppe rather than just the big mass-market brands.”
― David Kintore, Silver Screen Cities Amsterdam & Brussels

“When I return to Almada at midnight after the film, the Tagus is like a still pond. The river's glassy surface reflects Cacilhas dock through a soft mist.”
― David Kintore, Silver Screen Cities Lisbon

“Hindi films are known and enjoyed worldwide for their songs and dances. These days it is fashionable to battle tradition by using a Western format of telling stories, where music stays in the background. I can't wrap my head around it. I don't think it helps the story move forward. I also believe that a film gets a lot of repeat value when an actor is wooing an actress with a popular song. We represent a dream world and our audiences love it. It may seem old-fashioned but I firmly believe that lip-syncing (by an actor) is the best way to picturize a song, to maximize its appeal. It simply does not have the same magic when the song is played in the background.”
― Rishi Kapoor, Khullam Khulla: Rishi Kapoor Uncensored

“Music is amazing. There's some metaphysical comfort where it allows you to be isolated and alone while telling you that you are not alone... truly, the only cure for sadness is to share it with someone else.

Which is why music, movies, books are so important. With out art, without communicating, we wouldn't live beyond 30 because we'd be so sad and depressed.”
― Wayne Coyne

“The problem with making art to wake people up: your ideal reader/viewer is therefore by definition probably asleep, and not the least bit interested in your kind of wake-up-you-sleepwalkers art.”
― Ian Penman, Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors