Ridley Scott Quotes

Even in the realest American cinema that I see, there's still not that sense that this is reality. There's still that sense that you are watching a movie. And hopefully, if we did get our jobs right, that sense disappears when you watch this movie.

The secret to film is that it's an illusion.

I think it's obvious when you're watching a movie, and there's people fighting or someone's slipping on the side of the building, that it's fake and it really removes you from it.

I think there's a vague sense out there that movies are becoming more and more unreal. I know I've felt it.

The handwriting on the wall may be a forgery.

The truth just happens - lies take time to make.

You cannot play naive if you're not.

Without naming names, I think other movies look more realistic but they feel less real.

So, when the special effects are at the service of the story and draw you into it, that is really the magic.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

Art, whose honesty must work through artifice, cannot avoid cheating truth.

If you think about it, you can have the best CGI, but you can always tell that it is CGI. Your brain can spot that is not real even though you think it looks cool. Your brain knows the truth, so you don't jump and you don't scream. It was very important for me to expose the audience to real elements.

Good cinema is what we can believe, and bad cinema is what we can't believe.

I think if they suddenly cut away and you realize there is a stunt guy, you're out of the movie.

Films are about lies. They're about making things look glamorous.

Scale is not just something that a director wants so as to play with all the toys. Scale also lends verisimilitude, to put together a real world.

In an action film, you think of things that are almost impossible to do and yet you have to manage to show them as being possible on film.

The problem with a lot of narrative films is that they're not real enough.

I'm not emotionally excited by the power of cinema's tricks anymore.

Tony Blair adopted the accent of the audience he was speaking to, which worked very well initially, but then voters began to perceive him as phoney. The 'man of the people' act is the height of condescension.

I don't mind reminding people it's a movie, or that you're telling a story. Everybody knows this, but for some reason, we want to be real. I don't get it, I like the fakeness of my craft. I don't think the audience minds-they all know we're making a movie.

My young friend supposes his ingenuousness is merely a ruse.

Affected simplicity is a subtle imposture.

I think people are more apt to believe photographs, especially if it’s something fantastic. They’re willing to be more gullible. Sometimes they want fantasy. Even if they know it’s fake they can believe anything. People are accustomed to being told what to believe in.

I always try to just be honest ... As opposed to artifice or manipulation.