Ari Aster Quotes

I know the movies that I've liked, and I know the experience that they've given me, so the goal is always to try to create a movie that I would like myself and that would knock me out, challenge me or intrigue me in some way. That's been my criteria for figuring out what I want to do, or also when I'm writing something or creating a scene.

Cinema is a medium that can translate ideas.

Filmmaking, like any other art, is a very profound means of human communication; beyond the professional pleasure of succeeding or the pain of failing, you do want your film to be seen, to communicate itself to other people.

You can be a smarty-pants director, but that won't matter if the movie doesn't work emotionally as well as intellectually.

'Rocket Science' is really where I fell in love with filmmaking, I think 'Camp' was incredible, but it was so bizarre, and I was trying to find my footing in this world where you don't have an audience for immediate validation.

Cinema is not about format, and it's not about venue. Cinema is an approach. Cinema is a state of mind on the part of the filmmaker. I've seen commercials that have cinema in them, and I've seen Oscar-winning movies that don't. I'm fine with this.

I don't think you can figure this stuff out. If you could figure all this stuff out, then all the great filmmakers would come out of Yale and Harvard. It's not an intellectual process.

I don't want to do a history lesson. I don't think cinema should be about that. Cinema should be about emotions.

It could be sci-fi, love story, historical drama what counts for me is the fact that they're made by great directors with a great point of view who bring the audience to be elevated and at the same time entertained. That's what cinema is.

Filmmaking is a language where you empathise with human situations. Unless you have empathy for characters, you shouldn't be a filmmaker.

I want to do films that provide entertainment, but are also content-driven.

I was just trying to make a nice little movie... It wasn't until I saw it all put together that I realized this was something remarkable.

When I go for a project, I wonder what underpinning a project will have that's going to give the audience some emotional access to it.

The thing is, as a film director, you're essentially alone: You have to tell a story primarily through pictures, and only you know the film you see in your head.

My responsibility is to make a film and find my dramatic language; I don't have any political or social responsibility.

I like directing. It takes a lot out of you, but I'd like to do it again - I just have to find a story I want to tell.

Many people who have watched 'Pieta' have said my filmmaking has become more objective.

Some movies to me are like vampires - they suck all of the energy out of me and I don't like that. I like to give the audience energy if I can.

As a storyteller, when you're writing a movie and when you're directing, you want to keep people entertained. That's the whole point, right? It has to be entertaining.

Always when you are doing films, the themes swallow you in one way or another.

I think my films are always quite self-reflexive and always question 'why am I doing this, is this the right way to do it, what is cinema for, does it have a purpose?'

I want to make movies that I want to see, and what I miss and I'm not seeing.

I didn't want people to sit there and watch 10 minutes of film, and all they write about is 48 frames.

And as a director, you make 1,000 decisions a day, mostly binary decisions: yes or no, this one or that one, the red one or the blue one, faster or slower. And it's the culmination of those decisions that define the tone of the film and whether or not it moves people.

It's not a film-maker's job to explain his technique, but to tell his story the best way he can.