Whit Stillman Quotes

I'm always interested to see what films are made of books. I kind of don't participate as a filmgoer in any kind of debate about what's better, the book or the movie. So I think it's interesting when people want to do it.

I read every single review, because I love film criticism and I'm interested.

Since I'm a story-oriented critic, sometimes it's difficult to discuss issues without defining them. At the same time, I try not to give away anything that hasn't been given away in first half, in TV commercials, or that isn't obvious from the set-up of the movie. My editors are aware of this tendency of mine and read carefully for spoilers.

Particularly when you're making a movie of a book, people are always waiting with their knives - you know?

No critic writing about a film could say more than the film itself, although they do their best to make us think the oppposite.

There's a critic that I love, Manohla Dargis of the 'L.A. Weekly.' I like the underground point of view; it's my old radical sympathies. Maybe I like her because she likes my movies.

Critics should think about how the opening weekend audience might want to discover some surprises for themselves.

One of the occupational hazards of reviewing year-end biopics with Oscar ambitions is pointing out discrepancies between the real subjects and their on-screen avatars.

Filmmakers often tell me to watch the original version. I never do.

I watched films growing up, but no more than the next guy, really. Working on 'Hugo' made me appreciate cinema and the art of cinema a lot more.

The only good Philip K. Dick film is 'Total Recall.' It's faithful to the book. Arnie gets it.

At film festivals, I put on my sunglasses and go to sleep because I don't want to see my films again.

In the dear dead days beyond recall, when I was in my prime as a film critic, the industry was booming. Hollywood, to give them their due, always called it the industry, through quite a few imagined it as an art form and went through several hours regularly at tiresome films in the sacred cause of art.

One thing I don't do anymore is read or pay attention to the critical response, which is a bummer because when I started, and when I was in school, I loved to read old film criticism.

There's so many films made out of bad books, and I don't have time for those.

I actually did work and produced two short dissertations, one on Faulkner and one on the film criticism of the stream-of-consciousness novelist Dorothy Richardson.

Rotten Tomatoes is the best thing that happened to the movie business because it means you have to make good movies.

I don't believe in expertise. I don't believe that a film critic feels a film more deeply than any person who walks into a theater. I don't believe that.

I don't think I could have had a better experience than I did with 'Girlfight.' It was a humbling experience to be so well received. And it was equally humbling to be ripped to pieces with 'Aeon Flux.'

I'm the world's greatest apologist for Brian De Palma but his version of Ellroy's 'The Black Dahlia' is a disaster.

I sometimes think many reviewers write the reviews of my films even before they see them.

I love films. It's really funny, actually. Like, I see a lot of smaller movies. But a lot of these big, epic films that everyone's like, 'You have to see,' I haven't watched yet.

Criticism is okay from people who know the finer points of cinema.

The first film I watched was 'Soldier,' and then 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' and 'Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.'

The critics mostly review the budgets when they go to see a big-budget movie. They are out to get a big-budget movie. On the other hand, if they review a picture that is done as a graduate thesis by some college film student for $25,000, it is almost sure to be admired and respected.