Gurinder Chadha Quotes

From jazz, the blues, country and rock to Hollywood movies, culture has in many ways been our greatest export (or our most obnoxious one, depending on your point of view).

I mean, I think in the early days we were pretty... pretty British in our entertainment leads.

One of the best things about the award season is that when a British film succeeds at the Oscars and BAFTAs, such as 'Slumdog Millionaire' in 2009 and 'The King's Speech' this year, the British public get right behind it with an immense sense of national pride.

When Americans shoot movies they aim at the entire planet. When the French make movies, they aim at Paris.

A culture is made — or destroyed — by its articulate voices.

As a rule, Michael Balcon was at great pains to ensure Ealing remained very British. There was no point our trying to be MGM, and we didn't see a lot of American stars.

Culture has always been more important than politics. Sometimes culture is a mirror that reflects what is; sometimes it's a search-light pointing the way to what will be.

literature is an instrument of a culture, not a summary of it.

Stories serve the purpose of consolidating whatever gains people or their leaders have made or imagine they have made in their existing journey thorough the world.

I have always thought we should think less about the British film industry as an entity, and more about getting British talent working.

Well, I don't think anyone now would say that they're painting the state of the culture of America. I think that's too grand and pompous a thing for anybody to claim.

Queen Victoria did not regard art, letters, or music as in any way springing from national character: they were something quite apart, elegant decorations resembling a scarf or a bracelet, and in no way expressive of the soul of the country.

Western civilization shapes the content of my films, provides me with subjects that haven't been used before.

I can't always be making 'British films.' Why should we be making films about corsets and horses and girls learning to drive when Americans send over an event movie and make five or 10 million?

Every era needs a genre through which it understands itself.

Museums are western inventions where the rich and the powerful or the government and the state tend to exhibit the signs and symbol and images of their culture.

I'm under no illusions about the importance of my work. But if it has any worth, it is that it truly reflects the Brazilian people.

Well, if you're talking about the current climate, there's a lack of content in American film because I think people are deeply confused about their emotions, and they don't regret certain aspects of their own foreign policy.

Music and fashion are a sign of the times and a reflection of what people want and need at this very day and age.

A country, a style or an epoch are interesting only for the idea behind them.

You know, face painting in non-Western cultures is a sign of collectivism, is a sign of one representing the community, it's not unique at all.

In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.

In Quebec, we're less inhibited artistically, culturally, politically. We're less focused on box office and comparing our films to the American films.

American cinema tends to express a patriotic relationship to national identity on a regular basis.

People have to identify with their own stories, with their own lives, so a movie belongs to a country and to a culture. Sometimes we can share, but it's very rare.