Yorgos Lanthimos Quotes

You know as a director what you want, but the film is smarter than you, the film says no, the film says there's something more here.

As a director, you never think about how an audience would respond. You can think about that, but you will never change what you're going to do.

I don't make films to reproduce reality.

I love writing. Given a choice, after directing for all these years, and if given an army of talented directors, I would not direct at all.

When I make a movie, I have both a specific and vague, amorphous dream idea of what the movie is going to be. Of course, I don't actually know what it's going to be, but I'm still striving to get to some place with it.

I don't like directing that much to want a career as a director for hire. I like to have as much creative control as possible.

All these directors, and I would include the Coen brothers and Quentin, have a very unique vision of what they want. They listen to ideas and make people feel like everyone is making the film.

With a film, you try to keep your vision in it. I think with 'The American' and 'Control' I managed to do that.

The reason I took on directing a film myself was because, no matter how skilful a director was or how much I liked the film, there'd always be beats where I'd go, 'Oh... well, that's skilful, in a way, but it doesn't get the flavour I'd intended in the script.'

The kind of work I do and the films I believe in, I had to take charge of making that kind of cinema.

I never control a film. The film controls me.

You can't make a film for your personal satisfaction. That is why I detest the cinema of people like Mani Kaul.

I'm not someone who has to make a film at any cost. I have to find the right way to make it or not at all.

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.

The Weinsteins believe in test screenings. I don't. I don't think good films are made that way. Call me crazy, but I'd like to think you need a singular vision to make good art.

When you direct a movie, you're basically looking at a story, the way you want to look at it. You bring that director's vision, and I'm totally open for that.

Peter Chelsom and Edgar Wright are totally different directors and worlds apart, but both really accomplished directors who are certain of how they want to make a film.

It's only the filmmaker. The script is really, really second. And there's a huge gap between filmmaker and script for me. I almost don't care about the story that they're telling; I really only care about who wants to tell it.

I don't approach films purely in context of genre.

The rules are: The only ego is the film, and you have to serve the film.

I want my movies to be audience experiences. As much as I like Michael Haneke, I'm not going to make a Haneke film. That's just not in my DNA.

As a filmmaker, you have to understand the essence of the book and tell the story you want to see on the screen, and hopefully please yourself - because you can't possibly please everyone.

Studios never put pressure. They know the kind of films I want to make.

There are only so many movies you can direct. And yet there are movies that I want to make sure make it to the screen in as honest a way as possible.

A lot of directors don't know what they want to do. Every director I've seen that was a good director that I've admired knew exactly what he wanted to do. They didn't sit there and think about it.