Rithy Panh Quotes

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

But actually I make films that I think are extremely sophisticated and cinematic.

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.

I don't believe in one slow panning-shot to show a place. It should unfurl in the story itself.

When a director shifts gears as often as does Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the man behind the emotionally rich debut film 'Amores Perros,' you may wonder if he knows what he wants.

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

In all my films, I have tried a different look.

I would say that all my films have more content than a 'content-driven film.' It is not easy to make such films.

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.

There are some scenes that work beautifully in a moving, sweeping master, which is how I like to work.

I think from an early age I was aware of how a camera can tell a story, how a movie camera can affect how the narrative is told.

I found it very difficult to explain to someone why you did a film. It's not like having a conversation.

I really wanted to write the way Kubrick makes films - 'Strangelove,' '2001', 'Clockwork Orange', 'Barry Lyndon' - they're all so different.

Agnes Varda changed my view of cinema; she directs from an artistic point of view, and a film is most of all the expression of an artistic director. I learnt to enter the world and the imagination of a director.

I have a great little camera, and I had a theory that if the story is interesting, it doesn't matter what medium you shoot it on. You just have to make a good film.

I think every movie is its own little world, and a director certainly sets the tone.

I look at the film as an opportunity to see some bountifully creative minds do something that I could not do - tell the story with images. I can't wait to see what they do.

I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but I very often like the way Europeans make movies. I think sometimes that don't they care about having to clean certain things.

My films start with images, a few images and a few feelings, and I try to edit them together to see the correspondence between these images and these feelings.

I was able to shoot a movie like 'Tree of Life' because I had done 'Y Tu Mama Tambien.' The camera needed to capture that sense of freedom and joy and life you have when you're young.

I'm very attracted to directors who want to experiment. The thing that attracts me the most are people who are trying find a language that is correct for their film, for that specific film.

I am interested in seeing if you can create on film pieces that feel contemporary and urgent.

With 'Mask,' 'Smooth Talk' and 'Blue Velvet,' I loved the specific experiences so much. Each one was a specific filmmaker with a specific vision.

I fell in love with film and its potential. The idea of putting one image next to another image and creating meaning blew my mind.

I don't have a style. I've never thought of myself as a stylist like the visual stylists I admire enormously - Adrian Lyne, Ridley Scott, Alan Parker - in which every shot has a great idea in them.