Cinematic Insight Quotes

I remember once when I told Lindsay Anderson at a party that acting was just a sophisticated way of playing cowboys and Indians he almost had a fit.

With directors, some have a kind of in-built ability to just know how to work with actors and get the best out of actors, and some don't have a clue about acting. I think it'd be a good idea if directors put themselves in front of the camera, or even went on a six-week drama course, just to know a little bit about what that feels like.

When I go to movies and I love the movie, it's because it feels like it articulated something about how we're living now, and also gives me some insight into my own life. I feel actually altered after having seen it.

Most actors don't really have a director's sensibility. They have an actor's sensibility.

I think all my favorite directors have acted. They understand how an actor thinks.

There's always an intellectual side to the films Ang Lee's doing and to the characters, and there's such a deep knowledge when you've worked with the actors that he's worked with, on stage in particular, but also in film.

Now, I love movies so much, but I find a lot of movies to be arrogant in the way they're kind of know-it-alls - they have perfect characters on the screen that know everything about themselves.

Every film, regardless of being a success or a failure or anything in between, teaches you something. You might not sometimes realise what it taught you, but down the line, there would be a lesson in it.

In most films, when we act, we don't see such meanings in what we do. Rather, we don't realise it. Only when we see it as a continuous film later on do we realise such deep meanings. That is the brilliance of the director.

Sometimes a scene can elude you, and then, you also learn that the small moments are really what you're after. A big broad moment that gets the crew laughing, usually isn't going to translate to an audience.