Every great film should seem new every time you see it.
You can watch any Hitchcock film and be blown away.
Peter Jackson's instincts are extraordinary, as is his stamina.
Woody is so musical in his filmmaking. I've never worked with anyone I've trusted so completely. He won't let you hit a false note.
And my first film was Carnal Knowledge, another amazing experience, largely because of Mike Nichols, who would tell me you can't do anything wrong because you're doing everything right.
'Pulp Fiction' is an amazing film, and I haven't made one nearly as good.
Francis Ford Coppola is completely unconventional. He has a strong sense of loyalty. Great eyes. It's a diabolical undertaking in terms of organization and leadership.
I would put my pictures up against anybody's in this world. Certainly in my own day I bow to no one. I don't think there's another director in the world who works harder to make better films than I do.
I have only one simple ambition when I make a film. That it should be the best I have made so far. With 'Kadal' it was no different.
There are many directors in the middle range who've made mostly successful pictures, and then there are a few great directors who've had some successes and some failures. I suppose my life would be smoother if I wasn't almost totally enamored of the latter category.
I hate tooting my own horn, but after Steven Spielberg saw Yentl, he said: "I wish I could tell you how to fix your picture, but I can't. It's the best film I've seen since Citizen Kane".
I never come away from a film thinking I nailed it.
Maybe Oliver Stone doesn't lend himself well to remakes or sequels, because he does them so well the first time.
I have always wanted to work with Lingusamy, as he is a master of commercial cinema. I have always admired his etching of female characters.
Cukor is one of my favorite directors. He was a master at directing women.
If you take 2001: A Space Odyssey as an example of somebody who creates a new language in film by what he was able to accomplish with art direction, photography, lighting, etc., it is still a gold standard for science fiction.
That's what I like about Neil Jordan's films: everyone is better at what they do than you are.
Of all the projects I've worked on, I've never worked with another director like Billy Friedkin. I think he's a genius.
Peter Kubelka is the perfectionist of the film medium; and, as I honor that quality above all others at this time finding such a lack of it now elsewhere, I would simply like to say: Peter Kubelka is the world's greatest filmmaker - which is to say, simply: see his films!...by all means/above all else...etcetera.
I saw the finished version of 'The French Dispatch' quite a while ago, and it's just amazing. It's so incredibly strong and different... the way that Wes is expanding his talents to another dimension with each film is just wow.
I think that there is an air of experience and aesthetic sophistication that weaves in with the amateur aspects of the film [Dream of Life]; it gives the film a certain elegance.
I heard that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has an eye for detail, and it shows in his work, but seeing it firsthand is a powerful experience.
Darren Aronofsky is on another level. You get lost in a scene, and he'll come over and whisper something in your ear, and suddenly everything makes sense.
But I would say maybe just from an actress's perspective, probably 'Woman Under the Influence' is the best movie of all time. The style of filmmaking and the performances... you don't feel like you're watching a film.
I thought Pan's Labyrinth was one of the greatest films I've ever seen, just pure artistry. Guillermo Del Toro is just really something, this guy. And he's a real mensch: down-to-earth, funny, huggy, and terrific.
