Director's Voice Quotes

Almost all the movies I've directed are adaptations. And I think what I found when I went to film school, where they try to push you to find your voice or your thing, is that I got a lot of things out of adaptations.

It's always fun to get to do independent film because I believe that that's the life blood of film. It's about writers and directors who truly have their own vision, and that's hard.

Every director has a sensibility and style, and what works is his originality and conviction.

No two directors make the same film the same way.

Films are a director's medium. We're all stemming from the director.

It's so hard to find a director who, when you look at their body of work, you like everything.

'Frances Ha' is the closest final product to what I had in my head of any movie I've made. I'm not entirely even sure why that is.

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.

Maybe Oliver Stone doesn't lend himself well to remakes or sequels, because he does them so well the first time.

I have always believed that when a film is being made, it has to be the director's vision.

Initially, it connected with me when I was a kid, seeing a lot of movies while growing up in Los Angeles. And Sam's [Fuller] pictures are an expression of such a distinct voice that he was one of those filmmakers who made me aware that there was, in fact, a real presence behind the camera that was telling the story, as opposed to actors just presenting it.

Films should involve a director's idiosyncrasies as much as possible I think.

I'm very strongly in favor of the auteur theory.

The most important thing as a filmmaker, the hardest journey you'll have, is to find your point of view.

Every director, when they make a film, their souls speak. The kind of stories they choose to make, it shows their souls.

So many features at Sundance seemed to be powered more on the director's need to be a director than any particular story.

I believe that every director's films reflect their lifestyle.

I never make films thinking 'This is my film. This right here is undoubtedly Kim Jee-Woon style.' I am not even sure what 'Kim Jee-Woon style' is. When I make films, I never allow myself to make hard-set decisions ahead of time.

For John Woo, it is quite difficult to make a movie in Hollywood in his own style. Because Hollywood is based on a producer system, it is difficult for a director to express himself using his own style of filmmaking.

You can tell so much about somebody by the films they make, and it's only while I approach this do I now realize how much of the filmmaker you can see in their films.

I like to do commercials that are more than just flogging a product. It needs to have something to say. It's always an opportunity for a director to say something substantial and interesting.

Sometimes my favorite directors are the ones I literally want to punch in the nose.

I don't really believe in the auteur theory.

Independent means one thing to me: It means that regardless of the source of financing, the director's voice is extremely present. It's such a pretentious term, but it's auteurist cinema. Director-driven, personal, auteurist... Whatever word you want. It's where you feel the director, not a machine, at work. It doesn't matter where the money comes from. It matters how much freedom the director has to work with his or her team. That's how I personally define independent movies.