Douglas Slocombe Quotes

One of the best things about the award season is that when a British film succeeds at the Oscars and BAFTAs, such as 'Slumdog Millionaire' in 2009 and 'The King's Speech' this year, the British public get right behind it with an immense sense of national pride.

It's not simply that British films do well at the box office and generate revenue, it's that they provide a window to the world of what Britain and its culture is about.

After 'The Gamekeeper' I made one other film called 'Looks and Smiles,' but making British films was very difficult. There wasn't a tradition of British cinema.

Britain is producing some of the worst films in the world. Our film industry is desperate to be part of America, and we just churn out flaccid imitations of bad films over there.

People in Scotland appreciate homegrown talent, but it's getting harder and harder to get films made in Britain.

I'm somebody who is very, very proud to have been a part of the British film industry all my life and to have kind of been involved with a very important piece of British film history.

The problem with the British film industry is the nervousness and insecurity about - and genuflection toward - Los Angeles.

Britain has nurtured me and made me able to make movies that have travelled round the world.

I have always thought we should think less about the British film industry as an entity, and more about getting British talent working.

I like the constant rise and fall of the British film industry. But above all, I like the workhorses who kept going no matter what.

Anyone that knows me knows what I'm about, and I'm very much a British actor, a European actor.

I'm proud I'm English and I'm passionate about my country.

Somebody said that part of my reaction to British cinema is actually, paradoxically, a patriotic one. I'm so disappointed that we're not better.

All the things that are part of your heritage make you British - that makes this country what it is. It's part of your history. And here, unlike America, it's still living history.

I've always considered myself to be fiercely patriotic. I love Britain - its history and the down-to-earth attitude people have.

I was brought up in Britain, and I'm very proud of my Britishness and my culture.

I've found contemporary Britain difficult to write about because it seems to me to have lacked gravity or grandeur. This is some cultural problem which I don't really understand. It simply isn't the same in the United States.

When I make films, I work with Mike Leigh, who's the most prolific director in England.

I think Brits probably feel that Americans are more like us than vice-versa, if that makes sense. Because we get everything American over here in Britain, but yet there are things which are staunchly English that you guys don't have.

It's hard to make a film in Britain. It's hard to raise money. The best stuff that is shot on film in Britain is usually shot on film for television.

I love filming in Britain.

Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton.

I would sooner play in a good British picture than in the majority of American pictures I have seen.

America has had an influence on me, as has going out with a Cuban-American guy and having lots of American friends. But I am still fundamentally British and speak with a British accent and feel very English.

National film industries tend to move in cycles. In Australia right now, we're on a high, a feeling of potential, which as yet shows no sign of flagging. But the word 'industry' is misleading. A small national cinema has no industry in the Hollywood sense.