Elvis Mitchell Quotes

I always try to make films in such a way that it's hard to imagine how they came to be, or where they came from.

For me, what is most important is the element of surprise. If I can surprise you with every film of mine, that is exactly what I am trying to do.

The best films come about through experimentation.

He was the first to conceive of movies as an art form. His belief was that if the traditional art form would not find room for him, then he would make an art form of his own.

The most important thing is, how can I move forward towards something that I can't articulate, that is new in storytelling with moving images and sound?

You never know what an artist is going to create next.

I've done more than 100 films, which is a sizeable chunk of life in cinema, so if something can startle me, then I think we can say we're looking at something fairly new.

I'm not a craftsman of graphics or art or film. I'm more of an idea generator and manufacturer.

As a director, you try to find what is creative.

I still don't feel I know Hitchcock at all. I find that the more one looks, the more elusive he becomes. But my admiration for Hitchcock the filmmaker remains undiminished. He is a giant of the cinema and the darkness in him informs his cinematic language. You can't separate one from the other.

You can't have cinema by committee if you're trying to do it well.

You become the movie you are making.

I have 30 years of experience working with Leos Carax, so all the films of Leos Carax are unusual or unique. I look at them as a journey: a journey which is very personal to Leos.

For me, I see filmmaking as art.

And if there's anything movies can do in a way that I just love, and I love as an audience is, 'Show me something I don't know about. Show me something I haven't seen.'

The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want.

One day I had an idea for a movie. Everything came after that.

I think I'm drawn to films more as a director with a directorial mind even as an actor. I make movies to make the films, not to act.

Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course you can rewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing.

Directing is creating a whole. You're able to combine different elements and create a film that is unique and true to your vision.

To be honest, I found the 3D in 'Avatar' to be inconsistent and while ground breaking in many respects, sometimes I thought it overwhelmed the storytelling. Technology aside, I wish 'Avatar' had been more original in its storytelling.

To me, the director is the most important, rather than the story.

The most interesting things that happen in my books are usually the things that arise spontaneously, the things that surprise me.

A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again.

I'm drawn toward filmmakers who have a very distinctive voice. I really appreciate people who push themselves and, therefore, push the medium forward.