Cinematic Value Quotes

No matter how lofty a film is, it becomes a product after entering the market. It has a price. I think no matter what your purpose of shooting it, it has to have artistic value and then sell. But you can't make money if it doesn't have artistic value.

I never said that movies were struggling behind TV. I'm just saying that movies have a better creative cache.

Whenever a film allows you to think and feel and take it beyond the moment, I think it's achieved something. And 'Funny Games' does that.

I'm not a Hollywood basher because enough good movies come out of the Hollywood system every year to justify its existence, without any apologies.

I believe there's only good cinema and bad cinema.

I don't know if it's fair to say that it's a bad time for movies. It seems to me that throughout the entire history of filmmaking, every year there have been about two really wonderful movies, about 10 others that are pretty good, and a whole pile of garbage.

'Ratboy' is an offbeat film with a lot of comments to make about human values. But, because it's offbeat, it doesn't have an obvious market.

I come from the belief that all good films find their time whether it's on opening week or sometime later. That's certainly true with some of my favourite films that might relate to this [The Assassination of Jesse James] film in terms of cadence like Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, or McCabe & Mrs Miller or Days of Heaven. I found them 10 to 20 years after they were made.

A film is not a vehicle to accuse, or to relay a specific message. If we reduce a film to this, we lose all hope for cinema to ignite a richer conversation.

In thinking about 'depressing movies,' many people don't realize that all bad movies are depressing, and no good movies are.

A good film is a good film.

I don't really care where movies come from as long as they're worth making.

I love watching a movie that is smart, that makes me think, that includes me as an audience member, and I especially love it when I know that the people that I'm working with also do that.

of one hundred movies there's one that is fair, one that's good and ninety eight that are very bad. most movies start badly and steadily get worse

If a film isn't really talking about who we are and what our psychologies are, then we're probably not that interested in it, actually.

It's tough to make a good movie. I think the bigger the movies are, the worse they are. A lot of big movies make a lot of money and you kind of forget about what they are and they don't really make you think.

I think a good movie is a good movie whether that falls into a genre or not.

I would love to do a rom-com, but they are not good - good and successful doesn't equate to the same thing.

'12 Years A Slave' is a film that is beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, and told in a compelling manner. However, there are some questions, in my opinion, as to its importance. Paramount among those questions is, What does this scenario illustrate that we didn't know or haven't seen before? And why does such a film garner such popularity?

You don't need a high concept to make a great film, of course. 'Withnail & I' is not - it's probably not much on paper, but it's one of the funniest films ever made.

'Zero Dark Thirty' raised the stakes. It raised the stakes in cinema, man. I don't think people really know how to grasp what type of film this is.

It took me a lot of times watching it that I started to appreciate 'Pulp Fiction.'

Honestly, I think a good film is spiritual, regardless of whether its subject is faith.

The experience of watching great cinema - great art - is life enriching and spiritually uplifting no matter whether it's about as difficult as it gets, like 'Breaking the Waves,' or as light as it gets, like 'Jerry Maguire,' 'Election' or 'Toy Story.'

There should be a point to movies. Sure, you're giving people a diversion from the cold world for a bit, but at the same time, you pass on some facts and rules and maybe a little bit of wisdom.