A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again.
I wanted to be in a Baz Luhrmann film. It's just extraordinary. He's so amazing at what he does. He makes the most incredible films.
I have a new respect for filmmakers, that's for sure, 'cause it's not easy. If I'm allowed to, I'll be directing for the rest of my life. I love the process.
I enjoy directing. I don't know whether it's improving or not, but it's certainly evolving in different directions.
If 'Soorma' is getting me noticed, I have the director, Shaad Ali, to thank for it.
The visual architecture of 'Biutiful' is the most sophisticated of all the films I have directed.
I think directing is a huge responsibility and it's not something where you can just be like, "Yeah, sure, I'll give it a go!" I think it's something you really need to focus on, and put a lot of effort and attention into.
I'd say that directing is in my heart. And that's where my focus is, like a laser beam. That's what I've been studying for a long time, and I think that everything that I've done before has contributed to the development of my craft as a director.
Directing is a nice job. It's the best job for me. If I had to pay money to do it, I would do it... Directing is playing. Acting.
I don't say, 'Francis Ford Coppola, what a wonderful Italian-American director.' I judge him based on his film, his craft, his art. That's the way I feel I should be dealt with in this industry.
I've never had a "hankering" to direct. I can perform, but I can't write on that level. I tend to go off on tangents. Directing also requires a kind of specificity and I don't have it.
Directing was a transformative experience for me, one that I really enjoyed.
I saw the police thriller The Blue Lamp' and remember realizing the power that Dirk Bogarde as the gangster exerted over the audience simply by his expressions in the close-ups. I could see how the people around me reacted to him and realized that I wanted to have the same effect.
Half of 'Mudbound' were shots I stole in between other scenes.
[Alfred] Hitchcock was very interested in the image on the screen.As is any good cinema director. That is the language they speak. It is not literature, it is images on screen.
I like the conscious manipulation that a great director can have. When you're both complicit in the manipulation of an emotion.
I've directed a fair amount of television series - so I'm always trying to learn new things. One episode was all hand-held and I'm trying to get better at when you should do things and when you should just shut up and watch what the people are saying.
When people think of a Hitchcock movie, it isn't just the visual, it's the sound.
With 'Anna Karenina,' I just think it's a stunning visual tour de force for a director who is at the top of his game.
I feel like my job as a storyteller and director is to create an experience where the audience forgets they're in a cinema and can get lost in the story. Things popping out of the screen call attention to the artifice of what you're doing, so I use 3D as more of a window into a world behind the screen.
I had a whole new respect for directors.
When Ron Howard does 'Rush,' he has to learn and steep himself in F1 culture and European racing culture, and that's part of the fun of the gig. You learn to learn. Your real skill as a director is being a learner and an observer. You're constantly learning another thing in context.
One of the greatest compliments anyone could ever give a director is, 'Everybody was in the same show.' That's something I think about constantly.
The best films are because of nobody but the director.
He [Taika Watiti] worked on this screenplay for a couple of years and just getting it right and the result is there. He's made really close to a perfect film [Hunt for the Wilderpeople]... Perfect as you can be.
