Film Narrative Quotes

For me a true landscape is not just a representation of a desert or a forest. It shows an inner state of mind, literally inner landscapes, and it is the human soul that is visible through the landscapes presented in my films.

Casting is storytelling.

When people think of dance films, they don't really think of good stories.

A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.

When I write a film, all I think about is where the thing ends and how to get the audience there.

I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker.

If we have anything to offer, as filmmakers and as TV makers now, it's this ability to feel as close to a documentary as you can get in a narrative form.

Cinema as a means of expression fascinates me.

Storytelling wise, you've gotta take it as far as you can possibly take it with each individual movie. If you're holding out something for a sequel or some cliff-hanger, that's not how I think of a satisfying story.

It's all movies for me. And besides, when you say documentaries, in my case, in most of these cases, means "feature film" in disguise.

I hate the analyzing thing. People say, 'Why do you think your character did that? I don't know. I'm not an analyst, and they're not in psychotherapy. Unless it's a film where they're in therapy.

I'm frustrated when I see movies in which I feel like the plot is being told to me instead of shown to me.

I've always thought that, in a sense, the more specific and sometimes even the smaller the world of a movie is, the more universal it is.

Film has to describe and show.

One of the most powerful lessons I learned is when you make an argument in a film, you have to make sure both characters are right.

In a film, if you can capture what's going on underneath, you can begin to make a connection between the character and the people watching it.

I've seen films that have made as much as $100, $200 million, but they're not films. They're images. They're flashes. They're many beautiful images, lots of things to look at. They capture you. But it's not a film. It's not something that involves you in a story. They go to cinema now to be blown away by the effects.

I don't want to do a history lesson. I don't think cinema should be about that. Cinema should be about emotions.

I'm very heavily involved in the editorial post-production process, and the camera - it's just such a big part of my storytelling language. I like creating the tension; I like creating the emotion through the movement of my camera, or the lack of movement through my camera, depending on what fits the scene best.

It's not easy for a film to tell a story of the experiences of an entire society. However, from an individual's perspective, it is possible to tell one aspect of an entire society's story.

Critics can say what they like about the films, but very often, there's a certain expectation of documentaries that they're supposed to be like PowerPoint presentations. I see documentaries as movies. So when I see some critics writing that we could have done without the recreations altogether - well, perhaps.

Usually with film writing I start with characters, and set about writing their story.

It's become very popular in contemporary films to have the twist ending.

In my mind, there isn't as much of a distinction between documentary and fiction as there is between a good movie and a bad one.

Taking a comic strip character is very hard to write. Because comics are meant to work in one page, to work in frames with minimalistic dialogue. And a lot of it is left to the imagination of the reader. To do that in film, you've got to be a little more explanatory. And that requires a good screenplay and good dialogue.