Film Theory Quotes

This is the best film school there is, just to make movies and be there on set.

I was instructed long ago by a wise editor, "If you understand something you can explain it so that almost anyone can understand it. If you don't, you won't be able to understand your own explanation." That is why 90% of academic film theory is bullshit. Jargon is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Films are my first love.

I love every aspect of the creation of motion pictures and I guess I am committed to it for life.

I went to USC film school, briefly, which is a very traditional film school.

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 interested in the editing process - in all aspects of film-making, really.

Film is pop art. It's not whether it's auteur cinema or not; that's a false distinction. Cinema is cinema.

One of the main reasons I am so drawn to Hitchcock is that he planned his shots way in advance on story-boards, which he designed like classic paintings (he was an art connoisseur). It's why he found shooting on set boring - because he had already composed the film in his head.

All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.

For me, the French new wave is Truffaut and Rohmer. Godard I sometimes have trouble with because he's very much of a director's director. I feel Truffaut is such a humanist, and I always go in that direction.

The best education in film is to make one

Filmmaking in general is just really where I'm putting all of my energy.

I grew up cinematically in the '70s. I was watching a lot of Godard, Bresson, Dreyer, and all sorts of old films and the Czech New Wave.

I've been working in television for so long, since 2004, and I just worked nonstop throughout that time and I've learned so much. I've definitely done that 10,000 hours. I know the format really well and I feel comfortable in it. I'm excited about going into something I'm not so comfortable in, which is film.

I was very influenced by the films of the '70s.

I considered going to film school; I took a course in film and was very interested in filmmaking as well as film writing.

Jonathan Demme is a very sharp editor of his movies.

I went to college thinking of maybe pursuing a career in film criticism.

I am a student of cinema, and I love filmmaking of all kinds.

A lifetime isn't long enough to learn how to make films.

I was a film major.

Film theory has nothing to do with film.

I got into film school. I went and didn't know anything about it. Over the course of two years, I kind of got kind of good at it. You know, I had a brief moment where I wasn't sure if I could do it. I didn't know you needed light to expose film.

When I was in film school, I was learning more theory than practice.