Thought-Provoking Films Quotes

I always want to see films that are startling and amazing. Not just shocking. Shocking is easy to do. But startling in the way that makes you change how you think about things. Those are the movies I like the best.

I like movies as a viewer that challenge me to actually think rather than spoon feed everything to me.

I think you kind of hope for people to gush over movies, but I think the opposite way is great sometimes, too. I'd rather have a movie that you're angry about and that you're talking about the next day, than something you forget about when the popcorn goes into the trash.

I really like suspenseful movies and movies that make you think.

Sean's movies are provocative and challenging without being slick.

Yeah, unfortunately [ films like Miss Julie are a dying breed]. And that is sad, because we need these. Like we need books, we need classical music, we need ballet, we need opera, to remind us really of who we are and why we are, and we need in movie houses - even to be in a movie - where you sit and see not only excitement and man-hero, woman-hero, you need quietly, just like that Hawking movie we talked about, to know how people overcome.

Movies should make people uncomfortable sometimes.

I personally am not a huge fan of really gory, scary movies because I'm a wimp. I really like a suspenseful movies and movies that make you think.

Apart from 'Stoned,' I can't think of a film that's made me think, 'Blimey, that should have been at Cannes.'

I love gritty drama. I'm passionate about films and drama that make you think - hard-hitting, gravelly characters.

I don't want to go to just watch big huge summer movies that everybody predicts is going to be the big huge summer movie and that are all the sort of blow-them-up movies or whatever you want to call them. I think there are a lot of other people out there, too, that want an alternative.

A film like Hoop Dreams is what the movies are for. It takes us, shakes us, and makes us think in new ways about the world around us. It gives us the impression of having touched life itself.

I rarely see one of the 'summer blockbuster' movies. I'd like to see a stronger focus on smaller, smarter movies.

My favorite kinds of movies are the ones that start a conversation.

I think there's still an appetite among a certain audience to see intelligent movies that have real emotion in them.

I sometimes go to a movie and eat my popcorn and turn my brain off. I love those movies. But the movies I like to be in, for the most part, are the ones that challenge you.

Fifteen- to 30-year-olds are interested in all kinds of intelligent movies - it doesn't have to be a broad comedy or an action adventure for them to go see it.

The films that have influenced me and the films that have motivated me and inspired me were films that resonated, films that made me think after I saw them.

I'd like to be part of out-of-the-box films like 'Shahid.' I see myself being part of realistic cinema.

I love being entertained sure, but the movies that I live for, the movies that I buy and think about and stay in my mind are the movies that entertain me but leave me with something a little uncomfortable to grapple with in the lobby.

I make movies in order to make things understood, not to be shocking.

I'm interested in making films that make people think.

I want to tell stories which require something of an audience, by way of thought, argument, emotion, because I'm more often in an audience than I am a maker of films, and that's the kind of movie I want to see.

Some films are pure entertainment of course, but what interests me and what I want to do are projects that really make you think, that move you, that will bring you something that will stay with you for a while. I think films are essential to the intellectual awakening of people.

For me, the most absorbing films are those that address big questions and real ideas but embody them in small examples that we can appreciate and comprehend.