Film Makers, what’s on your mind!!??

We know their films,but do we know their minds? What is film in the eyes of people who made them? Some of the best cinema masters(My List of The Best) shed some lights on their ideas of film and film making here, the only way we can understand these statements is watching more of their films.

[Taste of Cinema]

I have been interested in dreams, really since I was a kid. I have always been fascinated by the idea that your mind, when you are asleep, can create a world in a dream and you are perceiving it as though it really existed.” ― Christopher Nolan

Films are subjective-what you like, what you don’t like. But the thing for me that is absolutely unifying is the idea that every time I go to the cinema and pay my money and sit down and watch a film go up on-screen, I want to feel that the people who made that film think it’s the best movie in the world, that they poured everything into it and they really love it. Whether or not I agree with what they’ve done, I want that effort there-I want that sincerity. And when you don’t feel it, that’s the only time I feel like I’m wasting my time at the movies.” ― Christopher Nolan

I steal from every single movie ever made. I love it – if my work has anything it’s that I’m taking this from this and that from that and mixing them together. If people don’t like that, then tough titty, don’t go and see it, alright? I steal from everything. Great artists steal; they don’t do homages.” ― Quentin Tarantino

When you gotta go out and make a movie to pay for the kid’s private school and for the three ex-wives, don’t talk to me about your artistry. It’s their job. It’s not my job. It’s my calling.” ― Quentin Tarantino

As if Japan weren’t small enough to begin with, I fail to understand why it is necessary to think of it in even smaller units. No matter where I go in the world, although I can’t speak any foreign language, I don’t feel out of place. I think of the earth as my home. If everyone thought this way, people might notice how foolish international friction is, and they would put an end to it. We are, after all, at a point where it is almost narrow-minded to think merely in geocentric terms. Human beings have launched satellites into outer space, and yet they still grovel on earth looking at their own feet like wild dogs. What is to become of our planet?” ― Akira Kurosawa

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before?” ― Francis Ford Coppola

I had a little fantasy that goes like this: I’m getting to be an influential person in San Francisco; what if I and five other powerful guys with cigars got together in a smoke-filled room to decide who would be the next mayor of San Francisco? We’d do it because we’re good guys and we really want the city to be wonderful for everybody. Then I thought, what’s the difference between five good guys holding that kind of power and five bad guys? Just good intentions, and intentions can be corrupted.” ― Francis Ford Coppala

The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them.” ― Alfred Hitchcock

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” ― Alfred Hitchcock

Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out” ― Martin Scorcese

Basically, you make another movie, and another, and hopefully you feel good about every picture you make. And you say, “My name is on that. I did that. It’s OK”. But don’t get me wrong, I still get excited by it all. That, I hope, will never disappear.” ― Martin Scorcese

The Wilder message is don’t bore – don’t bore people.” ― Billy Wilder

A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.” ― Billy Wilder

Everybody in the audience is an idiot, but taken together they’re a genius.” ― Billy Wilder

Once a month the sky falls on my head, I come to and I see another movie I want to make.” ― Steven Spielberg

I always like to think of the audience when I am directing. Because I am the audience.” ― Steven Spielberg

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.” ― Charlie Chaplin

I do the movies just for myself like an institutionalized person who basket-weaves. Busy fingers are happy fingers. I don’t care about the films. I don’t care if they’re flushed down the toilet after I die.” ― Woody Allen

“I think they quite like me when I work because I’m one of the safer directors to back, because even if my films don’t bring their costs in back home, once they’re shown outside of India they manage to cover the costs.” ― Satyajit Ray

I wouldn’t mind taking a rest for three or four months, but I have to keep on making films for the sake of my crew, who just wait for the next film because they’re not on a fixed salary.” ― Satyajit Ray

Sometimes when you are not in production, you think, ‘ah, I’m about to take some time off or something’, but then the moment you pull the trigger on one shot, you are kind of going, ‘Ok, I’m ready, let’s go.’ You’re ready to charge the hill, and right through the picture. And I don’t think you ever lose it, probably. Who is the Portuguese director who is 105 and still making films? That’s always everybody’s dream. Wouldn’t it be great to be 105 and still making films?” ― Clint Eastwood

I always say ‘go when you’re ready,’ rather than the traditional ‘action!’. The word ‘Action’ puts a bad connotation out there, like some firecracker that goes off to get everyone going.” ― Clint Eastwood

Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you’re a director. Everything after that you’re just negotiating your budget and your fee.” ― James Cameron

Making a martial arts film in English to me is the same as John Wayne speaking Chinese in a western.” ― Ang Lee

I have two sons in America, and all they care about in Chinese culture is Jackie Chan and Jet Li.” ― Ang Lee

I don’t care what the award is, When they put your name next to the names she just read off, it’s an extraordinary thing in your life. These nominees(Steven Spielberg, David O. Russell, Ang Lee, Quentin Torantino and Katheryn Bigelow) are exceptional talent. I truly to God never thought I’d be in the same breath as them. I want to thank them. I want to thank the many talented people who weren’t nominated.” ― Ben Affleck (on Receiving the Best Director for ARGO in 70th Golden Globes)

If the boy and girl walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand in the last scene, it adds 10 million to the box office.” ― George Lucas

Football games are on TV, and it doesn’t affect stadium attendance at all. It’s the same with the movies. People who really love movies and like to go out on a Saturday night will go to the movie theater.” ― George Lucas

I like looking back at people’s faces in the dark. I like noticing details that no one else sees. But I hate it in the old American movies when drivers don’t watch the road.” ―  Jean-Pierre Jeunet

When you are in love with a story, you have to take your time to follow it and to fall in love again one time. You need some time. And I need to be in love with a story because I am going to spend four years of my life inside without pleasure, without seeing anybody, you work 16 hours per day and at the weekend and I need to be in love with each detail.” ―  Jean-Pierre Jeunet

I just love real characters; they’re not pretentious, and every emotion is on the surface, they’re regular working people. Their likes, their dislikes, their loves, their hates, their passions; they’re all right there on the surface.” ― David O. Russell

That’s the most beautiful thing that I like about boxing: you can take a punch. The biggest thing about taking a punch is your ego reacts and there’s no better spiritual lesson than trying to not pay attention to your ego’s reaction. That’s what takes people out of the fight half the time.” ― David O. Russell

When I drive to the studio, I usually feel nervous, and the day seems daunting. 100 people are about to look to me to find out what our first shot is, what lens I want to use, and how many set-ups it’s going to take to get the scene finished. Some of the time I have a plan, and some of the time I wing it. It helps to rehearse with the actors, and the ideas, hopefully good ones, start flowing. It’s always better once we break the ice and start shooting.” ― Peter Jackson

I don’t know how much movies should entertain. To me, I’m always interested in movies that scar. The thing I love about “Jaws” is the fact that I’ve never gone swimming in the ocean again.” ― David Fincher

Directing ain’t about drawing a neat little picture and showing it to the cameraman. I didn’t want to go to film school. I didn’t know what the point was. The fact is, you don’t know what directing is until the sun is setting and you’ve got to get five shots and you’re only going to get two.” ― David Fincher

I have a philosophy about the two extremes of filmmaking. The first is the “Kubrick way,” where you’re at the end of an alley in which four guys are kicking the shit out of a wino. Hopefully, the audience members will know that such a scenario is morally wrong, even though it’s not presented as if the viewer is the one being beaten up; it’s more as if you’re witnessing an event. Inversely, there’s the “Spielberg way,” where you’re dropped into the middle of the action and you’re going to live the experience vicariously – not only through what’s happening, but through the emotional flow of what people are saying. It’s a much more involved style. I find myself attracted to both styles at different times, but mostly I’m interested in just presenting something and letting people decide for themselves what they want to look at.” ― David Fincher

When I go to the cinema, I’m often frustrated because I can guess exactly what is going to happen about ten minutes into the screening. So, when I’m working on a subject, I’m always looking for the element of surprise.” ― Sergie Leone

…the eyes are the most important element to me. Everything can be read in them…” ― Sergie Leone

A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.” ― Orson Welles

I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act.” ― Orson Welles

You’ve got to work. You’ve got to want an audience to sit forward in their chairs sometimes, rather than sit back and be bombarded with images.” ― Sam Mendes

“When Reality is a prison, Your mind can set you free.” ― Zack Snyder

It`s difficult to find a movie that feels true to itself. You feel the hand of Hollywood, the moviemaking by committee, on everything.” ― Zack Snyder

It’s… a hard thing for a director, to think you came up with a shot, something from your mind, and someone died while doing it. It’s the worst thing you’ll ever have to live with. It was very hard for me to get back on the horse again.” ― Michael Bay

Do you know what directors go through? It’s just hell. Like, why do I work so hard – to think I’m only going to see this movie five times and then never see it again ’cause I’m so sick of it? What is it worth, honestly?” ― Michael Bay

And when you see it the first time you put the film together, the roughest cut, is when you want to go home and open up your veins and get in a warm tub and just go away. And then it gradually, maybe, works its way back, somewhere toward that spot you were at before.” ― Joel Coen

It`s easy to offend people. People get uncomfortable, for instance, when the main character in a movie is not sympathetic in a Hollywood formula way. Our movies are loaded with things that aren`t to everyone`s taste. On the other hand, there`s a scene in (O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)) where a frog gets squished that everyone seems to like. It`s all right to do the frog squishing.” ― Ethan Coen

I don’t like the idea of “understanding” a film. I don’t believe that rational understanding is an essential element in the reception of any work of art. Either a film has something to say to you or it hasn’t. If you are moved by it, you don’t need it explained to you. If not, no explanation can make you moved by it.” ― Federico Fellini