Film Quotes

I've been very fortunate to be able to jump around. I just did this really wonderful film called Map of the World. That was a real, amazing, dramatic story. Then I did a movie called Company Men, a little comedy about the Bay of Pigs.

Even for the most difficult scenes, and there are difficult scenes in the film, and because Michael Haneke is such a great film-maker - I think a great film-maker is not only being inspired, but how to do it, how to make it as real as possible, knowing that it's not real.

I have to say that as an actor, I really look for the role. I'm not really looking to see if it's for television or film, because there are highly talented people in both mediums.

Sometimes it's difficult directing yourself on film because you can't quite separate yourself from the subject.

Any film, or to me any creative endeavour, no matter who you're working with, is, in many cases, a wonderful experience.

I can't remember what the last film I saw was, as I can't smoke or drink in cinemas.

I do remember, as a child, that I always imagined, when I was maybe 6 or 7, my fantasy was that everywhere I went I was being followed by an invisible film crew.

I did a film which was considered an independent movie with Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia called Confidence, and that's the type of film I was willing to take a chance on that because of the caliber of people involved with the film.

Norwegian kids, they grow up well educated in film. So they have a lot of good directors there.

We're given the springboard of the text, a plane ticket, told to report to Alabama, and there's a group of people all ready to make a film and it's a marvelous life.

Usually music is used to hide a film's problems.

When I got into the film business, my aim was to adopt a positive persona, of a guy who fights against injustice. And it saved me, because my acting was atrocious to say the least!

I've done lots of songs for film soundtracks and things like that - stuff I'm not ashamed of, but that doesn't represent my legacy with the Pretenders.

You never know when I might decide to work in a Bollywood film and do one of those dance numbers with the whole crew in the backdrop.

Well, the medium of film is so different than a book that just by bringing it into visual storytelling is to change it up. I think in a book, in any book, you can have a reactive character. Some of the great novels of all time have had that, but in a film you can't do that.

Rain is also very difficult to film, particularly in Ireland because it's quite fine, so fine that the Irish don't even acknowledge that it exists.

I'm very manipulative towards directors. My theory is that everyone on the set is directing the film, we're all receiving art messages from the universe on how we should do the film.

Obviously, I try to make the films work for an audience. That's the main point of making a film, and in retrospect, one can see that certain films, let's say Leaving Las Vegas, demonstrated its own success.

My whole goal was to be able to work in television and film and maintain a normal life, never be in a tabloid.

I think the executives at the studios today realize that it's easier and safer to go the - to some known territory which is a remake of a successful film. It's less chancy than taking a fresh idea.

In that sense, film is superior, but the difficulty is your lack of control as a writer.

I think what you learn, working on a film or TV set, is how to tune certain things out. You've got 60-100 people swirling around you, each of them with a very important job to do.

This is one of the factors that also made me very much want to make this film, apart from the fact that I loved it. If the boy hadn't been Jewish and the man hadn't been Muslim, it wouldn't have made any difference to the film. I don't think it's relevant, really.

I have an Italian comedy at the Venice Film Festival.

I know there are things I did in education that will never be reversed. I have not done that in film yet because I have only been here for about nine months.

I know I'm incapable of orchestrating an entire film.

I've always been intimidated by the technicalities of taking photos, especially with a film camera - not just a point and shoot.

Well I was on the jury duty on the Deauville Film Festival, a few years ago.

There is nothing like the way people feel after they've seen 'The Intouchables.' They feel amazing. The word of mouth on this film is incredible. It's intelligent-feeling good. You're not insulted by the low-browness or stupidity of some of the humor. It's so smart and terrific.

My dad had a commercial film company, so he had a videotape player before anyone. So he got Mel Brooks movies or Citizen Kane or some classic old movies. And every summer the revival house in Evanston would show the great films from the '50s and '60s and '70s.