Film Quotes

I recently watched Peter Brook's Lord of the Flies, and it wasn't a favorite film. Then I saw the one that was made in 1990, which in my opinion didn't match up to the original.

That is where the irony of the film comes off, in terms of the language it employs - where he tries desperately to be a 'TV Dad,' to give advice and it's so pat it becomes ridiculous.

I have lots of favourite memories but I can't say that I have a favourite film.

It's really rare for film directors to be that interested in things other than themselves.

We've got people looking at our seamy side and our sad side a lot of the time because that's easier. It's much more difficult to make a film about happiness with lots of jokes in it.

When I'm making an American film, it's more safe because there are so many people on the set to watch me. Whatever I do, they say, 'What are you doing!? Tell me first!' There are so many restrictions.

On film you put all your energies into a single glance.

We have to do a film parody for Comic Relief. We can't decide which film to parody at the moment. Any ideas welcome, but not Spiderman owing to costume being too tight.

Once you have heard a strange audience burst into laughter at a film you directed, you realize what the word joy is all about.

Angel was the first Irish feature film. Neil's first movie and my first movie.

Because there is actually something very interesting in Goodfellas, how the style of the film changes as time goes by and based on the mental state of the protagonist.

The only other human endeavor on which there's more 16-millimeter film than pro football is World War II, and we're going to pass that in 2013.

Once you have made the decision to do the film, once you have identified the desire and all the deep and personal, intimate, artistic reasons why you want to do the film, then it's more a matter of how to do things.

I didn't go to film school, I went to acting school.

The secret to film is that it's an illusion.

I think what makes a good action film is a story that gets you involved. Just action, by itself, is not going to work.

I'm hoping that word-of-mouth on the film - people seeing it and liking it - that that will drive more people to the theaters, because I haven't seen the billboards or the posters or anything.

No matter how many times you do it, you don't get used to the sadness - for me at least - of coming to the end of a film.

A good opening and a good ending make for a good film provide they come close together.

With a film, I do my best to understand the author's intentions and try to bring the characters to life.

15 years later, it's all the TV stars with the film deals, whether it's the cast of Friends or That '70s Show now with Ashton and other people doing stuff.

When I was preparing for the film for tree weeks, with David Cronenberg, I had a lady friend come over.

It would be great to make a movie that had the style of a great '30's film.

To me, watching a movie is like going to an amusement park. My worst fear is making a film that people don't think is a good ride.

I was an insecure kid. Once I saw 'Hercules' with Steve Reeves, it completely changed my life. If I had never gone to that film, I wouldn't be here today.

In film, we sculpt time, we sculpt behaviour and we sculpt light.

I'm an enormous admirer of Christopher Lee. He's somebody, along with Vincent Price, who I celebrate, and I wanted my movies to show that celebration and that honoring of these great film stars that were unafraid to go into horror and Grand Guignol and the macabre.

But with the right kind of coaching and determination you can accomplish anything and the biggest accomplishment that I feel I got from the film was overcoming that fear.

On a low-budget film, you don't have all the luxuries.

I always say to anybody who's going over to America for the first time, 'Whatever you do, go and see a popular mainstream film with a big audience.' Because people shout out. You never get that in Britain. Everybody's so quiet, scared to laugh. It's like being in church.