They don't make anti-authority action films such as RoboCop any more. By the turn of the 21st century, the action genre had lost sight of who the bad guys were, arguably because we now live in even more politically confused times. So modern-day plots have become convoluted and steeped in idealism. The difference between good and evil is often a matter of perspective, and the traditional, one-dimensional villain has been replaced by complex individuals who demand – shudder – sympathy. (See Avengers: Infinity War's knuckle-chinned antagonist Thanos, who wants to wipe out half of the universe, but only because he thinks it will help to solve the population problem.)
Chris Edwards, Lost action hero: blockbusters used to fight capitalism – now they embrace it, 23 May 2018

I want you to be here all the time but as a god in disguise, whom no mortal would recognise.
Marcel Proust, Proust's love letters to composer go on display before Paris auction, 22 May 2018

I'm more melancholic than I was before. When your mother dies in your arms, your perception of life changes. I think the whole thing is just a fleeting illusion. It doesn't last – and if there is any paradise or hell, it's right here, right now. Also, I used to have this mental disease called collectionism.
... I used to collect everything. Comic books, posters, records, whatever. But the moment my mother died, I stopped being possessive because you never own anything anyway. Even her books and her dresses – they had no more meaning, because they were nothing to do with her any more. I didn't want any of it.
Gaspar Noé, Gaspar Noé: 'Six people walked out of Climax? No! I usually have 25%', 22 May 2018

[“The Shining” movie is ] a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it... When we first see Jack Nicholson, he's in the office of Mr. Ullman, the manager of the hotel, and you know, then, he's crazy as a shit house rat. All he does is get crazier. In the book, he's a guy who's struggling with his sanity and finally loses it. To me, that's a tragedy. In the movie, there's no tragedy because there's no real change.
Stephen King, ‘The Outsider': Stephen King Reaffirms His Hatred of Stanley Kubrick's ‘The Shining' in New Novel, 21 May 2018

I am incredibly grateful for having that whole experience of that baby that did not live, because it put me in touch with that kind of suffering. It just changed my perspective forever. When you've had a death like that you become part of a club you never leave, and because of the love you feel for them, you never resent it...
... Right now, we're in a really special moment. I'm so excited about it. It's like the Berlin wall coming down, like the end of apartheid. I think we have lived in one of the more ferocious patriarchal periods of our time, the 80s, 90s and noughties. Capitalism is such a macho force. I felt run over.
Jane Campion, Jane Campion: ‘Capitalism is such a macho force. I felt run over', 20 May 2018

In 1997, I was raped by Harvey Weinstein here at Cannes. I was 21 years old. This festival was his hunting ground. I want to make a prediction: Harvey Weinstein will never be welcomed here ever again.
Asia Argento, Cannes 2018: unfancied Japanese film Shoplifters takes Palme d'Or, 19 May 2018

Everything that we pass judgment on as a society has always been part of the fabric of life, and homosexuality has been present through so many periods. Before the last 50 or 60 years, they were hidden, but they were there, and Stanley Kubrick knew that. He always thought of it as part of the social fabric—it was simply suppressed. He never saw it as controversial. And there was no judgment one way or the other—it was simply two men who found attraction to one another.
Leon Vitali, Stanley Kubrick's Apprentice Did Gay Film Research, Auditioned Dozens Before Casting Alan Cumming in Eyes Wide Shut, 18 May 2018

Film used to thrive on controversy and danger. These days, it has had its shadowy corners exposed. Tastes are changing, a new morality bites and cinema's underground beasts find they have fewer places to hide. Increasingly, it seems, the provocateur is being shown the door...
.... “I have worked really hard on staying in my own little place,” Von Trier told me after his ill-starred Cannes premiere. “But then the world comes along and collides with it, like atomic particles or something.”
Xan Brooks, Does Lars von Trier's ‘vomitive' new film spell the end for provocative cinema? , 18 May 2018

It's quite important not to be loved by everybody, because then you've failed. I'm not sure if they hated it enough, though. If it gets too popular, I'll have a problem. But the reception seemed just about right, I think... I do know a bit about psychopaths. I've never killed anyone myself. If I do, it will probably be a journalist.
Lars von Trier, Lars von Trier on Cannes walkouts: 'I'm not sure they hated my film enough' , 17 May 2018

Even good film critics were asking me, ‘Why did you need to show a penis in your movie? Why do you need to show the face of the devil?' Come on! I have a penis. The guys who were asking me those questions have a penis. Why is it in American culture, the penis is the face of all evil in this world? If your dad didn't have one and didn't use it with your mom, you wouldn't be here.
... It's the source of life. It's not the source of death. Weapons are the source of death. In every American movie, there are machine guns, whatever. Even on Instagram, why can you not show an erect penis? It's a nice part of the body, like my hand, like my nose.
Gaspar Noé, Gaspar Noé Explains His Hatred for ‘Black Panther': ‘I Had to Escape the Cinema After 20 Minutes' , 17 May 2018

I thought [“The House That Jack Built” ] was so funny! Lars von Trier has a very cold humor, but I enjoyed it so much. It's like a Todd Solondz movie, so dark. All the sadistic scenes were so funny that people were staring at me because I couldn't stop laughing...
... I'm so used to bad reviewsI really enjoy them when they're very mean! I've always wanted to make a poster out of my bad reviews and frame it.
... [Critics] said [“Climax” is] like a Busby Berkeley movie directed by Pasolini, or ‘Fame' directed by the Marquis de Sade. I expected a worse response than my previous movies. The last movie I did had 85 percent negative press. On this one, I said, ‘I hope I get 90.'
Gaspar Noé, Gaspar Noé ‘Couldn't Stop Laughing' While Watching Lars Von Trier's Controversial Serial Killer Film ‘House That Jack Built' , 16 May 2018

I can't even remember now who said it to me, but a female casting director said, in a room full of people: ‘You have to make the men want to fuck you and the women want to be you.'
... Yeah. I almost wish I could remember who she was. Not that I want to call her out, but I feel like that was almost more damaging in a way. To think to myself, that's really what I have to be? And then trying to figure out how to be that. This was from a casting person who was like, this is how you're going to get the jobs and then that permeating through how I thought about myself, and the commodity I was. That was more damaging than the guy asking me what are you doing after or saying you should take your clothes off more. Shocker.
Chloë Sevigny, Chloë Sevigny: ‘I didn't want to name names. I think they're commonly known as assholes anyway', 6 May 2018

When I learned that Ridley Scott had agreed to eliminate the scenes of All the Money in the World in which Kevin Spacey was playing, I sent a message to editor Peter Scalia to tell Scott that he should be ashamed. And then I immediately wanted to make a film with Spacey.
Bernardo Bertolucci, Ridley Scott 'should be ashamed' of treatment of Kevin Spacey, says Bertolucci, 1 May 2018

His film is out of competition [in Cannes] because it is such a singular object, a subject so controversial, that this was his best place. And whether we like it or not, we are dealing with a great film and a great filmmaker.
Thierry Fremaux, Cannes Director: Lars Von Trier Was ‘A Victim of His Bad Jokes' , 30 April 2018

Listen. I'll never forget when I got a call from Denzel Washington to say congratulations on winning the Oscar. Oh, I cried. I got a bottle of champagne from Quincy Jones, who said, ‘You're part of the family now.' Oh, I cried again. Sidney Poitier reached out to me. These blew my mind. And then I got the message that Spike Lee gave an interview saying I'm evil… Do you take it personally? No. Of course it would look like that to him, because he was stigmatised as a ‘black' film-maker. And yet we, the entertainers who were black, were celebrated in different genres and given different opportunities.
Cuba Gooding Jr, Cuba Gooding Jr: ‘I had 10 years in the wilderness', 31 March 2018

When Luca Guadagnino says he never thought of putting nudity in ["Call Me By Your Name"], that is totally untrue. He sat in this very room where I am sitting now, talking about how he would do it, so when he says that it was a conscious aesthetic decision not to – well, that's just bullshit.
... When people are wandering around before or after making love, and they're decorously covered with sheets, it's always seemed phoney to me. I never liked doing that. And I don't do it, as you know. [In "Maurice",] the two guys have had sex and they get up and you certainly see everything there is to be seen. To me, that's a more natural way of doing things than to hide them, or to do what Luca did, which is to pan the camera out of the window toward some trees. Well … [He gives a derisive snort.]
James Ivory, James Ivory: why Ismail Merchant and I kept our love secret, 27 March 2018

This new puritanism coloured by a hatred of men, arriving on the heels of the #MeToo movement, worries me. As artists, we're starting to be fearful since we're faced with this crusade against any form of eroticism.
... This hysterical pre-judgment which is spreading now, I find absolutely disgusting. And I don't want to know how many of these accusations related to incidents 20 or 30 years ago are primarily statements that have little to do with sexual assault. This has nothing to do with the fact that every sexual assault and all violence – whether against women or men – should be condemned and punished. But the witch hunt should be left in the Middle Ages.
... Suspected actors are cut out of movies and TV series in order not to lose [audiences]. Where are we living? In the new Middle Ages?
Michael Haneke, Michael Haneke: #MeToo has led to a witch hunt 'coloured by a hatred of men', 12 February 2018

I am one of the reasons that a young girl would walk into his room alone, the way I did. Quentin used Harvey as the executive producer of ‘Kill Bill,' a movie that symbolizes female empowerment. And all these lambs walked into slaughter because they were convinced nobody rises to such a position who would do something illegal to you, but they do...
.... Personally, it has taken me 47 years to stop calling people who are mean to you ‘in love' with you. It took a long time because I think that as little girls we are conditioned to believe that cruelty and love somehow have a connection and that is like the sort of era that we need to evolve out of.
Uma Thurman, This Is Why Uma Thurman Is Angry, February 3, 2018

"American Sniper", for instance, rarely looks up from its telescopic sights to ponder why this whole Iraq mess is happening in the first place. Nope, it's just good guys and bad guys. If anyone had said, “perhaps we shouldn't have invaded this country under false pretences and made a total mess of it,” the bubble would burst.
Steve Rose, In the line of dire: let's call time on Clint Eastwood's macho movies, 29 January 2018

Whatever you do in private is not my business. It only becomes my business if it infects the business that I'm in. Then it's my duty to do something about it.
... My decision was almost immediate. I said: ‘We need to re-do this.' I phoned Christopher [Plummer] and asked if he'd meet me in New York. Met him that night.... I didn't agonise. I never dwell on a problem, only the solution. You learn to do that, doing what I do.
Ridley Scott, Ridley Scott on erasing Kevin Spacey from his new film: 'He's a very good actor. It's a pity', 5 January 2018

At the beginning of the show, [David Bowie] appeared as a kind of Marlene Dietrich, but with a white captain's jacket and a cap -- it was obvious that it was not Bowie playing a captain, but Bowie playing Marlene Dietrich playing a man. One thing that was astonishing was his ability to do cinema and music simultaneously, while endlessly reinventing himself.
Jean Paul Gaultier, My Bowie: Jean Paul Gaultier

[Lord of the Rings] changed hands from Miramax to New Line before casting actually got underway – but because we had been warned off Ashley [Judd] and Mira [Sorvino] by Miramax, and we were naive enough to assume we'd been told the truth, Fran [Walsh] and I did not raise their names in New Line casting conversations.
.... Nearly 20 years later, we read about the sexual misconduct allegations being made against Harvey Weinstein and we saw comments by both Mira and Ashley, who felt they had been blacklisted by Miramax after rejecting Harvey's sexual advances.
.... Fran and I immediately remembered Miramax's negative reaction when we put their names forward, and we wondered if we had unwittingly been part of the alleged damage to their careers, at the hands of Miramax.
Peter Jackson, Peter Jackson Rebukes Harvey Weinstein's Denial On Ashley Judd & Mira Sorvino, December 15, 2017

For decades, the journalists Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Bill O'Reilly and Mark Halperin appeared in front of cameras and tried to help Americans understand the country and one another. Now that they've lost their jobs after multiple accusations of sexual abuse, we are left wondering what they taught us.
.... What did we collectively learn from Harvey Weinstein, the producer who chose which movies we saw, shaping our views of art and our ideals of beauty? Or from Louis C.K., who abused some women and excluded others from comedy projects , even as he made us laugh?
Katie Rogers, When Our Trusted Storytellers Are Also the Abusers,
November 30, 2017

Queerness is merely the subtext in each of his movies so far. Luca Guadagnino's real interest seems to be materialistic: He makes swanky, Euro-set melodramas about the sex lives of the rich and immodest...
... I doubt if Gregg Araki or Bruce LaBruce would be so high-minded, yet neither of those filmmakers have ever received acclaim like this super-bourgeois fantasy.  Call Me By Your Name  is one of those movies that exploit the queer audience's romantic needs by packaging them and falsifying them. I'd have more respect for this kind of craven commercialism if it was a queer version of  Porky's .
Armond White, Call Me by Your Name 's Sex Lives of the Rich and Immodest,
November 30, 2017

It's always the same mind, the same film-maker who's making these films. So it's normal these things should be repeated. It is a reproach that's been made of all the great film-makers. Bergman, Cassavetes, Kubrick – all have been accused of dealing with similar themes again and again. As an author, you have to deal with the horizon you know, otherwise you only produce cliches.
... As long as I can remember, I've seen this lack of compassion towards suffering and misery that we in the west are partially responsible for, due to colonisation. It's a form of autism. I don't exclude myself from this.
... Not only did I have a happy childhood, but I'm a happy person. If you look around us, the world isn't such a funny place, and all of us are capable of everything – the most horrific acts as well as acts of extraordinary beauty. It's my responsibility to present this contradiction.
Michael Haneke, LOLs with Haneke: I confess to the director about creating his cat-lover Twitter parody, 29 November 2017

The major point to identify here is that we don't want our truth trivialized. The label of comedy [for "Get Out" ] is often a trivial thing. The real question is, what are you laughing at? Are you laughing at the horror, the suffering? Are you disregarding what's real about this project? That's why I said, yeah — it's a documentary.
Jordan Peele, Jordan Peele Responds To Golden Globes Comedy Entry For 'Get Out', November 16, 2017

Caravaggio was a murderer but his paintings are sublime. David Bowie slept with underage girls . Ezra Pound and TS Eliot were both antisemites. Does admiring their poems make us condoners of hate-speech? Or do we cut this Gordian knot and view the work in isolation?
Xan Brooks, Reel dilemma: are we condoning the conduct of Hollywood's tyrants by watching their films?, 10 November 2017

The bottom line is that you can't throw out the baby with the bathwater. You can't erase history by not showing The Birth of a Nation . It's a powerful film. It should stay part of the conversation. But what you can do is show it in context. You show it with a discussion. You say: ‘That was then and this is now' – and you learn from it.
Cari Beauchamp, Reel dilemma: are we condoning the conduct of Hollywood's tyrants by watching their films?, 10 November 2017

I didn't think anyone would make a movie where a black guy kills a white family at the end, and everyone cheers for him.
Jordan Peele, 'Get Out's' Jordan Peele Confesses, "I've Always Identified as an Outsider", November 6, 2017

I then revealed to Rose [Mcgowan] right then and there that I was about to start writing a movie with Quentin Tarantino, a double feature throwback to 70's exploitation movies, and that if she was interested, I would write her a BAD ASS character and make her one of the leads. I wanted her to have a starring role in a big movie to take her OFF the blacklist, and the best part is that we would have Harvey's new Weinstein Company pay for the whole damn thing...
... Even after 12 years, I will never forget sitting with Rose at that party and instantly getting inspired to create a bad ass female action heroine who loses her leg and transforms into a superhero that rights wrongs, battles adversity, mows down rapists, and survives an apocalypse to lead the lost and weary into a land of hope; all with a crackling, retro B-movie aesthetic. I'll admit it felt really good at the time to realize we could use our art form to help Rose right a serious wrong in both how he victimized her years earlier, but also what Harvey was doing to a wonderful actress by blacklisting her and keeping her from working with filmmakers that would have wanted to work with her. At the time, it was the only thing we could do.
Robert Rodriguez, Robert Rodriguez Says Casting Rose McGowan in ‘Grindhouse' Was an F-U to Harvey Weinstein, 27 October 2017

Watching Sergei Eisenstein's classic silent film October is like watching the Russian revolution the same way. It's surreally lit up by stark images that sear your retina; gone the next second, to be replaced by others just as mysterious and disorientating. October is not a historical document, more a remembered dream. I sometimes wish we could see it without music, with just a deafening thunderbolt on each of its 3,200 cuts. A violent electrical storm of strangeness.
Peter Bradshaw, Hallucinating history: when Stalin and Eisenstein reinvented a revolution, 24 October 2017

That woman [Björk] was stronger than both Lars Von Trier and me and our company put together. She dictated everything and was about to close a movie of 100m kroner [$16m].
Peter Aalbæk Jensen, Björk reveals more details of alleged sexual harassment by director, 17 October 2017

Yes, I'll stand by that. I mean, [Gal Gadot] was Miss Israel, and she was wearing a kind of bustier costume that was very form-fitting. She's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. To me, that's not breaking ground. They had Raquel Welch doing stuff like that in the '60s. It was all in a context of talking about why Sarah Connor — what Linda created in 1991 — was, if not ahead of its time, at least a breakthrough in its time. I don't think it was really ahead of its time because we're still not [giving women these types of roles]... Linda looked great. She just wasn't treated as a sex object. There was nothing sexual about her character. It was about angst, it was about will, it was about determination. She was crazy, she was complicated. … She wasn't there to be liked or ogled, but she was central, and the audience loved her by the end of the film.
James Cameron, James Cameron Doubles Down on 'Wonder Woman' Critique, Details the 'Avatar' Sequels, 27 September 2017

James Cameron's inability to understand what Wonder Woman is, or stands for, to women all over the world is unsurprising as, though he is a great filmmaker, he is not a woman. Strong women are great. His praise of my film Monster, and our portrayal of a strong yet damaged woman was so appreciated. But if women have to always be hard, tough and troubled to be strong, and we aren't free to be multidimensional or celebrate an icon of women everywhere because she is attractive and loving, then we haven't come very far have we. I believe women can and should be EVERYTHING just like male lead characters should be. There is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman. And the massive female audience who made the film a hit it is, can surely choose and judge their own icons of progress.
Patty Jenkins, Twitter, 24 August 2017

Mike Medevoy at Orion called me up one night and said: ‘I just went to this party and I got the movie cast!' Now, of course, every film-maker loves to hear that some douche executive has cast your movie for you. And he said: ‘OK, OJ Simpson for the Terminator.' I was like: ‘Hey Mike! Bad idea! You're going to have this black athlete chasing this white girl around LA with a fricking knife and a gun? We're not doing that.' Which was fortunate, but also unfortunate in that life ended up imitating art there.
... All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood's been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided. She's an objectified icon, and it's just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I'm not saying I didn't like the movie but, to me, it's a step backwards.
... Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon. She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female!
James Cameron, James Cameron: ‘The downside of being attracted to independent women is that they don't need you', 24 August 2017

If you could photograph the unwanted urine which dribbles from an old man's penis you would have a film titled Song to Song.
Paul Schrader, Paul Schrader Writes an Anatomical Review of Terrence Malick's ‘Song to Song,' and It Doesn't Involve Thumbs, 27 May 2017

There's a lot of strain when working without a script because you can lose track of where you are. It's very hard to coordinate with others who are working on the film. Production designers and location managers arrive in the morning and don't know what we're going to shoot or where we're going to shoot. The reason we did it was to try and get moments that are spontaneous and free.
... As a movie director, you always feel with a script that you're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. And with no script, there's no round hole, there's just air. But I'm backing away from that style now.
Terrence Malick, Terrence Malick Vows to Return to More Structured Filmmaking: ‘I'm Backing Away From That Style Now', 6 April 2017

I was thinking today, 'Why do I hate being interviewed so much? How can I explain this to poor Darren who has to do this dastardly interview with me?' And I think it may be that I have this constant fear that I'm a fraud and that I'm going to be found out. It's true... I didn't come from Juilliard [school]. I was just getting by and learning in front of the world. So I've always had this feeling that one day they're going to find out that I'm really a fraud, that I really don't know what I'm doing.
Michelle Pfeiffer, Michelle Pfeiffer Poses for First Magazine Cover in Years, Recalls Being 'Terrified' on 'Scarface' Set, 28 March 2017

บันทึก: เมื่อผู้เขียนลองเรียงลำดับหนังตามเวลาในท้องเรื่อง

1300BCs >>> Tut (2015)
1200BCs >>> Troy (2004) + The Ten Commandments (1956)

500BCs >>> Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) + Buddha: Rajaon ka Raja (2013)

400BCs >>> 300 (2006) + Socrates (1971)
300BCs >>> Alexander (2004) + Cabiria (1914)
200BCs >>> Hero (2002)

Roman Emperors
Julius Caesar >>> Spartacus (1960) + Julius Caesar (1953) + Cleopatra (1963)
Augustus >>> I, Claudius (1976) + Rome (2005)
Tiberius >>> Ben-Hur (1959)
Caligula >>> Caligula (1979)
Claudius >>> Britania (2017)
Nero >>> Quo Vadis (1951) + The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) + Life of Brian (1979) + The Passion of the Christ (2004) + The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) + Satyricon (1969)

100s >>> Gladiator (2000) + Centurion (2010) + The Eagle (2011)
200s >>> Red Cliff  (2008) + The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
300s >>> Sebastiane (1976)
400s >>> Augustine of Hippo (1972)

800s >>> The Last Kingdom (2015) + Vikings (2013) + The Assassin (2015)
900s >>> Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) + House of Flying Daggers (2004) + The 13th Warrior (1999)

1000s >>> For Love and Gold (1966) + The War Lord (1965)

1100s >>> The Pillars of the Earth (2010) + Kingdom of Heaven (2005) + Robin Hood (2010) + The Lion in Winter (1968)

1200s >>> Marco Polo (2014) + Braveheart (1995) + Alexander Nevsky (1938) + Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (2007) + The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)

1300s >>> The Hollow Crown I (2012) + The Seventh Seal (1957) + The Decameron (1971) + The Canterbury Tales (1972) + The King and the Clown (2005) + The Name of the Rose (1986) + Knightfall (2017) + Wondrous Boccaccio (2015) + The Virgin Spring (1960)

1400s >>> The Borgias (2011) + The White Queen (2013) + Medici: Masters of Florence (2016) + Da Vinci's Demons (2013) + Dragon Inn (1967) + Come Drink with Me (1966) + The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) + Andrei Rublev (1966) + The Age of the Medici (1972)

1500s >>> La peste (2018) + The Tudors (2007) + Wolf Hall (2015) + Elizabeth (1998) + Upstart Crow (2016) + Ugetsu monogatari (1953) + Kagemusha (1980) + Queen Margot (1994) + A Man for All Seasons (1966) + Ivan the Terrible (1944) + Apocalypto (2006) + The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) + Boris Godunov (1986) + Dae Jang-geum (2003) + Naresuan (2007) + Shakespeare in Love (1998) + Goltzius and the Pelican Company (2012)

1600s >>> Versailles (2015) + The New World  (2005) + Gunpowder (2017) + Harakiri (1962) + Silence (2016) + The Crucible (1996) + Masquerade (2012) + The Witch (2015) + Day of Wrath (1943) + Black Robe (1991) + The Life of Oharu (1952) + Tous les matins du monde (1991) + Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) + Caravaggio (1986) + Cartesius (1974) + The Rise of Louis XIV (1966) + The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) + Nightwatching (2007)

1700s >>> Roots (1977) + Outlander (2014) + Poldark (2015) + The Mission (1986) + Amadeus (1984) + Barry Lyndon (1975) + Casanova (1976) + A Royal Affair (2012) + Marie Antoinette (2006) + The Madness of King George (1994) + Proteus (2003) + Bangrajan (2000) + Dangerous Liaisons (1988) + Ridicule (1996) + Rob Roy (1995) + Tom Jones (1963) + Danton (1983) + La Nuit de Varennes (1982) + Pride & Prejudice (2005) + Fiorile (1993) + The Death of Louis XIV (2016)

1800s >>> Taboo (2017) + Victoria (2016) + Lincoln (2012) + Les Misérables (2012) + 12 Years a Slave (2013) + Once Upon a Time in China (1991) + The Twilight Samurai (2002) + Zatoichi (2003) + Red Beard (1965) + Gone with the Wind (1939) + Dances with Wolves (1990) + The Last Samurai (2003) + The Elephant Man (1980) + The Birth of a Nation (1915) + The Age of Innocence (1993) + The Last of the Mohicans (1992) + Ludwig (1973) + The Leopard (1963) + The Magician (1958) + Mysteries of Lisbon (2010) + Total Eclipse (1995) + Mr. Turner (2014) + Anna Karenina (2012) + Red Psalm (1972) + The Man Who Would Be King (1975) + Van Gogh (1991) + Lola Montès (1955) + Beloved (1998) + Amistad (1997) + The Piano (1993) + Waterloo (1970) + Zulu (1964) + The King and I (1956) + Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) + The Emigrants (1971) + Aferim! (2015) + Chihwaseon (2002) + The Birth of a Nation (1915) + Bright Star (2009) + Tawipop (2004) + The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) + The Searchers (1956) + The Portrait of a Lady (1996) + Washington Square (1997)

1900s >>> Downton Abbey (2010) + The Crown (2016) + October (1928) + Babylon Berlin (2017) + Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) + The Godfather: Part II (1974) + Belle Epoque (1992) + Ip Man (2008) + Maurice (1987) + Doctor Zhivago (1965) + Lawrence of Arabia (1962) + The Human Condition (1959) + Raise the Red Lantern (1991) + Farewell My Concubine (1993) + Gandhi (1982) + The Sun (2005) + The Last Emperor (1987) + Titanic (1997) + The Great War (1959) + 1900 (1976) + Army of Shadows (1969) + The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) + Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (2004) + In the Heat of the Night (1967) + The Burmese Harp (1956) + Always - Sunset on Third Street (2005) + The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982) + Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) + Vincere (2009) + Downfall (2004) + Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) + Fateless (2005) + Khu gam (1995) + No Man's Land (2001) + The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) + The Remains of the Day (1993) + In the Realm of the Senses (1976) + Rome, Open City (1945) + A Man Escaped (1956) + Bicycle Thieves (1948) + Network (1976) + Apocalypse Now (1979) + The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) + Persepolis (2007) + Hotel Rwanda (2004) + The Killing Fields (1984) + Good Bye Lenin! (2003) + Longtime Companion (1989) + Do the Right Thing (1989) + Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996) + In the Heat of the Sun (1994)

2000s >>> United 93 (2006) + The Social Network (2010) + Boyhood (2014) + Zero Dark Thirty (2012) + The Impossible (2012) + The Hurt Locker (2008) + The Fifth Estate (2013) + Redacted (2007) + Welcome (2009) + Fauda (2015) + American Sniper (2014) + Snowden (2016) + Four Lions (2010)

When I wrote my memoirs, which I think was in 2005, I thought that my audience would be women. But I got a lot of mail from gay guys who described loving my books. That was the first time I thought, Oh that's interesting. The way I wrote my book, I viewed the journey of my life through a gender lens and wrote a lot about how patriarchal society makes women feel they have to be a certain way. You know, if you're not perfect, if you're not beautiful, if you're not skinny, you can't be too smart, you can't be angry, you want to be loved. And what I discovered from the letters I got, from gay men in particular, was that they go through the same thing. The demands are you know, you're not macho enough, you're not butch enough, you're not man enough, so you're not a real man. The patriarchal society uses homophobia just like sexism and it damages people the same way.
Jane Fonda, Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin on Leading Men, Their Gay Followings, and Being Allies Before It Was Cool, April 12, 2016

I just wanted elephants in my film ["Dheepan" ] and an image of nature moving. I don't know what Tamils dream of. But what interested me was this – we see migrants as people who have no faces and no names, no identity, no unconscious, no dreams. And what happens to all the violence they've been through? I wanted to give them a name, a face, a shape – and give them a violence of their own. It's a naive film, really.
... Sex on screen never looks entirely believable. So what detour do I have to take if I want to show just sex? I take a famous actress, cut her legs off, and suddenly in the love scenes, something completely new happens – it becomes 100% about sex. When Matthias [Schoenaerts] lifts [Marion Cotillard] out of the sea [ in "Rust and Bone" ] , he's not carrying a disabled young woman, he's carrying her sexuality. Am I right?
Jacques Audiard, ‘I wanted to give migrants a name, a shape… a violence of their own', April 3, 2016

We know David Bowie, the singer, the outrageous performer, but actually we don't know anything about him. And that's the way it should be in music.
Elton John, Elton John Would 'Rather Go and See a Drag Queen' Than Watch Janet Jackson Perform, 25 February 2016

When I was a child, I did a lot of stealing. And it was formative for me in deciding to get into acting – because you have to pretend you didn't steal. Sometimes I'd steal pigeons from someone else's coop. I'd bring them back to mine and make the mistake of opening the door too soon – so they'd just fly back to their own coops. I'd steal things in the Five & Dime store and the supermarket, like potatoes that my friends and I could go and roast in a fire.
... The one time I was caught was when it was my turn to steal candies from the confectionery shop. I put them under my shirt, and as I was leaving they fell out. I was terrified. I froze in my tracks. I think I'm still standing in that store now. But I wasn't severely punished, and I got smart doing that. I learned to wear bigger shirts.
Harvey Keitel, 'Don't fear death. When I get there, remind me that I said that',
January 15, 2016

I like everything to follow a natural principle. People in a kung fu movie should not be able to fly around like birds. So the film should show the real limitations of this world, the real limitations of human beings. Because that, for me, is where the drama arises. It comes from limitations, not from freedom.
... I am not shooting a film to please an audience. I don't even make films to communicate with an audience. I am the only person who I am speaking to.
... When I was relocated to Taiwan, I was just a baby, four months old, so I have no impression of China as my home. Recently [the local Chinese authorities] found my ancestor. They found that my ancestor had migrated from northern China to Guangdong province over 1,000 years ago. So Guangdong province invited me to go back to celebrate this discovery. But I refused. Because the society across the Taiwan Strait is so very different. China is another world. I can't comprehend it. I was editing "A City of Sadness" when Tiananmen Square happened. Me and my editor spent every day watching the TV news, crying. We forgot all about editing the actual film.
Hou Hsiao-hsien, The Assassin director: why I gave plot the chop, January 11, 2016

I can't deny that I come from [José Clemente] Orozco or [David Alfaro] Siqueiros, from these muralists. All these murals of the last days of judgment – there are no nuances!
... We as a culture always grab the most spicy sauce, the most heartbreaking rancheros and boleros music, such dramatic telenovelas and soap operas. All our culture and all the cosmological themes and political themes and social themes and religious themes are always conveyed on these huge canvases, with big colours… [ Amores Perros ] was an ambitious triptych mural very much in the tradition of my culture – and in that sense, yes, it was like – arrghh!… [He exclaims, clenching his teeth and imitating someone trying to bend an iron bar.]
... The Revenant really addresses a lot of the things I have to say now. The way these men deal with nature… Cutting trees – profit from it. Killing animals – profit from it. And the impact they had on the [indigenous] communities, the broken promises and contracts and the blindness of seeing them as people, the fear of the otherness, the judgments and the prejudice of the colour of the skin and other cultural beliefs… We haven't escaped from that kind of fear and prejudice.
Alejandro González Iñárritu, 'When you see The Revenant you will say "Wow"',
January 3, 2016

There's something to be said about old age. Age helps to be free. When you're younger, you want to impress your teacher, your parents, yourself, you have to prove something to yourself. As you get older, all that goes. It's not that you resolve it. You may never impress these people in your life. But you say, “What the fuck do I care? I only have so much to live, so let me live the adventure I dream.”
Isabella Rossellini, Isabella Rossellini on Joy , Working With De Niro & Her  Death Becomes Her Potion Choice, December 24, 2015

After all, "Rocky" gave post–Civil Rights America the great white hope that Vietnam War draft-resister and heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali had made unthinkable. Stallone's Philadelphia palooka revived working-class, second-generation-immigrant identity. This, combined with primal memories of masculine endeavor — and sincerity — restored a romantic sense of pride to a nation as broken and wounded as Rocky Balboa himself.
Armond White, Creed : All-American, November 25, 2015

Todd Haynes doesn't have natural moviemaking instincts; his films work out predictable propositions from a “progressive” perspective. "Carol" lacks the emotional intensity of good melodrama because of Haynes's constant point-making; his stiff compositions and drab palette betray his didactic impulse.
Armond White, Carol and Legend Falsify the Past They Exploit, November 20, 2015

When people are [called] brave in regards to playing LGBTQ people, that's borderline offensive. I'm never going to be considered brave for playing a straight person, and nor should I be.
Ellen Page, It's Offensive to Say Playing Gay is 'Brave', August 28, 2015

In Brokeback Mountain , which I was very sickened by, they treat the wives as these weak, wimpy women. One was very stupid, and the other was a naggy, whiny wife, so you feel like she deserved it. I think people perceive straight wives as unsympathetic. They don't feel bad for us. We are never the heroes.
Bonnie Kaye, The Good Wife, August 13, 2015

Look at Syria now. President Bashar al-Assad is a bad guy, but are the revolutionaries good? No, some are even worse than him. It's the same situation with Gaddafi: he was bad but look at the anarchists in power now. In films, dictators are often depicted as bad guys while the people are only seen as oppressed. I wanted to show that the people share the blame, too, because they're silent. The history of dictatorship is the history of people's silence. It's often not dictatorship of power – it's dictatorship of fear.
... Democracies are not solely based on popular revolt: we need cultural changes first. We've never had a Renaissance [in the Middle East], we never doubted our history, we never doubted our social values, and you can't build democracy without doubting first. Another important reason is the west. The west is democracy within, dictatorship outside. Look at America's role in Afghanistan – how can you learn democracy from the west?
Mohsen Makhmalbaf, The President's Mohsen Makhmalbaf: 'There's a little Shah in all of us', 10 August 2015

When the website io9 discussed the recent dearth of movies like The Goonies, one commenter noted that “Movies like The Goonies … are no longer possible because movies like that rely on the exploration of the world of children that is separate from the world of adults, and that world no longer exists.” That is, movies like The Goonies promoted not only independence, but also independent thought.
... Yet, these days, it's not so much that child exploration no longer occurs. There remains a world that exists for children to explore that's separate from the world of adults. The difference is that now that exploration is done on phones or tablets, where an imaginary world requires no imagination at all. And, where cinema once reinforced the idea of the explorer child existing in a wider, tactile world, it now reinforces the non-reality of a pre-packaged computer simulation where children rarely exist at all.
Colin Horgan, Why aren't kids in kids' films any more?, 7 August 2015

That line [“I don't know how to quit you”] has moved, it has been mocked, it has been everything in between, but I remember coming out of that scene, off that ridge of the hill, and seeing a number of the crew, some of whom didn't even know what the movie was about, crying. When I first read that line, I was like, What is that? Now I realize that anybody who has loved knows what that feels like. The interesting part of casting us at such a young age was that we didn't completely understand what we were involved in, and that's the beauty of the movie as well.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain : 10 Years On, 28 July 2015

I'm definitely not afraid to parody myself. Especially since, in serious cinema, there's that tendency to surround things with a certain mysterious aura. Film-makers tend to pontificate, to adopt a rather grave, lofty persona. I'm not like that at all.
Bruno Dumont, Why France's god of grim made a knockabout Clouseau-style comedy, 8 July 2015

I was the victim of a happy childhood and I was raised too sweet and gentle, and I had such a beautiful life as a child, and I became mad, somehow. I have this weird imagination, very crazy and sick. I come up with all these strange ideas all the time. I have hundreds. My grandparents and my mother all have the same strange sick sense of humour and my mother loves [ The Human Centipede films ], absolutely loves them. So what they all secretly think of, I create. In real life I couldn't hurt a mouse, but on screen I can do anything. There, I am limitless.
Tom Six, ‘In 100 years people will still be talking about my human centipede films',
2 July 2015

The whole premise of the film ["The Look of Silence" ] is that, through my closeness to him, viewers are forced to become intimate with him also and most viewers, I think, will feel some empathy with him, though not sympathy, which is a very different thing. And, of course, some viewers will resist that, kicking and screaming, and say, ‘These men are monsters! I shouldn't be feeling this way.'
Joshua Oppenheimer, Why I returned to Indonesia's killing fields, 7 June 2015

The relationship between memory and imagination is very mysterious. If you tell me a story about something that happened on the way here from the airport, you are already applying imagination to memory. And it's the same thing with the film. The one thing I always regretted about Hope and Glory is that it was based on my childhood memories, and now I have lost all those memories and can only remember the film. And now this has come along and usurped my memories as well. That scene with my first cigarette, for example, it was such a vivid memory. It does not feel so vivid any more.
John Boorman, ‘Deliverance would be impossible to make today', 4 June 2015

And what happened immediately [after coming out], according to friends, is I became not just a happier person, but a better actor. I think up to that point, I had been using acting as a disguise -- somewhere where I could express my emotions, and draw attention to myself in a way that I didn't particularly want to do in real life. Acting became not about disguise, but about telling the truth. And my emotions became much freer. I was able to act better as I think you are able to do any job. Everyone's better if they're being honest.
Ian McKellen, 5 Things We Learned From Sir Ian McKellen, 3 June 2015

People in the west always like the idea that someone else is racist. It's true that it's easier in Russia to run into someone who calls an African a monkey. But in London, you can easily get into a lift with a racist. You just wouldn't know it, because they'll smile at you.
... When Mali was a colony, there was one bridge on the river Niger that goes through Bamako. After independence, the French were supposed to build a second. They never did. In the end, the second bridge was built by Saudi Arabia. The third was built by China. All the sports grounds have been built by the Chinese. The roads are being built by the Chinese. And in the west, they keep telling us, ‘Watch out for the Chinese.' The west thinks China is a danger to Africa because the west was a danger to Africa. But really it's a danger to the west.
Abderrahmane Sissako, Timbuktu's director: why I dared to show hostage-taking jihadis in a new light, 28 May 2015

To portray a jihadist as simply a bad guy, who does not in any way resemble me, who's completely different, that's not completely true. [The jihadist is] a fragile being. And fragility is an element that can make anybody tip over into horror.
Abderrahmane Sissako, The vanguard of African cinema, 28 May 2015

Religions are the first examples of cinema and gods are the first film stars; they are presented as colourful pictures, are unreachable and remain the last hope. So why be surprised when film stars become godlike figures?
Sundar Sarukkai, Salman Khan: how a Bollywood star can stay out of jail, 6 May 2015

Two loves I have, of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair;
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.
To win me soon to hell my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turned fiend
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell,
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell.
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 144

What do you think is the cosmological effect of Zayn leaving One Direction and consequently breaking the hearts of millions of teenage girls across the world?
Finally, a question about something important. My advice to any heartbroken young girl is to pay close attention to the study of theoretical physics, because one day there may well be proof of multiple universes. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere outside of our own universe lies another different universe – and in that universe, Zayn is still in One Direction.
Stephen Hawking, Zayn Malik is still in One Direction in a parallel universe,
27 April 2015

We live in the most conservative nuclear family time ever. For me, the film [ "Force Majeure" ] is such an obvious attack on this lifestyle. [ The film had three ambitions: ] To reduce alpine tourism, increase divorce rates, and make the most spectacular avalanche scene in history.
Ruben Östlund, Why my part as the coward father was so hated, by Force Majeure star, 26 April 2015

One of the most painful things that can happen to a human being is to lose their identity. For men, losing our identity is very connected with being a coward. That's what annoys me when women think Tomas [ in "Force Majeure" ] is an arsehole. Because they're as much victims of gender expectation as anyone else. In our society there's a slight feeling of shame about being a man. Trying to deal with [our] basic behaviour and put it into culture today.
... The most reproduced character in Hollywood is the man as the hero. From an ideological perspective, if we hadn't reproduced that main character it would be impossible to send young men into war. Men are made to feel like they should stand up and protect someone. We should sacrifice ourselves for a bigger meaning.
Ruben Östlund, 'Men are made to feel like they should protect', 9 April 2015

Underneath the superficial variation, horror shows a remarkably stable structure over time. Horror is designed to freak out its audience, and because of our biological construction, there's only a limited number of ways of effectively freaking out people. That's why even an apparently super-modern film like "Unfriended" has to resort to a thousand-year-old horror monster – the malevolent, dangerous ghost – to freak out its audience.
Mathias Clasen, I know who you Skyped last summer: how Hollywood plays on our darkest digital fears, 23 April 2015

Where does your anxiety come from?
I've had it since I was a child. I believe that if you are an artist and you're drunk (laughing ), you're more sensitive. I have this theory: scientists say that 80% of our mental work is to stop the senses. So we have filters to block useless information. But if you are sensitive, then it means these filters are a bit broken.
You're obviously rebelling against something in each film you've made. What are you are rebelling against?
Rebelling is part of my family. If you come to a family gathering, the family says something, you have to say something else. Then my family met my wife's family, who said yes to everything, but my family often said no. If I see a form or a concept, I'd naturally challenge it, to see if there's any possibility to gain more from it.
Why is sex essential to your films?
I came from a nudist family. I don't know what that has to do with sex ... it's the matter of being real. We did it as real as we could by using porn doubles and computer graphics.
Lars von Trier, ‘I've started drinking again, so I can work', 20 April 2015

We tried to force the character into a labyrinth where there's no way out. So we wanted it to feel like there was no sense of geographical orientation. At the same moment that he loses focus on where he is — he loses his horse, his rifle, and he's lost in this strange land he can't understand — he starts to lose his mind because he's shocked by the realization that his daughter is gone. We tried to sync the natural images with the idea of the main character losing focus. At the end, in the cave, I don't know if the old woman he sees is his imagination, if she's the girl or whatever. There are a lot of questions about who is who and I have no answers for them. But I think they work in the film. I cannot explain why, but it makes a strange sort of sense. It's the way I feel when you go to a museum and you see a painting. Maybe you think, "What the fuck is that?" But you keep looking at it, because there's something in it that you feel a connection to.
Lisandro Alonso, Lisandro Alonso On Why Viggo Mortensen Was the Ideal Partner for 'Jauja', March 20, 2015

Well, I like to think that I'm gay in my art and straight in my life. Although, I'm also gay in my life up to the point of intercourse, and then you could say I'm straight. So I guess it depends on how you define gay . If it means whom you have sex with, I guess I'm straight. In the twenties and thirties, they used to define homosexuality by how you acted and not by whom you slept with. Sailors would fuck guys all the time, but as long as they behaved in masculine ways, they weren't considered gay.
James Franco, James Franco Is Gay—Well, At Least Half of Him Is, 16 March 2015

If you and I knew that we had to make lunch for five people, we could have a lot of fun with that. We could serve something pretty interesting, we could shop and it's pretty manageable. If we decide to serve 5,000 people, we're gonna quickly decide to serve hotdogs and hamburgers. And that's what happens inside most mainstream movies. So you start just homogenizing everything, one of the reasons I love the genre movies I've done --
... When I first met Richard Linklater we were doing a press conference. We were shooting and here was Julie Delpy, she'd worked with some amazing French filmmakers; Rick was the voice of the slacker generation and I was the poster boy of the slacker generation. We did this press conference with like 10 journalists or something and Rick talked with so much love. They expected him to talk about being hip or something and all he wanted to talk about was film history. They wanted him to talk about Generation X and the '90s and he was like, "I don't give a shit about Generation X, I want people to be interested in this movie 50 years from now. I want people who are 85 to be interested in it. I want it to speak about something true and human, not something of the moment."
Ethan Hawke, Ethan Hawke on How Indies are Gourmet and Blockbusters are a Barbecue, March 12, 2015

It's a mystery to me. I was in my prime. When the 1960s ended, I just ended with it. I remember my agent telling me: ‘They are all looking for a young Terence Stamp.' And I thought: ‘I am young.' I was 31, 32. I couldn't believe it. It was tough to wake up in the morning, and the phone not ringing. I thought: this can't be happening now, it's only just started. The day-to-day thing was awful, and I couldn't live with it. So I bought a round-the-world ticket and left.
... I don't have any ambitions. I'm always amazed there's another job, I'm always very happy. I've had bad experiences and things that didn't work out; my love for film sometimes diminishes but then it just resurrects itself. I never have to gee myself up, or demand a huge wage to get out of bed in the morning. I've done crap, because sometimes I didn't have the rent. But when I've got the rent, I want to do the best I can.
Terence Stamp, ‘I was in my prime, but when the 60s ended, I ended with it',
12 March 2015

If you're struggling with a disease like this [ALS], it's important to feel you still matter. And it's ironic that in my deteriorated state I was able to make a film that, creatively, is everything I'd ever wished for.
Richard Glatzer, Director Richard Glatzer Dies at 63, March 11, 2015

Of all the labels and tags and epithets people have forced upon me, there's one I don't dislike. I get called the ‘enfant terrible'. In every article, it's always there. So I have to give that a meaning.
... When I first got to Cannes, I was very insecure about everything, so I put on this extravagant facade. Can you blame me? I was 19.
... [Now] I don't feel insecure any more. But I do doubt. I doubt everything: my ideas, my choices, my behaviour, my decisions. I just don't doubt my ability to achieve things if I don't succumb to the fear of displeasing people – or the obsession with pleasing them.
Xavier Dolan, ‘I just want to express myself – like Madonna', 10 March 2015

In each country, hopefully I'll find one person with a story good enough that it'll make me want to get off the train with them.
Albert Maysles, "Cameras Keep Rolling at Maysles Films"

I am 120,000 [British] pounds in personal debt. I took money out of my child's school account to fund this movie [“India's Daughter” ] . Documentaries don't make money. You do them because you have something passionate to say.
Leslee Udwin, ‘I am standing my ground for this film,' says maker of Indian rape documentary, March 6, 2015

"Stop stealing all the white people's superheroes. Make up your own"...
What I really meant was that ultimately at the end of the day there's a language and the language that you speak in Hollywood is ‘successful franchise' and I think that there are many cultures in Hollywood that are not white that can come up with their own mythology... I'm just saying that instead of trying to turn a girl character into a guy or instead of trying to turn a white character into a black character or a Latin character, I think the people should stop being lazy, and that people should actually make an effort in Hollywood to develop their own mythology... I'm considering this while I'm out there coming up with projects to do and things to write. I think it's time for us to write our own mythology and our own story.
Michelle Rodriguez, Michelle Rodriguez apologises for telling minorities to 'stop stealing white superheroes', 2 March 2015

The turning point was very difficult. It was the highest award I got when I was young, which was the Golden Palme, and that made me realize how much expectations it creates. After that it was like, "OK, this kid from Germany got the Golden Palme and his film is very successful, now please continue doing stuff like that." It really brought me to a grinding halt creatively. For the next movie I made, only three years later, by choice I made it the most opposite film I could imagine, and that was "Wings of Desire." I thought they would tear me to pieces for it because there was nothing like it, but at least I knew I didn't owe it to anyone's expectations. Awards have that danger that they can create expectations, and of course the world is done this way -- anyone who does something successful, be it a musician, painter or writer, immediately everyone wants them to continue doing what they do. But I never wanted to continue doing what I was doing just because I knew how to do it. I think that's an incredible temptation and also a terrible trap. 
... I was able to work in the '70s with half a page of the script to start with. With "Kings of the Road" we had half a script, just the basis of the plot. "Wings of Desire" was done without any script. Today that is practically impossible because financing is no longer from one source. You need lots of funding and co-productions. A fictional film needs a different kind of commitment. You can no longer just say you have these great ideas and I want to start tomorrow [laughs]. But in documentaries you can.
Wim Wenders, Wim Wenders on the Trap of Awards, His Approach to 3D and His Love for James Franco, February 11, 2015

We got four nominations tonight, and you BAFTA are a democratic gang and your taste is your prerogative. What is important to me is that you have awarded me this fellowship for which I am truly grateful. 'For me this is a sign of your respect for an offbeat alternative, idiosyncratic personal kind of cinema. Pure independent cinema are the filmmakers of the future.
... It's great to share this stage with tonight's winning Boyhood which Dick Linklater and his team can be extraordinarily proud. I have made twenty full length films all starting without a script and none of them has ever been interfered with by anyone at any time. If that wasn't the case I wouldn't be standing here now. Thank you to everyone I have ever worked with, in front of and behind the camera.
Mike Leigh, 'This is very nice indeed', 9 February 2015

Fewer, perhaps, are aware that he was born Maurice Henri Joseph Scherer in Tulle in March 1920, and that Eric Rohmer was a pseudonym he first used in the 1950s. At the first four interviews I had with him over the years, I asked why he'd adopted this name. Because,he explained, he'd had to conceal the fact that he worked in film from his mother, a bourgeoise who would've been deeply disappointed, even shocked, by his involvement in cinema. Indeed, he'd let her believe he was a teacher of classics until her death in 1970, by which time he was one of France's most succesful directors.
Geoff Andrew, The Double Life of Eric Rohmer, Sight & Sound, February 2015

Inevitably, there's only one rule in this kind of movie: when you stop shooting, that's when the best thing is going to happen. Sometimes you'll be shooting something very boring, but you have to continue and persevere, because it's completely unpredictable the way things are going to go. It's happened to me before and I've learned from experience.
Frederick Wiseman, The Interview, Sight & Sound, February 2015

It doesn't take you long to realize that other people forget your successes [laughs]. You read a review for somebody playing a part that you played and they get exactly the same review that you got – and you realize it's not the actor at all, it's the fabulous role we were both playing. So I don't hold on to past successes. And when I see myself in things that were highly praised at the time I think, I could have done better than that. So you have to live in the present.
Ian McKellen, Ian McKellen on Why He Works So Hard and Doesn't Look Back,
February 9, 2015

[ "Boyhood" ]'s theme is pertinent. While girls do their homework, conform and succeed, boys are increasingly mired in moody recalcitrance. Stepdads and teachers urge discipline on Boyhood's unruly hero. He gamely resists. Nonetheless, he ends up scoring a hot chick and looking set on the path towards an enviable career.
David Cox, Was this the year cinema chickened out?, Thursday 5 February 2015

'Hurt Locker' made $17million because it was a little ambiguous and thoughtful... [American Sniper] is just "American hero! He's a psychopath patriot, and we love him."
Bill Maher, Michael Moore goes on ANOTHER rant about American Sniper as conservatives like Sarah Palin continue to defend film, 25 January 2015

I started my career, thankfully maybe, with a first feature that I'm really proud of, that got some really dismissive reviews at the time. I realized I had to have a really thick skin if I wanted to pursue this. You can't be vulnerable. It's just the nature of it.
Atom Egoyan, Atom Egoyan Defends 'The Captive' and Addresses His Critics,
January 19, 2015

Well, Aydin [ in "Winter Sleep" ] is a very typical modern turkish intellectual, and there's big gap between him and the poor people in the village. But this kind of gap between the educated well-off and the poor exists in most countries; it's not just Turkey. Then there's the fact that he's apparently not religious but writes about religious matters. In Turkey, if you're Muslim, you're not really free to write about religion - partly, perhaps, to show that they're not afraid to do so. Aydin is perhaps fairly typical in that he wants to be seen as a bit of a hero because he writes about religion, but at the same time there's a part of him that's quite cautious or timid. He wants to fight the fear he feels, but it still shows.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Conversation Piece, Sight & Sound, December 2014

Andrey Zvyagintsev's intriguing title [ "Leviathan" ], we are told, is both a reference to the sea- monster evoked by God in his final speech to Job, and to Hobbes's defence of the social contract, written during the English Civil War: "that great Leviathan called a common-wealth or state".
Ian Christie, Here Be Monsters, Sight & Sound, December 2014

I was very fond of Derek Jarman and he made some very nice films. But "Caravaggio" is profoundly boring - nothing happens. Everyone in it was busy being gorgeous. There's no character or anything.
Mike Leigh, A Dab Hand, Sight & Sound, November 2014

My life and work are in Iran. My cultural relation to everything, from doors and walls to problems and miseries, comes from Iran - from the language. This is not the language of, 'Hello, I need this and that,' it is something more profound, with which one thinks. These thoughts become your country. My country is my language. When I'm outside Iran, I'm comfortable and unhappy. When I'm inside, I'm uncomfortable but happy.
Mohammad Rasoulof, Uncontrolled Dissent, Sight & Sound, October 2014