Every film takes on its own life. I find it very interesting to show an audience some part of history that maybe they don't know.
Every ten years or so, I liked to do a film about an artist - this allowed me to reflect on our own work.
That's what I love about documentary filmmaking, we never know where the story is going, we don't know what is going to happen next, and we're inside a culture of people that you have to figure out in many ways. It's a relationship between what you thought might have been the story, and what happens in the 'field.'
I can't possibly be objective about myself. I can look at my other colleagues work, and they are all tremendous, really. To see their faces, to see their expressions, to see how they were sitting in their chair uncomfortably, and start crying even, is a great testament to what film can achieve.
I never had a great role in a great film.
I've always felt that an independent film is a film that almost doesn't get made.
There's the concept that if I do this big budget project, then that will help me do the things I really want to do and bring more money to those films.
I was born in Rome on March 11, 1923. Because of my age, I've become a piece of this country's history, but it's also true that a certain strand of Italy's film history has passed though me.
The nice part about not being a huge film is that you get to goof around a bit more.
I'm a massive fan of Sunshine. Oh my God, I love that film.
I've dealt with Hollywood about having my work made into a film or cartoon but nothing came of it. That's not to say I wouldn't like to see something happen.
We don't believe in splitting the experience. We don't believe in taking a row out and putting in motion seats [that shake and move in response to cues from a film]. If you walk into that auditorium you're going to have a communal experience.
I had to go and sing with the musical director of the film, Simon Lee, who is just incredible, and it went great. I sang with him about five things, things we'd worked on. And then I went to sing for Andrew Lloyd Weber.
The American films just have so much more publicity and so much more money behind them that it's so hard to compete.
I've always intended to eventually make films. I've always been very aware of tone and shots. But documentaries are a great proving ground for me.
Politics should be, you know, as exciting as literature, as exciting film.
Anybody that makes films knows the film is never finished. It's abandoned or it's ripped out of your hands, and it's thrown into the marketplace, never finished. It's a very rare experience where you find a filmmaker who says, "That's exactly what I wanted. I got everything I needed. I made it just perfect. I'm going to put it out there."
Film is not an easy occupation. There's a lot of occupations that are difficult and film is one of them.
No film ever ends up exactly as you would like it to, but with minor exceptions, THX came out pretty much as I had visualized it, thanks to some excellent assistance -- and a whole lot of luck.
I like to say that films are never finished, they're only abandoned.
I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them.
I like racing. I love the speed and I'm a very kinetic person in terms of filmmaking. I love the movement of film more than anything else.
I intend more of a kinship with silent films than more modern film. I like the old cinema. My films are more of a hybrid - a different style of filmmaking to what I call talking head movies. Some people don't get it. Especially the more academic types.
Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard. What you’ve really got to do is focus on learning as much about life, and about various aspects of it first.
I did a movie with Woody Allen [“Hollywood Ending” in 2002]. I only had a few days with Treat on that film. I immediately liked Treat. Treat and I had a sense of humor about the whole thing.
