We all know the power of film; we all know there's almost nothing more powerful than to see people on film that look and talk like you, like we do.
I accept all interpretations of my films. The only reality is before the camera. Each film I make is kind of a return to poetry for me, or at least an attempt to create a poem.
In terms of romantic films, all-time romantic films, I really like 'Gone With the Wind.' And I realize I sound so cliched saying that, but there's something so absolutely romantic about it.
I studied science and journalism at the University of Colorado and then got interested in experimental film there and started doing my own films.
There was no studio involved when we made 'Stargate.' It was financed through Le Studio Canal+ in France and, after the film was finished, it was sold to MGM. When the film was a success, MGM decided to do a television series based on the movie.
When studios start telling me why a particular film project won't work, I remember 'Rocky.' I remember that the biggest success Bob Chartoff and I have had was a film nobody wanted to make.
I feel even old people can do a nice love story, but here we don't make that kind of films. In the West, such films are being made and they make a nice romance, which is more like compassion.
I'd love to continue my career in Hollywood - I'd love to do another action film, or a romantic comedy, or horror. I love horror films.
I love zombie films like Danny Boyle's '28 Days Later' - I thought it was so brilliantly done and so grounded in reality. I was definitely thrust into the zombie world watching that film.
There are films you see that only reach your eyes. Then there are films that you can watch... that reach down to your throat, or reach your heart. 'In the Mood for Love,' though, reached all the way to my belly.
When the script was written, it was sent to me with asterisks marking where he felt a song would be appropriate. Before the film was shot, the score was written. I made a demo of it, so they lived with the music as they were making the film.
The music for 'The Departed' could have been played by an orchestra, but you make a decision about orchestration based on the context of the film. You want the music to broaden the scope of a film, not just repeat what you're seeing.
As far back as I can remember, these are the first movies, the Universal horror movies where I knew the title of the film and I also knew the names of the actors in those films.
When we talk about how movies used to be made, it was over 100 years of film, literal, physical film, with emulsion, that we would expose to light and we would get pictures.
A lot of times I'll make films that are mostly character-driven films - stories that involve people. Like, I make the joke: I like to make movies about human beings that live on Earth.
I would define independent film as a movie that is not financed by any of the smaller film companies. Because then, those are movies that in all likelihood are made without stars. And then they have to rely just on the material.
No film should try to follow a trend, and do what film people think the public wants. There's no such thing as knowing what the public wants.
Once I finish a film, I don't ever see it again. Never ever. I have never seen any of my films since I finished them.
It's hard to make a living doing documentaries. Frankly, if it takes you five years to do a film, and that's the only film you're doing, you're in trouble.
I never see a novel as a film while I'm writing it. Mostly because novels and films are so different, and I'm such an internal novelist.
Film and novel characters are often stereotyped, but racial stereotyping in many novels or films creates & encourages labelling, discrimination & racism. ~Angelica Hopes
