Top 14 Quotes & Sayings by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Russian film director Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Last updated on September 19, 2024.

Andrey Petrovich Zvyagintsev is a Russian film director and screenwriter. His film The Return (2003) won him a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Following The Return, Zvyagintsev directed The Banishment and Elena (2011). His film Leviathan (2014) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 2014 and won the Best Film award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. His most recent film Loveless won the Jury Prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, and was among the nominees for Best International Feature Film at the 90th Academy Awards. He also won the Achievement in Directing award for this film at the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

Russian - Film director | Born: February 6, 1964

Source: Wikipedia

Most Russians don't treat the government, or those in power, as something close to them. They don't believe that they, as ordinary people, are able to change the development of things. That's why they have a very specific ironic sentiment towards power and the figures that represent it. I wanted to translate this irony into the cinematic language.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

The most important thing for me is the image, not the thought.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Church, the spiritual power, and the executive power are working today united in a system that confronts people. This alliance or cooperation between the spiritual power and the executive power, between the church and the government, unfortunately takes away the Church's basic mission. It takes away their right to speak on moral or ethical subjects.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

What I know is that I am honest about my films, and my films are honest about reality. The stories themselves dictate the way that they should be told.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Some actors come to casting and ask me, "Didn't you see my previous roles?" We do not work with actors like this. Their previous roles do not matter; I need the actual work with an actor in this particular character that has been written in our script. What matters is flexibility, believability and efficiency of an actor.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

When an actor comes to you and starts working with the script, the image of his character that you had in your mind gets substituted with an image of that particular actor. And this is the right way to go. An actor has to be absolutely truthful - this is the only thing required of him, apart from talent of course. It's very easy to understand: you need to absolutely believe in what you see.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

When I was shooting the film I did not see the story as an everyday tale or a social one. To a great extent, the film is a mythological look on human life. This is probably what I would like the audience to keep in mind before they enter the screening room.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Film entertains with different angles, quick moves, like a commercial. But filmmakers like [Wim] Wenders allow themselves to observe a subject for a long time without changing an angle, and allow you to do that along with them.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

I wouldn't say I'm fixated on describing any kind of relationship whether it is a father and a son, or a family. I don't like it when people say that I'm particularly following the same line or that I'm only interested in family dramas. I'm interested in human relationships. The most intimate, the most delicate, and the most intriguing relationships are those within a family.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

There are things which are without answers, and there is nobody who can explain them. Either we feel them and sense them, or not. Sometimes we just give up and carry on.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Everything that fed my energy and imagination is something that I'm disinclined to speak about.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Art is not some sort of guideline for understanding. It's a thing unto itself.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Observing life, living through it. As you experience life some events call upon you to suffer through them and that's what brings inspiration.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

I knew, starting in 10th grade, I wanted to be in theater and an actor. I went to acting school in Siberia, but there was no future there - and I was consumed with ambition.

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Top 14 Quotes & Sayings by Andrey Zvyagintsev

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