Top 105 Quotes & Sayings by Yorgos Lanthimos - Page 2

I don't make long-term plans, for sure.

I think you can tell a lot about people if you observe them as they're observing.

I am not interested in representing reality. Actually, I am interested in representing reality, but that doesn't mean a naturalistic approach, which I think is kind of impossible.

I think you can be much truer to real emotions and reality by creating something that on the surface seems artificial but, by then putting everything together in the end, is much more impactful than trying to use realism in every individual element of the film.

If you use music boldly at the front of a scene, it creates another level.

Whenever a film doesn't follow to the letter the preset strict conventional rules of today's commercial cinema, it's considered weird.

I used to be quite negative about going back to Greece and making something, but there is a certain kind of freedom that I've experienced while I was making films in Greece that is hard to replicate elsewhere.

It's hard for me to consider something in cinema or theater as something realistic.

I'm very open to making films anywhere in the world.

Of course I know what works for me and what kind of tone I want my films to have.

The best way to watch a film is to not know anything about the person who made it.

In general, I like contradictions and complex situations.

Uncertainty helps keep actors on edge.

I work very closely with my co-writer, Efthimis Filippou. Ideas either start from him or me, and then the other one develops it, and it's a constant conversation.

Everybody has a love/hate relationship with their own country.

I enjoy sometimes focusing on a character in a scene that's not actually doing the main action or the talking.

Telling a story is the way of exploring so many different things - human behavior, society, whatever existence.

In film, I like transformation. That goes for the language, for the image, for the performance.

Anytime people see an emotion that is not extremely emotional, they call it 'deadpan.'

You tend to be more attentive when you shoot on film because, you know, it costs more, and everybody needs to be focused when you're filming something. Everybody considers it something valuable and precious, so everybody's focused.

There are things to love about filmmaking in Greece. People are generous: If you get along well with others, the people around you will give more than they might otherwise be willing to give, more than they're supposed to.

I never knew that I would even be making English-language films.

Don't think too hard. Just be present, and things will reveal themselves.

We were fortunate enough to shoot 'Alps' - write the script and shoot it - right after 'Dogtooth' premiered in Cannes. So we didn't just sit around and wait to figure out what to do because 'Dogtooth' was successful. We just wanted to make another film fast, so we just went ahead and did it.

When people don't understand what they're watching, a lot of what they perceive has to do with who they themselves are.

Try to place the camera somewhere where you get most of the information from there, so you don't need to have too many shots and be too explanatory and expositional about the scene.

It's weird to try and identify a nationality for a film.

The first time I was paid was with 'The Lobster,' because with the Greek films, we just had to pay ourselves - work for free while making commercials in order to survive.

I feel kind of offended when I watch films, and everything is explained to me - you know, laying out how I should feel from one scene to the next.

Most times, women are seen through the male gaze, so they are often shown as housewives, girlfriends, or objects of desire.

There are various ways of delivering some kind of truth, so I try to find the style or the way that I find more effective.

I never think in metaphors or fully make those kind of associations myself. I just lay down a complex situation and hope things arise from that.

Having a couple of films that were successful internationally has made the film community aware of the films coming out of Greece.

Most acting is very melodramatic. It's not what you see in people.

I always loved films, and when I decided to go to film school, it was with the excuse that I would go into making commercials, because that would be a proper profession, and people wouldn't think I was crazy.

I think children are really violent with each other often.

By employing a certain sense of humor, you essentially get more serious about things and show conflict more effectively than if you were overly dramatic or only violent because that's a one-way approach that just forces audiences to watch something appalling.

As long as I can make the films I want to make in decent conditions, I am happy.

If actors are trying to convey, in a smart way, the context of the scene, that becomes too self-conscious.

The actors bring their own stuff and thoughts, and most of the time, I don't want to know what they are. It allows me to have more distance and observe what they're doing without having the knowledge of what they have in their minds, so I can see clearly how that feels to me.

I'm planning some films in the U.K., and it will have pros and cons. It takes a lot more time to set up a film in the U.K., because you can't rely on much. In Greece, friends show up and bring what they can and you make the film. Well, that's a bit simpler than how it really is. But when you make a film with proper industries, it takes more time to synch all these things.

It's true that there are younger people making films, and there are different kinds of films. This has created some attention in what's coming out of Greece, and people like to find a way to name this new ethnic cinema. It's not like there's a movement, or a common philosophy in making these films. They're just things that happened, and now people are paying attention to it.

American culture is kind of a universal culture, I guess. It's things Greeks grew up with, common references you can use. It's very interesting.

Even before the economic crisis in Greece there was no structure for making films - no proper industry, and the structure didn't help filmmakers at all. So filmmakers had to help each other, and make very, very low-budget films. Now with the crisis, things got a bit worse, but filmmakers are still going to be making films. It didn't change that much.

I was making commercials. That's how I learned the craft. That was the marketing part of it: directing commercial for TV. It wasn't the most common thing to become a filmmaker in Greece. I started by saying I was interested in marketing and have a proper job in advertising and commercials. Basically, I studied film to learn how to do marketing, and commercials. As I studied film I learned I'd be interested in making films instead of commercials.