A Quote by Robert Barry

I like a lot of good European films, good - anything really. I'm a big fan of Netflix and I get films from them all the time. If I hear about something that I don't know, that I haven't seen, forgot about, I immediately jot it down and add it to my Netflix list or if there's a film that's available that I haven't seen for many years, I get that.
I am a huge fan of movies. It is my favorite thing during downtime. I get completely lost in films. I find them transformative, even one that seems light and popcorn. I get something profound with the right music played with what I am watching. If there is good cinematography and good acting you can find something that really stays with you. I really enjoy being part of that collaborative process. I like making something really big that will be seen in a theater by a lot of people. There is nothing like it.
I think one of the reasons younger people don't like older films, films made say before the '60s, is that they've never seen them on a big screen, ever. If you don't see a film on a big screen, you haven't really seen it. You've seen a version of it, but you haven't seen it. That's my feeling, but I'm old-fashioned.
More people have seen 13th on Netflix than have seen all my films put together between the Sundance winners and Selma, and the whole international distribution of film.
I was in 'Cliffhanger' years ago, so I'm a massive fan of the big event movies - the good ones - but there's a lot of crap that's made in between the good ones. It's just the superhuman films that I can't get my head around. I guess if you're a fan of them, then you love them.
Films used to be an event that required work and effort to get to a theater to see. Now, really good content is available immediately to us on many devices. At the same time, the audience's appetite for storytelling is evolving, and people want to spend time with characters for many years.
I often find in the film world, that it's very self-referring. If you talk to someone about films, they talk about them in terms of other films - rather than as something that happened to them in their life. And I'm really keen to get back to film as a reference to real things, not necessarily to other films.
I don't think a lot of really good films get seen.
I just think it's really funny and entertaining. I mean, I don't necessarily take them really seriously - I don't even think a lot of really good films get seen. But I don't think that's what it's about. I mean, how amazing was Ellen Burstyn in Requiem For A Dream ? Especially as she was acting with herself most of the time. I don't understand how a performance like that can't win. I was so affected by that movie that I had to turn it off. I felt as if I was on drugs and my heart was about to leap out of my body.
I'm drawn to a lot of first-time directors. One of the great common denominators in these small independent films is that there's a person, or two people, who have an absolutely monomaniacal passion to get these films made. That's what makes them happen. Sometimes, it takes years and years to finally get it done, but by never backing down, by never giving up, they get these films to the screen by hook or by crook.
I'm not one of those people who only believe in the Netflix model. I go see films in the theater and love that experience and don't want it to ever die. But I like that Netflix exists, and you can discover so many different types of movies and TV and content you wouldn't have access to.
The secrecy thing has gotten to be more and more prevalent in films, and maybe that's good. It's nice to go see a film and not know anything about it. Sometimes I feel like we know too much about films.
I don't have any expectations about my films. If they're good, they're good - if they're not, they're not. About 10 years ago, I remember going to see one of my movies - I can't even remember which one now - and everyone was jumping up and down, getting excited, saying what a great film it was going to be. We all went in and watched it, and it was the slowest movie I've ever seen. The next day, the reviews were terrible and half the studio was fired.
I've seen a lot of Brazilian films and most times I kind of react negatively, because of the way I think they portray places they don't really know or care about. This is something that I specifically tried to avoid in my film.
I took a break from TV for about three-four years. During that time, I had to let go of some of the best shows that were offered to me, as I wanted to focus on films. It was believed that if you are seen too much on TV, you won't get films.
There are films where the promos reveal all the punches and when you go to watch the film you feel like having seen it all. Such films don't last after a good opening.
I didn't see films when I was young. I was stupid and naïve. Maybe I wouldn't have made films if I had seen lots of others; maybe it would have stopped me. I started totally free and crazy and innocent. Now I've seen many films, and many beautiful films. And I try to keep a certain level of quality of my films. I don't do commercials, I don't do films pre-prepared by other people, I don't do star system. So I do my own little thing.
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