There's a difference between watching a film and watching a bit of cinema and enjoying a film as a piece of cinema.
Whether 'Avatar' is racist is a matter for debate. Regardless of where you come down on that question, it's undeniable that the film - like alien apartheid flick 'District 9', released earlier this year - is emphatically a fantasy about race.
The only good Philip K. Dick film is 'Total Recall.' It's faithful to the book. Arnie gets it.
We had a moment in the '40s and '50s, where female characters were very strong in film, where these incredible roles were written for women like Joan Crawford, like Bette Davis. But then there was a space of time where - I don't know why - it wasn't like that. It became difficult for women to find certain roles after a certain age.
Film is really the one art form that can effectively use silence. Music and theater can play with silence, but they can't sustain silence without losing energy, whereas film can go into a silent mode and stay there for minutes at a time.
I've always wanted to make a film about the Tong Wars, the rioting and the crime factions in San Francisco's Chinatown in the early part of the last century.
I am very choosy about my films. I don't do a film just for the sake of money.
I have played characters where I haven't been absorbed - you know, what I call a typical film leading man role where you just have to look gorgeous and be attractive and charming. It bores me. I like a bit of dirt, a bit of sand in the oyster.
I miss the sense of belonging on a film as much as I did on 'Call Me By Your Name.'
Storytelling is powerful; film particularly. We can know a lot of things intellectually, but humans really live on storytelling. Primarily with ourselves; we're all stories of our own narrative.
I'm only as rich as my next film.
I made this film 'The Beach,' which didn't take place in a city, and it didn't really suit me.
I fell in love with film and its potential. The idea of putting one image next to another image and creating meaning blew my mind.
I stepped in for Nicole Kidman in 'Dogville' when she left that film.
I always loved scary movies, and my dad was a film professor.
One minute, I really am in awe of filmmakers, and I want to be working in film, and then the next minute, I get the itch to get back on stage.
A film set is the most comfortable place I could be in the world; that's what I know.
You know, with the film industry crews, there's an odd mix between a very technical and a very artistic approach to the work, and sometimes as a woman you have to be a little bit careful about how things come out because people don't really want to listen if it's in a certain emotional tone or too strong.
As a creative agency, the film industry is thinking great subjects, presenting them wonderfully well, and giving opportunity to new faces each day.
When I left university I was working for a documentary film company for six or seven years to the great relief of my father whose greatest waking fear was that I would become an actor.
I did this film with Russell Crowe called 'The Water Diviner,' which took place just after WWI. It was fascinating because the weapons between WWI and WII were very different. I had to learn how to ride horses in a battle setting. It was important that we rode a certain way.
I'm not saying no to anything, at least as far as reading scripts. I don't care if it's television or films but, personally, I would say I'd like to establish myself more in film.
With film, you have very limited tools to convey subjectivity - voiceover, the camera's point of view, good acting - but even the very best actor in the world is crude by comparison with what you can do in a written paragraph.
At some level, I feel it is nice to know that a film of yours is doing well at the box office and has also got great reviews. That feels like success.
