I have done films only because my roles were good in them. It has got nothing to do with being associated with any particular camp.
It just seems like that because I do a lot of independent films that don't get to the mainstream.
I'm a fan of making films. Whether I'm on stage or in front of a camera, one of my first loves is performing for the people. I'd like to do more acting.
Plenty of bad movies are very successful, and plenty of good movies are not. And distribution is so crazy, some films won't even get their day in court.
I write box notes for Kino International, which specializes in distributing foreign films.
I was never that kid who grew up in New York and was always at the arthouse watching important films. I was the kid who grew up in the Midwest where there weren't any art films, and I watched TV. And that was really the medium that affected me and that I fell in love with.
I just didn't realize the unbelievable impact Disney films had on American society until my assistant coached me on the stories and brought me up to speed.
But no one should have the right to manipulate my films in the first place.
In television, women can really run anything. It can be a comedy, it can be a drama, it can be genre, it can be anything. But in films, women are still getting to the top.
I'd rather not make films than make bad ones.
I like normal girls. When I come home, I don't want to discuss films; I want to discuss what her world is like and other things.
When I stopped making films, they were getting on to the more realistic films and the explicit films and all. They were depicting life as it is, and some of it was unpleasant. I gradually moved away from that.
I think I just love films where men have complete breakdowns.
I feel a lot of films that are shot digitally, even low-budget independent films, they look super slick now. Because the technology is so good that they look too good.
Several of the actors I've had the good fortune of working with stand out in my mind as 'ultimate'. I guess the obvious would be Tom Hanks, because he really is as fun and as genuine as he comes across in his films and interviews.
Some of my films are known for the depiction of violence. I don't have anything to prove with that any more.
I want my films to be seen everywhere.
I'm happy that all my films are different from one another.
My partner, Beth Alexander, and I want to produce smaller films, but commercially viable films that will enable me to make the kinds of movies I want to make.
I didn't want to be known as a man who only made horror films. I made some - very few.
I'm more alarmed by people reacting violently to the violence in my films than I am by the violence in films.
In Korean films there is only really a strong tradition of melodramas.
I really have created a family. I work with the people I love, I travel with them, I make films with them, and I'm in an office with them. So in a weird way - I know I haven't birthed a child - I feel that I'm a part of creating a family. It's a tribe. I love that word.
I would love to do films - ones that get seen.
I do know that I've read somewhere that it's been statistically proven that in times of war, horror films are much more popular. I don't know why that is. You'd think it'd be the opposite. You'd think people would want to escape from it.
Yeah, a few of the films I made were so bad they didn't get released - they escaped.
In the 40 or so years I've known David Puttnam, not only has he pursued an outstanding career in films and now politics, but he has been the keeper of the flame of the British film industry.
I love those films where I feel the director's confidence - where he doesn't need to overdo it with the shots and the cuts.
I had four films one year that were supposed to happen and didn't.
Both men and women are really vast and boundless and yet in many films we're told that they're not. We're told they can only be one thing - like handsome and charming and that's it. Nothing more.
My films are completely new. I am not similar to anybody in the history of movies.
Before, it was just about making the films - and now it's releasing them. Which is a steep learning curve.
I don't want people to sit there and objectively watch the film. I want them to experience it as something that's under their skin, so you try to make the films really tactile.
I'm not a purist - I like films that are narrated and films that aren't, films that are beautiful and films that are clumsy but heartfelt. Mostly, I just like a good story and good characters.
That was the magical thing about the Seventies: artists ruled. Because films were relatively low-budget, nobody cared. We could just go off and work.
When I think of Hungarian films, I think of despair and bleakness, and what's more, despair and bleakness of indefensible duration.
