Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" Despite the limitations of the bulky 16mm camera and 10-minute film magazines, 'The Anderson Platoon' feels as spontaneous and fresh as any films that have come out of the Afghan or Iraq wars. "

Kevin Macdonald

Film

Camera

Spontaneous

Related Quotes:

" I'm a cynical person who's normally attracted to the dark side of things. "

" I'm not particularly ethnically Scottish; I have one grandfather who is Scottish, although he's called Macdonald, and you don't get a lot more Scottish than that. The Scottish part of my family are from Skye, and I've always been very aware of that - always been very attracted to Scottish subject matter, I guess. "

" When we made 'Life in a Day,' we asked people around the globe to record their lives on a single ordinary day. When we were cutting that film, we talked about what it might be like if we chose a day that already had significance to people. The result is 'Christmas in a Day.' "

" You can get good performances in quite sizable roles from people who have never been in front of a camera, people who maybe have never been in front of a movie theater. "

" With 'Black Sea,' I long had an idea that I wanted to do a film about people stuck on the bottom of the ocean. I thought that was a terrifying scenario. "

" The relationship between director and subject can become very intense. It's a bit like therapy, with lots of transferences going on. It's easy to feel guilty. "

" If there is a tendency in modern television I hate, it is the unstoppable march of the dramatic reconstruction to tell the stories of anything from an ancient Egyptian battle to the early life of Paul Gascoigne. "

" The great thing about making a film on a submarine is that it's kind of like making a play. You've got this limited environment. "

" I used the same designer and costume designer on 'The Eagle' and 'The Last King of Scotland.' "

" Young people read their news online; they expect to get their news for free. "

" Every film that is made about the past is always a reflection of the present. "

" I went to see 'Francis Ha,' which I could certainly relate to. She ends up wandering the streets of Paris all alone - something I've ended up doing a number of times in capital cities around Europe. "

" I think the parallels of a giant power with overwhelming military superiority and might, with America and Rome, it seems obvious to me. "

" The only obligation you have as a film-maker is to tell your version of the truth and to use your film to illuminate reality. Whatever that means. "

" Elvis Presley's estate is making 30 million a year, and they say that Marley shouldn't be, but he is from a much poorer part of the world, and a lot more people need the money. "

" I've fallen out very badly with some of the subjects I've interviewed, because they see their lives a certain way; to step into a cinema and see your life depicted in another way can come as a terrible shock. "

" It's always nice to have the same people that you are familiar with and shorthand with, obviously, to be around you. "

" The submarine genre is a category with all its own rules. But shooting on water is famously tough. "

" I was fascinated by making a submarine movie, inspired by the Kursk disaster. This idea of being trapped down at the bottom of the sea seemed so terrifying. I was very interested in making a sub film which wasn't a military film. You think, Well, why are they there, then, if they're not in the military? Oh, well, they must be looking for treasure. "

" I always loved digging away at the story, trying to find out things that people don't want you to find out and piecing it all together. I love the treasure hunt aspect of it, the thrill of the chase. "

" With fiction, I've grown to really love the challenge of lying, the challenge of telling a good tale that isn't truthful, and working with performers is endlessly fascinating. You know, learning what a good performance is, how to get a good performance, how much or how little you need to create emotion or to create character. "

" Everyone's got to make one submarine drama in their life. "

" In my early career as a documentarian, I suppose I was trying to make films which - where it was all about making a big cinematic statement, and I think with 'Marley,' I slightly changed my direction and adopted a more mellow approach. "

" I can't claim my grandfather's work has influenced mine directly, but his life certainly inspired me to follow this path. "

" I suppose that the Western has always been a kind of mold to which you could pour the concerns of the day, but have them seen in the simple terms of the Western, of one alley or whatever. "

" People think that the Italians invented neorealism, but actually, Humphrey Jennings did. He was revolutionary in using non-professional actors in his films, and he got extraordinary performances out of them. "

" If you want to do 'Sword & Sandals' movies, people think that means it equals 'epic.' "

" What got me into making movies was that I wanted to be a journalist. "

Kevin Macdonald

Journalist

Movies

" No man, no woman is without their flaws. "

" Although 'The Anderson Platoon' was what we would now call an 'embedded film' - with all the ambiguities that term implies - somehow Schoendoerffer got away with showing things as they really were from a grunt's perspective. "