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" Saying that all documentaries are the same is like saying all foreign films are the same. "
Terry Zwigoff
Same
Films
Foreign
Related Quotes:
" Maybe if I found something I was really passionate about, which is entirely possible, I would make another documentary, but it's not a good career choice for anybody. I don't recommend it. "
Terry Zwigoff
Passionate
Good
Choice
" People think I have an interest in comics, but I'm only interested in comics from the '40s, like 'Donald Duck' comics. "
Terry Zwigoff
Comics
Think
Only
" A good script and perfect casting, that's 90 percent of the work. "
Terry Zwigoff
Perfect
Good
Percent
" If I start paying attention to the mechanics of a film while watching it, then it's generally a bad film. "
Terry Zwigoff
Attention
Film
Bad
" The first scene I ever shot for 'Louie Bluie,' on that first day, I had never seen the camera before. I didn't know where to put it. I just knew what was strong about these guys and what I wanted to capture, so I tried to work backward from there and figure it out. Trial and error. Hopefully I got a little bit better at it. "
Terry Zwigoff
Know
Strong
Better
" The things I want to make into a film, they're personal, esoteric things, and I don't expect anyone else to like them as much as I do. I generally like my films more than anybody else will. "
Terry Zwigoff
Want
Will
Personal
" I think the other misconceptions when the film came out, he was very upset that it was so widely released and so widely seen. And neither one of us - well, I think I had hopes it would be, 'cause I really did think it was something special. "
Terry Zwigoff
Upset
Well
Film
" I think my father kept struggling to get us into better neighborhoods, better schools. One of the worst jobs he had was folding shirts under these fluorescent lights all day at the equivalent of a Kmart. I remember visiting him at work, thinking, 'When I grow up, I've got to do anything else.' "
Terry Zwigoff
Work
Day
Grow
" Whereas my producer literally worked on this thing for 10 years and because I gave that presenter credit to David Lynch, she to this day never gets credit. It really kills me. "
Terry Zwigoff
Years
Me
Credit
" Crumb was such an influence on me. He's such a visionary, such a great artist, that he so shaped my artistic sensibilities on a certain level that I do owe everything to him. The way I see the world is largely changed by him. "
Terry Zwigoff
See
Artist
Great
" I don't like most Christmas movies. They're pretty bad, though they seem to make tons of money anyway. Like this movie 'Elf,' I got the script for that, and I turned it down right away. Against my wife's better judgment. "
Terry Zwigoff
Christmas
Wife
Movies
" That would be getting up at 5 am... I don't understand why film's shoot such brutal hours. I think it'd be worth it to not be so strictly cost-effective and have an 8 hour day. The film's would benefit in the end. "
Terry Zwigoff
Understand
Think
Worth
" I've stopped going to see art films because every critic gives them four stars and say things like 'masterpiece,' 'spellbinding' and 'mesmerizing.' I mean, they're doing that with my film, but I don't want to use those blurbs. Critical reviews aren't worth too much anymore because just about every film can get one or two of them. "
Terry Zwigoff
Doing
Art
Worth
" The last Christmas movie I really liked was 'It's a Wonderful Life,' probably. It's sort of a schmaltzy movie, but it's not without its dark moments. It still gets to me every year. "
Terry Zwigoff
Year
Me
Life
" I was inspired to do anything I could to get out of what I was doing... today, I'm motivated to pay the bills. "
Terry Zwigoff
Anything
Doing
Inspired
" Because I found myself telling the story of his family to people without the visual aids that I was able to employ by filming them eventually. But I very much knew exactly what I was going to do. "
Terry Zwigoff
Myself
Family
Story
" Chicago always hit me as such a gloomy place - I just remember all the snow getting dirty as soon as it would fall, all the decaying brown brick buildings around where we lived, all this soot all over the place. "
Terry Zwigoff
Me
Snow
Remember
" If I see my films described as 'quirky' or, even worse, 'snarky' one more time, I'm going to probably seriously consider an early retirement. All these years, I've labored under the conceit that they were "darkly humorous.' "
Terry Zwigoff
Retirement
Early
Time
" Just to get the actors to relax, listen to each other, and actually affect each other, there are a number of techniques you have to learn, and they don't all work on every actor. "
Terry Zwigoff
Learn
Relax
Work
" My hat's off to documentary filmmakers. I don't know if I'm ever going back to it. You're treated like a second-class citizen at most film festivals. You take the bus while everybody else is flown first-class. If you're a feature film director, you're put in a five-star hotel, and if you're a documentary director, you stay in a Motel 6. "
Terry Zwigoff
Festivals
Back
Know
" The main trouble with Hollywood is that the guys you have to pitch to, the guys who run the studios, are all business school grads. "
Terry Zwigoff
Business
You
Who
" Certain types of films will never test well. My films never seem to test well. "
Terry Zwigoff
Seem
Will
Well
" You have to go back to the '30s and '40s to see a film that's any good. "
Terry Zwigoff
Back
You
See
" I did turn down 'The Virgin Suicides.' I talked to the producers about it, and I just honestly told them that I didn't get it. Is it supposed to be funny, is it a thriller, what is it? "
Terry Zwigoff
Turn
Thriller
Just
" Well, that was certainly - to me, until we could film in Charles' room, I didn't even want to bother filming anything else. And in fact, I did hold off and that was the first thing we filmed. "
Terry Zwigoff
Well
Film
Want
" So I told Robert from the start that if we couldn't get Charles and Max to take part, but especially Charles, that I didn't want to make the film. So would he call his mother and talk to Charles and see if Charles would at all be interested. "
Terry Zwigoff
See
Talk
Start
" A lot of things I have turned down ended up being a big embarrassment. Like that script, 'The Beaver.' I thought that was one of the worst scripts I had ever read. But everyone said, 'Ooh it's on the Black List.' Yeah, well, good for it. They're a bunch of idiots. I saw the final film, and there were no surprises. "
Terry Zwigoff
Down
Black
Good
" For a long time, there was this rumor that I turned down doing 'Austin Powers,' which is not true. While they did send me the script, I don't think I was ever a serious consideration to direct it. I'm sure they probably sent it to 20 others as well. "
Terry Zwigoff
Long
Serious
Doing
" People like light and silly, and they like stuff that's really energetic, and you get a character in a film bouncing around and screaming, people laugh. That's all it takes. I don't find that funny. To me, what's funny is dialogue and nuance of character and performance. "
Terry Zwigoff
Laugh
Character
People
" Oh yes, I've been approached to do all sorts of nonsense. How about a remake of 'West Side Story?' "
Terry Zwigoff
Story
Nonsense
West