Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I suppose every filmmaker, at least the filmmakers I really like, are amateur psychologists to a degree. Or they come from a psychological approach, I guess.
I've got a reputation for being difficult, and yet with my crew and my cast, I'm super-collaborative and we get on really well, and they like working with me.
Maybe I should be a literary agent. I'm good at picking up on books that become successful before it happens. I could pick up a lot more money than making films.
My mum says I was the best kid ever; you could put me in a corner with a box of paints and I'd be happy for hours. They'd say, 'Lynne, Lynne,' and I wouldn't hear them.
I remember with 'Ratcatcher,' in the script it was beautiful blue skies and sunny every day, but it rained constantly. You have to go with what the film is going to be.
Every film has its ups and downs. Each time it seems like pushing a boat over a mountain. I worked on 'The Lovely Bones' for five years before my involvement fell apart.
It's surreal, Glasgow. It's got a really black sense of humor and I remember being envious of John Glazer beating me to it on the sci-fi in Glasgow with 'Under the Skin.'
Whatever we take from a film - personal, public, private, subconscious - a list can only contain moments that are often a key to the recognition of something more complex.
To be honest, I was on the verge of thinking I didn't even want to be a film-maker, just because making 'Ratcatcher' had been so tough. Afterwards, I was just ill. Knackered.
I'm a big believer in cinema, you know - what it used to be? Images and sound, and working it out a bit. I find it exciting watching films where I just go into an impressive world.
When I go to the cinema, I want to have a cinematic experience. Some people ignore the sound and you end up seeing something you might see on television and it doesn't explore the form.
On a film shoot, a crew will know instantly when they are dealing with someone who knows the technical stuff and they respond accordingly. It's often about getting their respect from the off.
At the time I left film school there wasn't a lot of hope for young film-makers. It was a calling card of film school to be quite slick and commercial, which might lead to getting some stuff on telly.
I'm interested in genre in a way, I suppose because you have a framework of something and you can just twist it to explore the psychology or try different subversive ideas on something that feels familiar.
A tendency for the male perspective to dominate responses to films, whether that's commissions or how a film is presented in the world. The market is used to a male voice and a male audience, which it feeds
We Need To Talk About Kevin,' as an adaptation, was pretty major. It's a long book, and it's in letters, so it was a real editing experience to boil that down and make it cinematic. I learned a lot doing that film.
I was at the National Film School and was a cinematographer there. I got quite a lot of experience on documentary film-making and with directors who were interesting - maybe they weren't using scripts or were using non-actors.
If you feel you have made a great piece of work, which the script for 'The Lovely Bones' was, and that it suddenly means nothing, it's like being in the land of the lost. You don't know what's good or bad and what anything means.
With dialogue, people say a lot of things they don't mean. I like dialogue when it's used in a way when the body language says the complete opposite. But I love great dialogue... I think expositional dialogue is quite crass and not like real life.
When I was younger, making films was so all-consuming. It was a life-or-death thing. Films still mean so much to me when I'm making them. So I had to get away from that attitude of living or dying with every film, because otherwise you'll go insane.
I have twins and luckily when I first looked at them I felt, I am really into you. I am going to find it easy to love you. But there are mothers out there who do not make that connection. It is a taboo subject but it is not exotic. It is a nightmare.
I think 'Ratcatcher' broke even as a film, but it got a good critical response. I think that people knew that it wasn't going to be a conventional piece of work, but they were still willing to invest in it. With this material you have to be quite courageous.
Well, the film industry is completely sexist and completely class-biased. It's not something I get on the ground level, it's more from financiers and producers and distributors. It's a way of dealing with you that is essentially patronising: I know better than you.
Morvern Callar's' a really weird film, in a sense, where I was trying to experiment with taking things in a different direction, and it kind of half works and it half doesn't. And I kind of felt with that film that perhaps I should have pushed it more into the realms of black comedy slightly.
You've got to stick up for what you believe in. If you don't do that, you're doing a disservice to the audience, because you're making something really diluted. And if you do that when you're a guy, you're seen as artistic - 'difficulty' is seen as a sign of genius. But it's not the same for women.
In my short film, 'Gasman,' I shot it at a kid's party. And the kids were just having a party - they couldn't care less about our film. But that was great because we got this amazing footage where kids were drinking soda and pop or whatever, and getting that sugar high and beating each other up or dancing.
To me, most filmmaking is a kind of visualization of how people are. The dark, the light, the absurdity of life, all the crazy things, you know? So all of the characters that I've made have been really close to my heart. I guess what I'm interested in is just visualizing a really three-dimensional picture of a person.
Films I've really liked are when you've walked out and you're still in that movie for a while. That's virtual reality for me, to go into a theatre, especially with the use of sound - a subconscious thing that's underestimated. I remember seeing 'Blue Velvet' when I was 15, and half the audience walking out, but I thought my life had changed.
Don't try and change things for other people. Don't try and be persuaded by producers and people to change your vision. If you stick to your vision and you're true to yourself, it kind of works. I mean, it's tough. It's a big Fitzcarraldo journey, but then you'll have your good karma at the end of the day. You'll have your good soul. You know, if you start to sell little bits of it, you, you become nothing and nobody, and you don't have any vision remaining.
When I go to the cinema, I want to have a cinematic experience. Some people ignore the sound and you end up seeing something you might see on television and it doesn't explore the form. Sound is the other picture. When you show people a rough cut without the sound mix they are often really surprised. Sound creates a completely new world. With dialogue, people say a lot of things they don't mean. I like dialogue when it's used in a way when the body language says the complete opposite. But I love great dialogue I think expositional dialogue is quite crass and not like real life.