I am attracted to these outsider characters who just don't belong anywhere, and who are operating in worlds they sort of don't fit, coupled with huge ambitions.
— Bennett Miller
I like to have something that I can challenge common-sense notions about, challenge the apparent truths, and really look past the many faces of a thing to see what's behind it.
I'm interested in telling stories that add up to more than the entertainment of the story. That's what does it for me.
My nature is to try and look past apparent truths, to pull back layers and understand the psychological motives behind phenomena.
As a filmmaker, you want people to understand and get what you do, and it's a lot to ask for.
If you find yourself considering a project that seems like a layup, then you're diluted, or that movie's probably not the right movie for you to be making.
As a filmmaker, one tends to want to evolve evermore towards a place of independence.
One of the biggest turnoffs is being presented with an idea that's already, to a degree, complete. That's not an adventure, and it's not a learning experience. It's more of a chore. Then you become a technician with taste, as opposed to an explorer and an author.
I think it's fair to ask how truthful a film is as opposed to how factual it is.
I like to rehearse. We did a lot of rehearsals for 'Moneyball,' but it is really individual to the actor. It's not like, 'Here is my process, everybody. Fit in.'
I do have that compulsion to organize moments into a larger thing.
I don't have many rules, but one of them is, 'Do not make a movie you yourself would not want to see.'
I really tried to get comfortable with the notion of shooting digital on 'Foxcatcher' and just couldn't. I shot many tests and experimented with all sorts of techniques to manipulate it into a place that worked for us, but it just didn't happen.
Chemistry exists or it doesn't, and I think casting is a very underappreciated component of filmmaking.
It's hard. It's hard to get a film made properly.
When I learned a little bit about du Pont and a little bit about Mark Schultz, I was attracted to the notion that these incredibly different people found each other and seemed, for a moment, to be the answer that each was looking for.
I think when an actor feels like they're being watched with great sensitivity and a subtle eye and a nose for truthfulness, that has some effect.
Sometimes the facts can get in the way of the telling of a good story. But they don't get in the way of the truth.
I feel like what I'm after is not easy for me to find, and to want it to be easy... it would be absurd for me to have that ambition.
My films are inquiries. I've chopped down all the signposts, I really resist taking moral positions.
I hardly read fiction; I mostly read nonfiction. I like to examine material things.
Kenny Lonergan, as a filmmaker, doesn't tell stories so much as he observes them, which is to say, his films don't come pre-digested. You have to bring your own enzymes. It's a more gripping and challenging experience.
Film as a medium, like a novel as a medium, possesses a unique ability to communicate. Film is capable of communicating in a way that no other medium can, and I would say the same for the novel.
I'm actually not a big reader.
I know what it's like to be genuinely intrigued and compelled by a story and to have a sense that there's an adventure to be had and a film to be conjured.
There is a paradox in politics that what it takes to get elected is not necessarily what it takes to govern, and my feeling is that trying to control things too much feels icky to me.
Filmmaking requires the participation and cooperation of many people. It's unrealistic to expect that you're not going to be challenged by unforeseeable forces from every direction.
A lot of the time, excess on a film set is just damaging.
I don't like sensationalizing events. Instead of making waves, I want to make everything settle, so we can see to the bottom of things.
I've never even watched one of my films since they're completed.
Adam Sandler in 'Punch-Drunk Love' is brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant.
Making a film is a challenge.
I am attracted to characters who are in worlds where they don't belong and who have great ambitions that they imagine will somehow reconcile themselves with the world and make things right.
It's important for an actor to feel like they're really being watched and to receive feedback and encouragement about the aspects of what they're doing that feels truthful - and also to raise awareness when they might be resorting to habits and tricks, which every actor has.
I think, when I meet a person, in general, it's not my habit to conclude anything about people. Not completely. Even people you know well constantly remain open.
My entire life can fit into a knapsack.
I'm attracted to stories of people who don't belong together, who embark on something and find themselves in places they don't belong.
If I had a dozen lives, one of them would involve really getting off the rails in India, heavy into meditation.
You can recognize almost immediately if the film you're watching is the product of some kind of a hive mind or the result of a personal vision and genuine collaborations. 'Manchester by the Sea' reminds us of the potential of the latter and, for that reason, is the kind of work that makes me, as a filmmaker, want to continue. It's inspiring.
What I will say - one thing that is attractive about getting a real film made within the studio system is that studio systems, with their marketing and distribution, have real power.
I think Will Ferrell is probably completely evil, the darkest of them all. He is known among comics as the dark knight. An evil, evil man and a dangerous soul.
If something is to be quietly powerful, it requires more balance than a film that allows for more freneticism.
I am and always have been fascinated with people, and I have a very good time coming up with the narratives of people's lives, exploring how a person thinks and feels.
If you track something like a political campaign and parcel out what's being communicated in a literal and narrative sense, and what's being communicated by means of emotional and symbolic language, you might find that it's the latter elements that absolutely dominate and move people. It makes me want to take that language and expose it.
If you have a vision for something, things are navigable. If it gets fuzzy, then obstacles become much more formidable.
Silence is absorption, and when you're watching a film and you're that quiet and you're that still, at least from my experience of watching films, that indicates an absorption, where you're really in the moment. You're really present. What you're seeing is vital to you in that moment, and it's tingling, and it's alive, and it matters.
I think all good sports movies aren't really about sports.
There's really powerful and potentially dominating forces when you make a film that can harm it if you're incapable of orchestrating things.
I don't know of a filmmaker who does not feel buoyed and lifted when their peers embrace the work.
Every film requires a different process. You learn about these particular actors and the particular chemistry between these actors. Recognizing when you don't need to shoot a scene because it's going to be cut anyway.
