I used to be quite negative about going back to Greece and making something, but there is a certain kind of freedom that I've experienced while I was making films in Greece that is hard to replicate elsewhere.
— Yorgos Lanthimos
Everybody has a love/hate relationship with their own country.
I make films to explore concepts and raise questions, not tell the audience what to think.
If actors are trying to convey, in a smart way, the context of the scene, that becomes too self-conscious.
The most important thing is to allow gaps and openings for people to make up their own minds - I don't want my film to be pretending to have one important truth to tell anyone.
Don't think too hard. Just be present, and things will reveal themselves.
There are various ways of delivering some kind of truth, so I try to find the style or the way that I find more effective.
The first time I was paid was with 'The Lobster,' because with the Greek films, we just had to pay ourselves - work for free while making commercials in order to survive.
Try to place the camera somewhere where you get most of the information from there, so you don't need to have too many shots and be too explanatory and expositional about the scene.
We were fortunate enough to shoot 'Alps' - write the script and shoot it - right after 'Dogtooth' premiered in Cannes. So we didn't just sit around and wait to figure out what to do because 'Dogtooth' was successful. We just wanted to make another film fast, so we just went ahead and did it.
I'm very open to making films anywhere in the world.
I think you can tell a lot about people if you observe them as they're observing.
I never knew that I would even be making English-language films.
Anytime people see an emotion that is not extremely emotional, they call it 'deadpan.'
The best way to watch a film is to not know anything about the person who made it.
I make films that are what they are. Some people like them, and some people don't.
No studio picks up the phone after seeing 'Dogtooth' and goes, like, 'We have the next superhero movie.' Though if one did, that would be an interesting studio to work with.
Telling a story is the way of exploring so many different things - human behavior, society, whatever existence.
As long as I can make the films I want to make in decent conditions, I am happy.
For me, filmmaking is not about making statements but about exposing human behavior so people are eager enough to start thinking on their own and make their own assumptions.
It's hard for me to consider something in cinema or theater as something realistic.
I never think in metaphors or fully make those kind of associations myself. I just lay down a complex situation and hope things arise from that.
The actors bring their own stuff and thoughts, and most of the time, I don't want to know what they are. It allows me to have more distance and observe what they're doing without having the knowledge of what they have in their minds, so I can see clearly how that feels to me.
In film, I like transformation. That goes for the language, for the image, for the performance.
I always loved films, and when I decided to go to film school, it was with the excuse that I would go into making commercials, because that would be a proper profession, and people wouldn't think I was crazy.
By employing a certain sense of humor, you essentially get more serious about things and show conflict more effectively than if you were overly dramatic or only violent because that's a one-way approach that just forces audiences to watch something appalling.
Having a couple of films that were successful internationally has made the film community aware of the films coming out of Greece.
I work very closely with my co-writer, Efthimis Filippou. Ideas either start from him or me, and then the other one develops it, and it's a constant conversation.
I enjoy sometimes focusing on a character in a scene that's not actually doing the main action or the talking.
There are things to love about filmmaking in Greece. People are generous: If you get along well with others, the people around you will give more than they might otherwise be willing to give, more than they're supposed to.
If you use music boldly at the front of a scene, it creates another level.
'The Lobster,' at some point, was my most accessible film. Then I made 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer,' which turned out to be not as accessible as 'The Lobster.' It was the film I wanted to make and the story I wanted to tell.
I want all the mistakes to be mine, and I want to take responsibility for everything even if I fail. Whatever the project is, I need to have the final say.
I'm just trying to progress with every film I make and become better.
When people don't understand what they're watching, a lot of what they perceive has to do with who they themselves are.
It's weird to try and identify a nationality for a film.
Most times, women are seen through the male gaze, so they are often shown as housewives, girlfriends, or objects of desire.
I feel kind of offended when I watch films, and everything is explained to me - you know, laying out how I should feel from one scene to the next.
I think children are really violent with each other often.
Whenever a film doesn't follow to the letter the preset strict conventional rules of today's commercial cinema, it's considered weird.
I am not interested in representing reality. Actually, I am interested in representing reality, but that doesn't mean a naturalistic approach, which I think is kind of impossible.
I think you can be much truer to real emotions and reality by creating something that on the surface seems artificial but, by then putting everything together in the end, is much more impactful than trying to use realism in every individual element of the film.
You tend to be more attentive when you shoot on film because, you know, it costs more, and everybody needs to be focused when you're filming something. Everybody considers it something valuable and precious, so everybody's focused.
Of course I know what works for me and what kind of tone I want my films to have.
In general, I like contradictions and complex situations.
I don't make long-term plans, for sure.
Most acting is very melodramatic. It's not what you see in people.
Uncertainty helps keep actors on edge.
I always try and decide what I'm interested in, and I just do that.
I just do things that I'm interested in making and work with the people I'm interested in working with, and it's very important for me to maintain the creative control because, otherwise, I just don't want to do it.
