I made three films in Greece, and they're made under very specific, very limited conditions.
— Yorgos Lanthimos
I'm interested in many different things. I guess I just want to evolve.
Yeah, it shouldn't be an issue. Stories about women, about men, about homosexuals, about heterosexuals. We shouldn't point at what it is.
Being extremely honest is quite funny. But there's no recipe or concept that I can bring up that fully defines what we find humorous. It's instinctive.
I find it very interesting to keep people uncertain about what is what and figure it out as they go.
I work very physically. I don't like to intellectualize too much about what we're doing, or analyze it.
I haven't been a director-for-hire for any project. I work with people who appreciate that, understand that, and want to work that way.
Of course you can't do anything completely original.
Sometimes people say things and don't really know what they mean by what they're saying. Subconsciously, it might mean something different.
I always expect people to be torn when they see one of my films and divided in some way.
All the talented and smart actors, they get it: as soon as it comes out of their mouth, they know if it's right or wrong. If the writing has a particular voice, they get it, and they can hit it.
I am calm but on the outside, mostly. When I'm on a film set, the stress is so humongous that I'm dying inside - I'm extremely stressed, but I do try, and... well, I don't try. I think it's my natural reaction to not externalize things.
I either enjoy things or not. And things either make me think, or they don't. Or they mess with me, and I feel awkward.
Having rules means that sometimes people break them, and that means punishment.
I never thought that I would ever actually get to make films. Being from Greece, it wasn't really a reality.
I don't have time to read much. I'm trying to read 'The Brothers Karamazov' again, for a year now - I keep getting halfway, and then there's a lot of work, and I forget it, and I have to go back to the beginning.
Something that's a hilarious comedy, for someone else might be a drama.
Rebellion is not always the right thing. Following the rules is not always the right thing. You have to think for yourself and identify the things that do not work for you.
Even today, I'm not sure why I make films or what makes me want films. I think it's other people's films. Whenever I see a really great film, I think, 'I want to make a film like that.' And then I never do.
For me, casting is very instinctive, and if I don't feel good about it, I just can't go ahead and make the film.
Because we're brought into the world or educated in a certain way, we're trained to accept the world in a certain way.
I think human relationships - the whole thing is cruel. It's very difficult.
I will not become analytical about my work.
It's hard not to be political.
When I look at my films, all I see is everything that went wrong.
I just think it's interesting to start a dialogue.
For some reason, I guess, people wanted me to prove myself in English-language films.
'The Lobster' is very particular, and we did need to create a very specific world with specific rules so the whole premise would work.
I wouldn't know what to say about something that worked in a perfect way, so I guess, in everything, I try to find what doesn't work and expose it and then see how it relates to people and their stories and their character.
I've played around with the notion of making a series on the premise of 'Alps' because it's one of the films no one saw.
It's hard for me to find a script that's perfectly suited to me, so even if it's a good script, I'll still have to work on it with someone and shape it, making it the film that I want to make. So in that respect, I prefer to do the stuff that I've generated anyway.
I just try and decide what I'm interested in and what excites me. I don't worry about how it's going to be perceived.
I think I do things that are more common in theatre.
The way I work, and the material we work with, I think if you analyze too much and have too many specific ideas, it just becomes a little bit too superficial, and then performances might become too self-conscious and project relatively narrow things.
There's much more activity in England than in Greece. Or at least there's a lot more development, which obviously brings another set of problems.
I learned about making films by going into advertising, making commercials.
People influence each other, so one screening will be filled with laughs while another is dead silent.
Personal relationships, mood, chance, or anything like that can actually affect people's decisions, and when they're in a position of power, their capriciousness can affect the fate of a nation.
In any case, I would never make a film that was only one thing. Even if it's my warmest, most romantic film, I still want it to have the more cynical view of things, showing the irony and absurdity of things that we consider normal.
I think it's been obvious from the beginning that my projects are not going to be something that people already have in mind. You can't be thinking about such things when you create something.
It was always hard to make films in Greece, but making them with friends made it possible.
I think there's all these unknown things you can tap into when you just leave things open, and nothing is forbidden. Then you allow yourself to mold that thing that has been created by freedom and spontaneity and flexibility. That's why I avoid limiting performances of actors and characters.
I wouldn't be making films if I just wanted to express some specific ideas; then I would be writing essays or something.
All of us have been through relationships; there have been periods of time when we've been single. It's something that everyone experiences. It's a matter of making that observation and then start to ask questions about it: Why is it like that? And why do we feel that? And why are we organized this way? Isn't there any other way?
I never think about it much, the visual aspect of it, until we start making the movie. I don't really think about it when we write. When we finish, and I start putting the film together, and we pick the locations, I do think about that a lot.
As an audience member myself, I love to be in a position where I'm trying to figure out what I am supposed to feel or if what I'm feeling is appropriate or not.
I wasn't a film buff.
I did have a lot of years watching and appreciating dance and theater and all of those kind of things, and it has informed the way that I work with actors and the way I approach things.
Provocative... I used to be defensive about it, but in the end, I realised it's exactly right. It's what we're trying to do - to provoke thought and discussion and, you know, shake people up to start thinking about things in a different way. I'm interested in messing with what they think is the norm.
Starting in Greece, you couldn't really say, 'I'm going to become a film-maker.' A 15-year-old boy in Greece in the '80s and '90s? There was nothing like that happening.
