When I look at my films, all I see is everything that went wrong.
Having rules means that sometimes people break them, and that means punishment.
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.
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 wasn’t a film buff.
I wasn’t a film buff.
I think you can tell a lot about people if you observe them as they’re observing.
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 make films to explore concepts and raise questions, not tell the audience what to think.
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.
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.
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.
Something that’s a hilarious comedy, for someone else might be a drama.
As long as I can make the films I want to make in decent conditions, I am happy.
In film, I like transformation. That goes for the language, for the image, for the performance.
If you use music boldly at the front of a scene, it creates another level.
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 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.
Sometimes people say things and don’t really know what they mean by what they’re saying. Subconsciously, it might mean something different.
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.
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.
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.
Anytime people see an emotion that is not extremely emotional, they call it ‘deadpan.’
If actors are trying to convey, in a smart way, the context of the scene, that becomes too self-conscious.
Yeah, it shouldn’t be an issue. Stories about women, about men, about homosexuals, about heterosexuals. We shouldn’t point at what it is.
I will not become analytical about my work.
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.
Most times, women are seen through the male gaze, so they are often shown as housewives, girlfriends, or objects of desire.
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.
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.
People influence each other, so one screening will be filled with laughs while another is dead silent.
I never thought that I would ever actually get to make films. Being from Greece, it wasn’t really a reality.
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.
I will not become analytical about my work.
I’m interested in many different things. I guess I just want to evolve.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For some reason, I guess, people wanted me to prove myself in English-language films.
Sometimes people say things and don’t really know what they mean by what they’re saying. Subconsciously, it might mean something different.
Pages: 1 2
