Cinematography Quotes

“If chess has any relationship to film-making, it would be in the way it helps you develop patience and discipline in choosing between alternatives at a time when an impulsive decision seems very attractive.”
― Stanley Kubrick

“My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected onto a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.”
― Robert Bresson, Notes on the Cinematographer

“Hide the ideas, but so that people find them. The most important will be the most hidden.”
― Robert Bresson, Notes on the Cinematographer

“Most of the movies are working like, 'Information, cut, information, cut, information, cut' and for them the information is just the story. For me, a lot of things [are] information - I try to involve, to the movie, the time, the space, and a lot of other things - which is a part of our life but not connecting directly to the story-telling. And I'm working on the same way - 'information, cut, information, cut,' but for me the information is not only the story.”
― Béla Tarr

“I kind of love Colin Farrell again. I think it started with In Bruges. No, I’m lying. It started when I saw a clip of his sex tape where he’s manning the camera and instead of getting all Sex Tape-y, he goes, quite genuinely, “GOD, I’m a TERRIBLE cinematographer.”
― Jessica Morgan

“Cinema is a very difficult and serious art, it requires sacrificing of yourself. You should belong to it, it shouldn't belong to you. Cinema uses your life, not vice versa.”
― Andrei Tarkovsky

“A sex worker deserves a billion times more respect, than the mystical fraudsters of the society, such as astrologers, psychics and tarot card readers.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Micky was a hard taskmaster. He could be very unkind. He was out to judge people, I think pretty quickly, and once he’d made a decision, he never altered it. If he didn’t like you for one reason or another, it was best to leave. On the other hand, with the people he liked and respected, he was wonderful and was very loyal. He was one of those people who liked to be challenged. He liked people to stand up to him, and most people ran away.”
― Christopher Challis, Conversations with Cinematographers

“Make films that purify the soul with the flow of rational, vigorous and compassionate thinking.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Use filmmaking for a greater purpose, than to just entertain some drowsy minds. Wake the whole world up with your movies. It has been sleeping for long. Its eternal sleep has become its darkest nemesis. Now is the time to wake it up.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“A Film has the potential to kindle such a spark of inspiration in an individual that it can alter the course of human progress.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Entertain, but also, give the viewer something to think about.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Give people films, they will forget after a few weeks, but give people ideas, they will assimilate them into their consciousness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“It ain't the picture and it ain't the camera - it's the operator.”
― Jordan Hoechlinchlin

“Filmmaking has the power to fortify the feeble, unify the divided, raise the abandoned and inspire the ignorant.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Use filmmaking to eliminate racism – use to it terminate misogyny – use it to destroy homophobia and all other primitiveness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Take the clapper and become the alarm that the world so desperately needs.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Whatever genre you deem suitable for your taste – romance, comedy, action, mystery, sci-fi or anything else, make sure it has the plain everyday human kindness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Nature is a cinema.
God, the cinematographer.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, Song of a Nature Lover

“Healthy entertainment does not evoke raw emotions in the mind of a viewer only to make them wreak havoc, rather it guides those emotions in a healthy direction.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Healthy entertainment is a beautiful blend of stimuli that can connect with the viewer at a sentimental level, then sow the seeds of a certain idea or feed the mind with inspiration and courage. In short, healthy entertainment does not evoke raw emotions in the mind of a viewer only to make them wreak havoc, rather it guides those emotions in a healthy direction. This leads to not only an entertained viewer, but also an inspired soul. And that should be the purpose of film-making, and indeed the entire entertainment industry, rather than feeding the general population with garbage.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Known as “Leni,” Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl was born on August 22, 1902. During the Third Reich she was known throughout Germany as a close friend and confidant of the Adolf Hitler. Recognized as a strong swimmer and talented artist, she studied dancing as a child and performed across Europe until an injury ended her dancing career. During the 1920’s Riefenstahl was inspired to become an actress and starred in five motion pictures produced in Germany. By 1932 she directed her own film “Das Blaue Licht.”
With the advent of the Hitler era she directed “Triumph des Willens” anf “Olympia” which became recognized as the most innovative and effective propaganda films ever made. Many people who knew of her relationship with Hitler insisted that they had an affair, although she persistently denied this. However, her relationship with Adolf Hitler tarnished her reputation and haunted her after the war. She was arrested and charged with being a Nazi sympathizer, but it was never proven that she was involved with any war crimes. Convinced that she had been infatuated and involved with the Führer, her reputation and career became totally destroyed. Her former friends shunned her and her brother, who was her last remaining relative, was killed in action on the “Eastern Front.” Seeing a bleak future “Leni” Riefenstahl left Germany, to live amongst the Nuba people in Africa.
During this time Riefenstahl met and began a close friendship with Horst Kettner, who assisted her with her acknowledged brilliant photography. They became an item from the time she was 60 years old and he was 20. Together they wrote and produced photo books about the Nuba tribes and later filmed marine life. At that time she was one of the world's oldest scuba divers and underwater photographer.
Leni Riefenstahl died of cancer on September 8, 2003 at her home in Pöcking, Germany and was laid to rest at the Munich Waldfriedhof.”
― Captain Hank Bracker, "Suppresed I Rise"

“The art of filmmaking is the most influential form of art that has ever existed throughout the history of human artistic endeavors.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“A movie is not a movie, it is a potential nuclear furnace of inspiration, courage and conscience.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“Make movies my friend – make nice, inspiring and bold movies that will penetrate the darkest corners of the human mind and illuminate the soul.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Film Testament

“You make the movie through the cinematography - it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me.”
― Nicolas Roeg, Conversations with Cinematographers

“Vincenzo told him he was naïve, but was it naïve to believe documentary photography could serve as an antidote to the propaganda poisoning the body politic?”
― Anthony Marra, Mercury Pictures Presents

“Soy de los que piensan que lo que te gusta tiene que ser lo que te gusta de verdad, y no lo que te gusta por prescripción crítica.”
― José Luis Garci, The Best? Devaneos sobre la mejor película de la Historia del Cine

“No olvidemos que el "cine de autor" es como el colesterol hay uno malo y otro soportable, igual que la mayor parte del corpus de la "canción protesta".”
― José Luis Garci, The Best? Devaneos sobre la mejor película de la Historia del Cine

“Sir Alfred Hitchcock decía que el cine era la vida sin sus partes aburridas. Los nuevos creadores opinaban todo lo contrario: para ellos el cine era la parte aburrida de nuestra existencia.”
― José Luis Garci, The Best? Devaneos sobre la mejor película de la Historia del Cine