“I don't think so much about verbal comedy. I always think about visual comedy. I was raised watching silents, and I'm always thinking about how to make cinema, not good talking - although I want good talking. I'm much more interested in framing, composition, and orchestration of bodies in space, and so forth. My goal is always what Chuck Jones wanted his Warner Brothers cartoons to be, which was if you turn down the sound, you could still tell what's going on. I think if you watch most of my films with the sound off, you could still tell what's going on.” IfsThinkingWantStillsBodyWantedFilmTurnsSoundGoalSpaceTalkingWatchesComedyBrotherRaisedCinemaVisualsCompositionCartoonChuckAlways ThinkingFramingOrchestrationWarner Brothers Author:Alexander Payne
“If you have your movies so that everyone understands everything, I think that's probably not a very good movie.” IfsThinkingVery GoodGood Movie Author:Alexander Payne
“If you're not making epic, archetypal films on some level, I think you're wasting a great potential of cinema.” IfsThinkingFilmLevelsCinemaEpic Author:Alexander Payne
“But it's just that the whole country is making generally lousy films these days and has been for quite a while. That's the big problem that we all have to think about.” ThinkingHas BeensCountryWholeProblemBigsFilmThese DaysBig Problems Author:Alexander Payne
“Whenever I'm asked about independent cinema, I think of what Fidel Castro said during the Cold War about the league of non-aligned nations. He said that really, there were only two non-aligned nations: the U.S. and the USSR. The rest of us have to be aligned somewhere. I say similarly, in a way, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros. are the only true independents, because they're the only ones who can do whatever they want and have distribution for their films built in.” ThinkingWarFilmColdIndependentLeagueCold WarCastroUssr Author:Alexander Payne
“I want studios to be financing director-driven, auteurist cinema, as they did in the '70s. I think it's starting to happen now. Plus, because of how our world has changed politically, I think audiences are demanding more realism. We need to have more stuff in our culture about what is really going on right now.” ThinkingWorldCultureAudienceChangedFinancing Author:Alexander Payne
“A lot of documentaries have been made very quickly, but I think they're like frogs in an ecosystem: They're harbingers. Film is always two or three years behind, because it takes so long to write a script, get financing, and get it made. It just takes a while. But I think it's coming. It has to.” ThinkingWritingLongFilmFinancingHarbinger Author:Alexander Payne
“The thing is, right now the films don't need to be overtly political to be about our times. We also need films that are just human, that are about people. People need that, too. It's like we need to reconnect to what it is to be human. Not just what our political situation is. That's not what I'm thinking about exclusively. Human content is needed again, as it was in the '70s. I think films were more human than they've been since then.” PeopleThinkingFilmPoliticalSituation Author:Alexander Payne
“I think about what movie I would like to see. I don't think of them as a correction or palliative. I certainly am irritated by anything that's shot in the Midwest and filled with these noble people. "Oh, they're so good, and they're so honest..." I'm not interested in that. I just think of what's right for a movie.” PeopleThinkingHonestNot InterestedIrritated Author:Alexander Payne
“I always think about visual comedy. I was raised watching silents, and I'm always thinking about how to make cinema, not good talking - although I want good talking. I'm much more interested in framing, composition, and orchestration of bodies in space, and so forth. My goal is always what Chuck Jones wanted his Warner Brothers cartoons to be, which was if you turn down the sound, you could still tell what's going on.” ThinkingGoalComedyBrotherCompositionCartoonChuckFraming Author:Alexander Payne
“Just because I make films doesn't mean I think they're great. I just make them and then when I'm done with them I'm just a filmgoer like I always am. They're all lessons. I'm still in film school, honestly. And this one is just a dry run for whatever the next one is.” ThinkingMeanDoneRunningSchoolFilmHonestly Author:Alexander Payne
“I'd love to be a director-for-hire and get a nice paycheck and captain one of those big ships, but I think studios mistakenly think I want to write what I direct - which I don't. I write out of desperation, because I never get a script I like, other than "Nebraska." It's a matter of: What's the screenplay? Is it intelligent? Is it human? I don't care what genre, what scale. I'm here for the movies.” ThinkingWritingCareNiceDirectIntelligentDesperation Author:Alexander Payne
“I think a badly crafted, great idea for a new film with a ton of spelling mistakes is just 100 times better than a well-crafted stale script.” ThinkingWellsIdeasFilmMistakeScriptsGreat IdeaStaleSpellingSpelling Mistakes Author:Alexander Payne
“I like to think of film-making not just as an act of personal self-aggrandisement but rather as an act of public service.” ThinkingSelfFilmPublic Service Author:Alexander Payne
“I think cynicism lasts. Sentimentality ages, dates quickly.” ThinkingAgeLastsCynicismSentimentality Author:Alexander Payne
“I think if you watch most of my films with the sound off, you could still tell what's going on.” IfsThinkingStillsFilmSoundWatches Author:Alexander Payne
“I think that Peter Jennings is the only decent one of the big three.” ThinkingBigsThreeDecentPeter Author:Alexander Payne
