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Quote by Peter Greenaway

“My heroes among filmmakers would be people like Buñuel and Pasolini, who were of very high cinematic intelligence, but tread on a lot of toes.”

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Peter Greenaway

Peter Greenaway is a British film director known for his unique artistic style and innovative narrative techniques. His films often incorporate historical, cultural, and philosophical elements, challenging viewers to think deeply. more

“We have to move away from the concept of screening in cinemas. This can be achieved with the new technologies. I enjoy my films and the fact that I can include you in them as well. Cinema is only a small part of a much greater phenomenon. We transcend the barriers of culture. DVDs' image quality and longevity provide us with new prospects. They are a powerful medium. I think they were invented especially for me.”

“An American critic wrote that she would rather be forced to read the New York telephone directory three times than watch the film A Zed and Two Noughts, a third of which was a homage to Vermeer. Conceivably, if you are a list-enthusiast like me, the New York telephone directory might be fascinating, demographically, geographically, historically, typographically, cartographically; but I am sure no compliment was intended.”

Ifs Two Might Film Three Watches New York Thirds Critics Lists Like Me Fascinating Compliment Telephones Three Times Homage Vermeer

Author:Peter Greenaway

“I have a very, very secret drive to become a dilettante, without the pejorative overtones or the obligation to produce myself. There's so much to examine, so much to contemplate. I have enormous enthusiasm when I start a new project but then there's the meetings and the counter-meetings, the rehearsals, the struggles. You have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get your dreams realised.”

Dream Secret Struggle Produce Projects Meetings Enormous Obligation Enthusiasm Your Dreams Pushing Contemplating Rehearsal Realised New Projects Dilettantes

Author:Peter Greenaway

“Here was opportunity to make an audience walk and move, be sociable in a way never dreamed of by the rigors of cinema-watching, in circumstances where many different perspectives could be brought to bear on a series of phenomena associated with the topics under consideration. Yet all the time it was a subjective creation under the auspices of light and sound, dealing with a large slice of cinema's vocabulary.”

“Cinema doesn't connect with the body as artists have in two thousand years of painting, using the nude as the central figure which the ideas seem to circulate around. I think it is important to somehow push or stretch or emphasize, in as many ways as I can, the sheer bulk, shape, heaviness, the juices, the actual structure of the body. Cinema basically examines a personality first and the body afterward.”

Thinking Way Years Firsts I Can Two Important Ideas Body Seems Artist Figures Painting Personality Thousand Shapes Structure Cinema Sheer Thousand Years Juice Heaviness

Author:Peter Greenaway

“My favourite film-maker west of the English Channel is not English - but to me doesn't seem American either - David Lynch - a curious American-European film-maker. He has - against odds - achieved what we want to achieve here. He takes great risks with a strong personal voice and adequate funds and space to exercise it. I thought Blue Velvet was a masterpiece.”

Want Seems Film Strong Voice Space Risk Achieve Exercise Blue West Curious Fund Makers Favourite Odds Masterpiece Adequate Velvet Great Risk Strong Person Against The Odds Blue Velvet

Author:Peter Greenaway

“I acknowledge Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. They are prostlytizers of English socialism preaching to the converted and telling us what we already know. Cinema is best served away from documentary neo-realism. I come from a tradition of post-post-Italian neo-realism in England, where we've produced the best television in the world. But to paraphrase Truffaut, the English have no visual imagination.”

Knows World Imagination Television Tradition England Socialism Posts Acknowledge Cinema Visuals Italian Realism Preaching Documentaries Mike Paraphrase

Author:Peter Greenaway

“Film is such an extraordinary rich medium which can handle so many different modes of operation, combining together in the same place all these extraordinary disciplines which may be executed in their own right - music, writing, picture making of all kinds, and I often feel that some filmmakers make films with one eye closed and two hands tied behind their backs.”

“As you probably know, I'm often accused of intellectual exhibitionism and all forms of elitism. Although I can understand this point of view, it's a rather wasted argument because, if we regard areas of information as being elite and therefore somehow not usable, it means our centre-ground of activity becomes very, very impoverished.”

Ifs Knows Mean I Can Form Views Information Activity Intellectual Areas Argument Regard Point Of View Elites Centre Accused Elitism Exhibitionism

Book:Peter Greenaway: Interviews

Source: Peter Greenaway: Interviews

Quote by Peter Greenaway

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