While working on my soon to be published book on British cinema and identity I accumulated a lot of quotes about films in general.
These are some of my favourites:
- “Film is not the art of scholars but of illiterates. And film culture is not analysis, it is the agitation of the mind” – Werner Herzog
- “The study of the film as a means to human understanding is not a mere intellectual exercise. It is part of a continuing study we have all got to make in our search for harmony in a tortured world.” – Ross McLean, Head, Films & Visual Information Division, Unesco
- “Marginal cinema is now the only form of national cinema” – Meaghan Morris
- “The problem is not to make political films, but to make films politically.” —Jean-Luc Godard
- “If there’s a corridor, there’s a film” – Céline Sciamma
- “Films that are entertainments give simple answers but I think that’s ultimately more cynical, as it denies the viewer room to think. If there are more answers at the end, then surely it is a richer experience.” – Michael Haneke
- “Sometimes film needs the room to dream” – David Lynch
- ‘I’d rather people feel a film before understanding it.’ – Robert Bresson
- “Film is a highly evocative ideological sphere. It does not reflect its time or society; instead it reinforces, moulds, twists and subverts the many truths of culture.” – Tara Brabazon
- “The created world must obey its own logic” – V.F. Perkins
“Death is no different whined about than withstood” wrote Philip Larkin in his desolate poem Aubade. In other words, whether we live paralysed by fear or accept it, the grim reaper will get us one day.
On 17th October 1961, the French National Police, following orders from the head of the Parisian police force, Maurice Papon, attacked a peaceful demonstration of around 30,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerians.
