Quote

I love silent cinema but don't hold it sacred. Like any branch of film there are some very boring films alongside the masterpieces.

Michel Hazanavicius

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Michel Hazanavicius
Age: 57
Born: 1967
Born: March 29
Actor
Film Director
Film Editor
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Paris
France
Michel Hazanavičius
Masterpiece
Film
Branches
Love
Like
Cinema
Boring
Sacred
Masterpieces
Silent
Alongside
Films
Branch
Hold

More quotes by Michel Hazanavicius

Image
I looked at a lot of photos from Hollywood in the '20s, photographs of silent movies being filmed all over the world which are very specific and very evocative. Berenice, the lead actress, is my wife. She really followed the same path with me.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
When you look at the early-'30s movies, like King Kong, the codes of acting are very similar to those of silent movies. In some of the silent movies - the good ones, the ones done by the best directors - the acting is very, very natural
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
I guess all the directors in France are influenced by Hitchcock, because he's the perfect visual director, in my eyes.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
Hollywood is much more than America. Hollywood belongs to all of the planet.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
But sometimes I think you have to try to do things that people don't think are doable.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
French people are strange about America, I think.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
I think the writer is always the creator, because he's starting with nothing, but the actor comes in and gives flesh and blood.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
Actually, I met a lot of directors and most of them have that fantasy to make a silent movie because for directors it's the purest way to tell a story. It's about creating images that tell a story and you don't need dialogue for that.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
I watched a lot of silent directors who were absolutely great like John Ford and Fritz Lang, Tod Browning, and also some very modern directors like The Coen Brothers. The directors take the freedom within their own movies to be melodramatic or funny when they chose to be. They do whatever they want and they don't care about the genre.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
I think there's something in common with the OSS 117 movies. The big difference is there's no irony in this one. It's not parody. I tried to make it very simple. It's a simple story, but to be simple, it's very complex in the way it's done.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
I think we are at the very beginning of high changes, not only in terms of digital film, but in the way the movies will be screened, whether they'll be screened on phones, on computers - on everything
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
Bernard Herrmann was a genius, a great, great composer.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
Sure, I watched a lot of Hollywood movies. Maybe I've seen more Hollywood movies than French movies
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
It's not my job. The Weinstein company, it's their job to convince people. My job was to make the movie. That's what I did. I know what we did in France was to have the maximum screenings just to let people talk about the movie and say they enjoyed the movie.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
All over the world there are a lot of distributors that have the equipment for 3D but they don't have the movies really. The only source of 3D movies is Hollywood. Only Hollywood sends the 3D movies. So it was an option.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
Sometimes I think you have to try to do things that people don't think are doable. I remember at the very beginning actually, the first person I had to convince was myself really because there's a self-censorship. When everybody says 'we don't do silent movies anymore,' you agree with everybody, and you say 'yeah, you're right.' It was a fantasy.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
I watched a lot of movies from all over the world. The Russians were very good at editing. They were specialists in editing. The Man with a Camera, if you know that movie, is incredible. I still don't understand how it works. It's a movie with no script, no actors and still it works. It's really good. It's really about editing.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
I guess George Clooney would be a wonderful silent actor, and Leonardo DiCaprio is such a wonderful actor he certainly could do it.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
I thought 'The Artist' was a perfect way to find a good balance. The artistic challenge is obvious because the film is black-and-white and its silent, but I did my best to make the movie accessible and easy to watch. I really don't want to make elitist movies. I really try hard to work for the audience. Audiences are smart. They get everything.
Michel Hazanavicius
Image
If you try to make a silent movie with a normal script and you just pull out the dialogue, you will have big problems with the actors because you will ask them to tell a story that you don't know.
Michel Hazanavicius