I'm here to make good pictures. If I don't see it, I won't touch it. I may not make a good picture, but I still gotta believe in it!
William WylerRead
A director must push his actors to the utmost limit to get everything possible out of each scene - without being corny or sentimental or going overboard.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A director's role is to challenge their actors to perform at their best while maintaining authenticity.
In this quote, William Wyler emphasizes the delicate balance that directors must strike when guiding their actors. He suggests that a director's responsibility is to stretch the actors' abilities and evoke their full potential in every scene, yet do so in a way that remains genuine and avoids melodrama. The key is to maintain a level of artistic integrity and avoid cringeworthy moments, ensuring that the emotions conveyed are both impactful and believable.
Themes
DirectionActingPerformanceArtAuthenticity
In practice
Example use cases
During a film workshop, a teacher could quote this to motivate students to push their creative boundaries.
More from William Wyler
All quotes βThe slightest thing can ruin a scene, but you must be willing to take chances.
William WylerRead
Everything a director does must help the story and the performances. Otherwise, it is useless.
William WylerRead
Similar quotes
The whole history of music has turned out to be something perfect. It's all come around. The music we did with Funkadelic and Parliament was the DNA for hip-hop.
George ClintonRead
From the very early stage when I started doing performance art in the '70s, the general attitude - not just me, but also my colleagues - was that there should not be any documentation, that the performance itself is artwork and there should be no documentation.
Marina AbramovicRead
Music is the purest form of art... therefore true poets...seek to express the universe in terms of music. The singer has everything within him. The notes come out from his very life. They are not materials gathered from outside.
Rabindranath TagoreRead
If something comes along that is totally outside of horror, fine, but I find there's an immense amount of freedom within the genre.
Wes CravenRead
Players and painted stage took all my love, And not those things that they were emblems of.
William Butler YeatsRead
I feel like a lot of the fundamental material, I've assimilated. So now the question is: Am I going to really get into my spiritual inheritance of music and really develop my abilities?
Wynton MarsalisRead