Movies aren't finished, they're abandoned. And you have to make your peace with that.
David FincherRead
Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine. Some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything's okay. I don't make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything's not okay.
Interpretation
Entertainment should reflect reality, including its struggles, rather than just provide comfort or escape.
David Fincher emphasizes the importance of authenticity in storytelling, suggesting that entertainment should not shy away from the complexities of life. Instead of seeking to provide a false sense of comfort, true art should acknowledge the challenges and imperfections of existence, reflecting a more honest portrayal of reality.
In practice
Using this quote in a film discussion to emphasize the need for honest narratives in cinema.
Movies aren't finished, they're abandoned. And you have to make your peace with that.
You’ll find that the movie business is paid for by those mega movies. The movie business is paid for by Big Macs. By movies as product. Movie studios use that term “product” all the time. Product? You mean you have a lot of stories? No, we have a lot of product. You have stories.
In film, we sculpt time, we sculpt behaviour and we sculpt light.
For a number of years, I'd been around the kind of people who financed movies and the kind of people who are there to make the deals for movies. But I'd always had this naive idea that everybody wants to make movies as good as they can be, which is stupid.
The fact is, you don't know what directing is until the sun is setting and you've got to get five shots and you're only going to get two.
In film, we sculpt time, we sculpt behavior and we sculpt light.
I'm not performing anymore. I reveal myself to the audience. I reveal myself. That's the show now.
The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.
I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act.
The merit of poetry, in its wildest forms, still consists in its truth-truth conveyed to the understanding, not directly by the words, but circuitously by means of imaginative associations, which serve as its conductors.
The role of the musician is to go from concept to full execution. Put another way, it's to go from understanding the content of something to really learning how to communicate it and make sure it's well-received and lives in somebody else.
There really is no such thing as art. There are only artists.
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