Bennett Miller Quotes
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I think the mind has a way of getting to where it needs to get to. If you are persistent.
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I hardly read fiction; I mostly read nonfiction. I like to examine material things.
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There is a paradox in politics that what it takes to get elected is not necessarily what it takes to govern, and my feeling is that trying to control things too much feels icky to me.
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I want to work with performers who really are ready to lose their minds, you know? People who are established and have talent, but who are ready to break new ground and really be cracked open in a new way.
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I like to rehearse to the point we're in the ballpark, and expect that we're only going to get one proper take, more or less.
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Adam Sandler in 'Punch-Drunk Love' is brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant.
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You can write ten versions of a scene, and then, on the day, discover that something in the original scene worked. It's hard on writers. Hard on actors, hard on editors, hard on me, hard on the producers, who require patience and confidence. But I can't get to the end without going through this process.
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I think when an actor feels like they're being watched with great sensitivity and a subtle eye and a nose for truthfulness, that has some effect.
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I really tried to get comfortable with the notion of shooting digital on 'Foxcatcher' and just couldn't. I shot many tests and experimented with all sorts of techniques to manipulate it into a place that worked for us, but it just didn't happen.
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Capote is one of those people who represents something larger than himself. I think that his ambition, his kind of success, and the downfall that followed are very contemporary.
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I am attracted to these outsider characters who just don't belong anywhere, and who are operating in worlds they sort of don't fit, coupled with huge ambitions.
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I think all good sports movies aren't really about sports.
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Kenny Lonergan, as a filmmaker, doesn't tell stories so much as he observes them, which is to say, his films don't come pre-digested. You have to bring your own enzymes. It's a more gripping and challenging experience.
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When I learned a little bit about du Pont and a little bit about Mark Schultz, I was attracted to the notion that these incredibly different people found each other and seemed, for a moment, to be the answer that each was looking for.
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Filmmaking requires the participation and cooperation of many people. It's unrealistic to expect that you're not going to be challenged by unforeseeable forces from every direction.
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I have a tremendous amount of patience and tolerance when working with people, but if I ever feel the impulse to inhibit myself from doing one more take, or feel a need to apologize to someone for pushing, I know that that relationship isn't gonna last.
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Sometimes the facts can get in the way of the telling of a good story. But they don't get in the way of the truth.
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If I had a dozen lives, one of them would involve really getting off the rails in India, heavy into meditation.
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There's really powerful and potentially dominating forces when you make a film that can harm it if you're incapable of orchestrating things.
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I definitely have moments in my life where I discovered a film, and the language of the film itself spoke to me in a way, as if someone came up to you and started speaking a language you'd never heard but understood and was able to express things the language you knew could not.
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It's hard. It's hard to get a film made properly.
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One of the biggest turnoffs is being presented with an idea that's already, to a degree, complete. That's not an adventure, and it's not a learning experience. It's more of a chore. Then you become a technician with taste, as opposed to an explorer and an author.
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There is a very uneasy relationship between money and creativity, between money and almost everything. Its tendency to control and corrupt - whether it's in arts or education or politics, hardly anything is untouched by it. Journalism certainly is up there. Everything is susceptible to it.
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My films are inquiries. I've chopped down all the signposts, I really resist taking moral positions.