Top Frederick Wiseman Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Frederick Wiseman Biography

Frederick Wiseman

Frederick Wiseman (born January 1, 1930) is an American filmmaker, documentarian, and theatre director. His work is "devoted primarily to exploring American institutions". He has been called "one of the most important and original filmmakers working today".

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Frederick Wiseman Quotes

Unfortunately, I never played an instrument. I can't blame my parents, but I wish I had had music lessons. It's odd because I think I have a good sense of rhythm, as they say in some fields. But I don't know anything about music.

Know, Odd, Parent, Thinking, Wish

I'm drawn to making movies about contemporary life. The reason I choose institutions is because they provide a limit, a boundary.

Boundaries, Boundary, Drawn, Limits, Reason

If I worked in my apartment, I'd never leave my apartment.

Apartment, Ifs, Leave, Worked

Making movies is an effort, is an attempt to leave a trace of your existence.

Attempt, Effort, Existence, Leave, Making, Trace

I'm too busy to be nostalgic, which is one of the reasons to keep busy. I'm not a very sentimental person.

Busy, Keep, Nostalgic, Reason, Sentimental

I don't like to read novels where the novelist tells me what to think about the situation and the characters. I prefer to discover for myself.

Character, Discover, Like, Novelists, Prefer, Thinking

I do not think that my films or films by any other filmmaker represent "THE TRUTH. " I do not feel the need to categorize my films or anyone else's.

Categorize, Film, Films, Needs, Thinking, Truth

Even if I know I'm going to go to a church, I don't know what the minister's going to say.

Church, Know, Knows, Ministers, Say

I think I've learned a lot about how to make movies, and particularly about how to edit movies by thinking about how similar problems are resolved in other forms. The issues in all forms are the same in an abstract sense, aren't they? Characterization, abstraction, metaphor, passage of time. . . Whether it's a movie, a novel, a play, or a poem, those issues exist. And each person resolves them differently.

Abstract, Issues, Play, Resolved, Resolves, Thinking

Anybody whose mind is functioning at all can't be content with the way the world works.

Content, Mind, Way, World

I think my movies aren't sentimental. I think my movies are funny and sad and realistic. Not realistic in the sense that they're documentaries, but realistic in the sense that they're not idealistic, they're not optimistic, not pessimistic, and not propagandistic. They're an analysis of a situation. I call it as I see it, so to speak.

Analysis, Optimistic, Sense, Thinking

I'm in no way suggesting that I succeed, but it's inspiring to read somebody who does succeed and from whom, in a general way, you can draw examples and nourishment and sustenance.

Doe, Example, General, Somebody, Succeed, Way

It is always a problem to know what an image means.

Image, Know, Knows, Mean, Problem

One's relationship to time is complicated, and sometimes a day will drag on forever and sometimes it'll be over in a flash. When you look back, "I'm old," after 40 or 60 years, I can't believe I'm as old as I am.

Believe, Complicated, Forever, Old, Years

I am bad at cultural generalizations but I would venture to say that by a wide margin there is less hypocrisy about sex in France than in America.

America, Bad, Hypocrisy, Sex, Venture

You have to edit the material. That assumes that some kind of a mind is operating in relation to the material. Not all minds are the same. Every aspect of filmmaking requires choice. The selection of the subject, the shooting, editing and length are all aspects of choice.

Choices, Editing, Movie, Operating, Relation, Selection

There's a literal track: who says what to whom, what are people wearing, etcetera. And there's the abstract track: what ideas are suggested by the literal. And the real movie takes place in the relationship between the literal and the abstract.

Ideas, Movie, People, Place, Real, Wearing

I think I have an obligation, to the people who have consented to be in the film, to make a film that is fair to their experience. The editing of my films is a long and selective process. I do feel that when I cut a sequence, I have an obligation to the people who are in it, to cut it so that it fairly represents what I felt was going on at the time, in the original event. I don't try and cut it to meet the standards of a producer or a network or a television show.

Cutting, Editing, Fairly, Felt, Obligation, Thinking

I'm very careful of not being critical of other people's movies, which work in different styles. I think some of my movies can be interpreted as critical of their subjects.

Critical, Different, People, Style, Thinking, Work

My job as a film editor is to construct a dramatic narrative because otherwise it's just a chaotic arrangement of sequences.

Arrangement, Dramatic, Editors, Jobs, Narrative, Sequences

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