Top Michael Haneke Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Michael Haneke Biography

Michael Haneke (German: [ˈmɪçaːʔeːl ˈhaːnəkə]; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter best known for films such as Funny Games (1997), Caché (2005), The White Ribbon (2009) and Amour (2012). His work often examines social issues, and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. Besides working as a filmmaker, Haneke also teaches film direction at the Film Academy Vienna.

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Michael Haneke Quotes

I consider all my films experiments.

Experiments, Film, Films

I like to write for actors I know and with whom I've worked before. You can write to their strengths and weaknesses and write roles that are better suited to them.

Like, Roles, Strengths, Suited, Weakness, Writing

Film is the manipulative medium par excellence. When you think back on the history of film and the 20th century, you see the propaganda that's been made. So there are moral demands on the director to treat the spectators as seriously as he or she takes himself and not to see them merely as victims that can be manipulated to whatever ends they have.

Thinking, Excellence, Directors, 20Th, Century, Manipulated

It became a gamble to myself whether I was able to do the exact same film ["Funny Games"]under very different circumstances.

Able, Different, Exact, Games, Same

Pornography, it seems to me, is no different from war films or propaganda films in that it tries to make the visceral, horrific, or transgressive elements of life consumable.

Consumable, Different, Life, Trying, War

As a private person, professionally I am invisible.

Invisible, Person, Persons, Private, Professionally

If you do an original film and you want to cut a scene out you do it. But when you do a shot by shot remake you don't have that option and every scene has to work again.

Cut, Cutting, Film, Remake, Scene, Want

I think that what's important as a director is to give your actors the feeling that they're protected, the feeling of confidence, the feeling that if they make mistakes, then as a director, you'll know how to help them. If you're able to convey that, then the actors will give you wonderful performances. As well as the author, you have to write scenes that give the actors the opportunity to show what they're capable of.

Mistake, Writing, Opportunity, Make, Scenes, Performances

Usually music is used to hide a film's problems.

Film, Hide, Problem, Problems, Used, Usually

People have been educated to expect answers, even before the questions come along. It's the TV principle. You offer three possible answers before the questions come to relax and calm the audience.

People, Relax, Principles, Answers, Educated

Film is simply the most complex way you can express yourself

Way, Film, Express Yourself, Simply, Express

The difficulty, then, is when you create a church, an institution, and you create a dogma. When you create an ideology, that's the danger. Communism, too, is a beautiful idea, but millions of people died when communism became an ideology.

Beautiful, Ideas, People, Institution, Danger, Idea

I always seek to mobilize, to call on the imagination of the spectator. It's well-known that the images that are created by one's imagination are far stronger than any that I can show. In fact, it's an error, a widespread error in mainstream cinema, to always want to show things and to depict things.

Images, Imagination, Seek, Stronger, Widespread

It could be Fascist, religious or political - it's always the same model that operates in these circumstances, and it's that which is the actuality of this film. Therefore, it's not specifically an explanation of German Fascism because that would be an impossible thing to do in any case.

Religious, Impossible Things, Political, German, Same

It’s harder to write a story with just two people in a room than with 50 characters.

Character, Characters, Room, Story, Two, Writing

On the set I make jokes I can't get too involved, or it turns into sentimental soup. I try to keep it light.

Involved, Light, Sentimental, Soup, Trying, Turns

Films that are entertainments give simple answers but I think that's ultimately more cynical, as it denies the viewer room to think. If there are more answers at the end, then surely it is a richer experience.

Entertainments, Giving, Richer, Room, Simple, Thinking

Mainstream cinema raises questions only to immediately provide an answer to them, so they can send the spectator home reassured. If we actually had those answers, then society would appear very different from what it is.

Cinema, Different, Home, Raises Questions, Send

Of course I am a child of European culture. There are a number of great directors from which I learned, but there is nobody in particular I got inspired from.

Children, Numbers, Directors, European, Number, Nobody

I'm far more relaxed with German. I'm a control freak. I like to know exactly who's saying and doing what.

Freak, Saying And Doing, Relaxed, Like, Saying

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