If you try to make a silent movie with a normal script and you just pull out the dialogue, you will have big problems with the actors because you will ask them to tell a story that you don't know. Michel Hazanavicius More Quotes by Michel Hazanavicius More Quotes From Michel Hazanavicius I am unusual for a Frenchman - I have absolutely nothing against the United States. Michel Hazanavicius frenchmen unusual united-states I love silent cinema but don't hold it sacred. Like any branch of film there are some very boring films alongside the masterpieces. Michel Hazanavicius sacred branches cinema I think being a foreigner and talking about Hollywood allowed me to use some cliches and some references that an American would maybe not use. Michel Hazanavicius hollywood talking thinking I watched a lot of silent directors who were absolutely great like John Ford and Fritz Lang, Tod Browning, and also some very modern directors like The Coen Brothers. The directors take the freedom within their own movies to be melodramatic or funny when they chose to be. They do whatever they want and they don't care about the genre. Michel Hazanavicius care brother directors But I don't think of myself as a foreigner or a Frenchman! I just think of myself as a director. Whether I'm French or Australian or whatever, it's really not important. Michel Hazanavicius important directors thinking Hollywood is much more than America. Hollywood belongs to all of the planet. Michel Hazanavicius planets hollywood america This is the problem with language, and this is what makes silent movies fun, because the connection with them, me or the audience is not with the language. There's no question of interpretation of what we are saying it's just about feeling. You create your own story Michel Hazanavicius connections feelings fun Robert DeNiro, who may be the greatest living actor, usually acts in a way which is very stone-faced, like Steve McQueen. For example, Steve McQueen, if you cut the sound, you don't know what he's acting really. He gives to the lines, to the text, something very special, and he's very good. He was a great actor. But, to do a silent movie, you have to have more expressive actors. Michel Hazanavicius cutting acting giving I think we are at the very beginning of high changes, not only in terms of digital film, but in the way the movies will be screened, whether they'll be screened on phones, on computers - on everything Michel Hazanavicius phones way thinking When you're with your wife, you don't say I love you to your wife every day but the ways you look at her and your actions are another way to communicate. Don't focus on dialogue, only focus on what you're expressing. Michel Hazanavicius i-love-you wife focus I always loved silent movies. I was not a specialist, but I loved them. And when I started directing, I became really fascinated by the format - how it works, the device of the silent movie. It's not the same form of expression as a talkie. The lack of sounds makes you participate in the storytelling Michel Hazanavicius silent expression sound I chose the American ones, more or less the last five years of the silent era, because those are the ones that aged the best in the way they tell the story. One, it's about human beings with context. It's a very classical story with feelings, with laughter, melodrama and it really works, the good ones - Murnau's American movies, John Ford's Four Sons, King Vidor's The Crowd, or the (Josef) von Sternberg movies. You can watch it now and it still works. I mean they are really, really good pieces so this is where I tried to work. Michel Hazanavicius laughter kings mean Sometimes when an actor says something almost perfect, but you know you have to edit it, if you tell them to change something immediately, it will come out great Michel Hazanavicius almost-perfect actors sometimes Bernard Herrmann was a genius, a great, great composer. Michel Hazanavicius composer genius An idea is something you work on to make it work and a desire is much deeper in a way. Michel Hazanavicius desire way ideas I looked at a lot of photos from Hollywood in the '20s, photographs of silent movies being filmed all over the world which are very specific and very evocative. Berenice, the lead actress, is my wife. She really followed the same path with me. Michel Hazanavicius actresses hollywood wife French people are strange about America, I think. Michel Hazanavicius america people thinking But sometimes I think you have to try to do things that people don't think are doable. Michel Hazanavicius trying people thinking I went to Hollywood. I put the action in Hollywood. I watched a lot of movies, maybe 100 or something close to that. I have tons of DVDs now at home. I don't know what to do with them because they're not useful anymore. My kids never watched them. I read a lot of autobiographies, listened to a lot of music by classical era composers like Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman and Leonard Bernstein. I listened to only that kind of music the entire time I was writing, even at home. Michel Hazanavicius home writing kids First of all, I had the desire for that format [silent movie], and then when I was talking to people, I felt that people needed justification. Why are you doing a silent movie? Is it just for your own pleasure? I felt it was not enough for them so I realized I have to choose the subject that will make things easier for them and to tell the story of a silent actor makes sense for doing a silent movie. Michel Hazanavicius desire talking people
