When I was a kid, I used to escape from my family with my imagination, and I kept this spirit into my adult life. This doesn't always happen. All children have imagination, but for some it doesn't carry over. Jean-Pierre Jeunet More Quotes by Jean-Pierre Jeunet More Quotes From Jean-Pierre Jeunet It's always more interesting and more difficult to make something positive than negative. To be negative is very easy. Jean-Pierre Jeunet easynegativeinteresting I like the cinema of people like Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton. I am not keen on trying to reproduce reality - for that you should do documentaries. Jean-Pierre Jeunet tryingrealitypeople For me, the most important word in cinema is the word freedom. For example, in Europe, we've got freedom, we've got the final cut and that's something which is marvellous. Jean-Pierre Jeunet cuttingimportanteurope In general, I have some precise ideas about everything, because the film is completed in my head before we ever start shooting. With casting, I am always present, even for the smallest character. Jean-Pierre Jeunet shootingcharacterideas In the States, I learned to fight for every idea. Sometimes, a director has to be a tyrant to keep the quality. Jean-Pierre Jeunet tyrantsfightingideas I believe in imagination. I was a worker when I was 17. Between 17 and 21, I was a worker in the telephone company and imagination saved my life. Jean-Pierre Jeunet telephonesimaginationbelieve All day my mind drifts off into fantasies and little stupid jokes. Jean-Pierre Jeunet stupidmindlittles If you make the right choice in casting, your work is nearly done already. You don't have to spend a lot of time directing the actors, because they're so well suited to the parts. Jean-Pierre Jeunet actorschoicesdone If I would want to have a huge audience, I would make American movies, not French movies, because there is a limit of course with French language. If I prefer to shoot in my own language, it is to play with my language, to play in my Paris, and I have complete freedom in France. It's so amazing. If American directors could imagine how free I am, they would have asked for political asylum immediately. Jean-Pierre Jeunet parispoliticalplay It's always been pretty easy for me to exercise my imagination. The other part of the brain, the one that does mathematics, is a nightmare for me. It doesn't work at all. Jean-Pierre Jeunet imaginationexercisebrain I think we're entering a new period of filmmaking that's analogous to switching from black-and-white to color, or from silent to sound. The medium is completely flexible, and it's not bound by anything. If you imagine something, you can do it. Jean-Pierre Jeunet black-and-whitecolorthinking I've never made any concessions, so I am 100% responsible for my films. This makes me feel very proud. Jean-Pierre Jeunet responsiblefilmproud I thought all I had to do was to buy a camera and become a film director. So when I left school I worked at a telephone company, which gave me the money to buy the basic equipment including the camera, the projector and the screen. Jean-Pierre Jeunet camerasdirectorsschool When you speak about generosity, about something good we have inside ourselves, you're speaking to the majority. Jean-Pierre Jeunet generositymajorityspeak When I was a child, I had a ViewMaster, those red box glasses with little discs, so that you can see 3D images. They were my first steps in cinema. I was eight years old, I would cut and change the order of the images and that's how I created films that subsequently I recorded and projected and showed my friends. So I already took my first steps in 3D when I was eight years old. Jean-Pierre Jeunet cuttingglasseschildren I like looking back at people's faces in the dark. I like noticing details that no one else sees. But I hate it in the old American movies when drivers don't watch the road. Jean-Pierre Jeunet hatedarkpeople When you make something you like and audiences reject it, the experience can be painful. But I've discovered...that when you make something you aren't exactly satisfied with, and someone tells you it's great, that's even mor...e painful and frustrating. Jean-Pierre Jeunet frustratingsatisfiedpainful I think of a film as being like a toy train. Jean-Pierre Jeunet toysfilmthinking I write scripts by myself. It's not for everybody. It's someone's personal work. I need to be in love with the subject. Jean-Pierre Jeunet scriptswritingneeds In France, it's very suspect when you have a success. Jean-Pierre Jeunet suspectsfrance
