Whenever I'm asked about independent cinema, I think of what Fidel Castro said during the Cold War about the league of non-aligned nations. He said that really, there were only two non-aligned nations: the U.S. and the USSR. The rest of us have to be aligned somewhere. I say similarly, in a way, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros. are the only true independents, because they're the only ones who can do whatever they want and have distribution for their films built in.

Alexander Payne

Categorized in : Thinking War Independent

What is filmmaking but groping in the dark?

Alexander Payne

movie actors dark

There is an audience out there for literate films - slower, more observant, more human films, and they deserve to be made.

Alexander Payne

audience film made

If you were falling in love and you could go back in time and relive a day and see the banal things you did that you'd forgotten about, you'd weep, looking at that day.

Alexander Payne

go-back-in-time falling-in-love forgotten

I love comedies. I take comedy very seriously as a form. It's a serious form, involving a certain way of looking at life, specifically the painful aspects of life. I get asked, "How can you have such failures in your films?" Well, what else is life about? There's some sense of constant failure in something. Humor gives you a distance from it.

Alexander Payne

distance serious giving

I like actors who, when you see them on screen, you sense a person, not just an actor.

Alexander Payne

screens actors persons

I think a badly crafted, great idea for a new film with a ton of spelling mistakes is just 100 times better than a well-crafted stale script.

Alexander Payne

mistake ideas thinking

I think cynicism lasts. Sentimentality ages, dates quickly.

Alexander Payne

lasts age thinking

The worst thing for people to say about your movies is, "Yeah, it was pretty good, but it was too damn long.".

Alexander Payne

worst long people

Somewhat dramatic things happen, and you don't even always notice them — that's what life is.

Alexander Payne

dramatic life-is happens

I like voice-over in films, and most of my films have been voice-over films.

Alexander Payne

voice-over film voice

If you have your movies so that everyone understands everything, I think that's probably not a very good movie.

Alexander Payne

very-good good-movie thinking

The thing is, right now the films don't need to be overtly political to be about our times. We also need films that are just human, that are about people. People need that, too. It's like we need to reconnect to what it is to be human. Not just what our political situation is. That's not what I'm thinking about exclusively. Human content is needed again, as it was in the '70s. I think films were more human than they've been since then.

Alexander Payne

political people thinking

The biggest fear I have is to die with regrets, and of course that will come true.

Alexander Payne

courses dies regret

When you're a houseguest and you leave, it's nice to straighten something up or send your hosts a useful gift. And when you leave the planet, it's nice to have made a positive contribution.

Alexander Payne

host nice made

Even if we die at 100, we're still dying young. I want at least 700 years. There's a lot of travelling and books to read and movies to see. I'm not going to squeeze it all in in 85 years.

Alexander Payne

dying book years

I think about what movie I would like to see. I don't think of them as a correction or palliative. I certainly am irritated by anything that's shot in the Midwest and filled with these noble people. "Oh, they're so good, and they're so honest..." I'm not interested in that. I just think of what's right for a movie.

Alexander Payne

irritated people thinking

Acting is a lot easier than people think it is.

Alexander Payne

acting people thinking

A pitfall of making a comedy with a studio-and it's also an American cultural thing-is that I get tired of being encouraged to go always for laughs.

Alexander Payne

pitfalls tired laughing

I'm hoping one day I can make one really good film.

Alexander Payne

good-films film one-day

I always think about visual comedy. I was raised watching silents, and I'm always thinking about how to make cinema, not good talking - although I want good talking. I'm much more interested in framing, composition, and orchestration of bodies in space, and so forth. My goal is always what Chuck Jones wanted his Warner Brothers cartoons to be, which was if you turn down the sound, you could still tell what's going on.

Alexander Payne

brother goal thinking