Luca Guadagnino Quotes

I’m interested in form, in the shape of things. And in commitment to the degree of never letting go the quest for the meaning of things. That can come off as beauty and style, but that’s not where I start from.

Moviemaking is a dirty, tiring affair. The joy comes from the possibility to be free on set and really let loose.

I’m one of those directors who read reviews, even if they’re bad, because I started as a film critic as a cinema student. I indulge in the art of criticism in general.

I have a number of projects that I’ve been dreaming of making ever since I was a child. But I am also very open to the chances of life and the chances of my profession.

I personally don’t think that blood ties should be something that signifies so much more than anything else. I understand perfectly when somebody leaves their family for good.

I think you should never be forced to be nice as an artist. An artist has to be uncomfortable in a way. Narcissistic and uncomfortable.

I am more interested in revolutionary beauty than in the great beauty, to be honest. Italian cinema is now mostly a bureau for tourism. We have given up that revolution of the contemporary.

You know when they say you need to put people who go well together? I much prefer to put people who fight at the table. Then you have some sort of sparkle at the dinner!

In 1993, my first documentary was about the civil war in Algeria. That was in French and in Arabic. Another short film I did was silent. What I’m trying to say is that, yes, I’m Italian, and yes, I make films with Italian money, but personally, I’ve always been invested in the broader world of film-making.

I don’t like post-modernism. It’s cynical, and takes no discipline – you just copy. It doesn’t allow a film to be open to reality.

Everything that goes outside the rules of Italian cinema has always been cursed.

I am a film director, and I work with a visual language, with a visual medium. And I try to make virtue of the use of this visual medium. And I try to make sure what I do speaks the language of cinema.

I hate the concept of beauty for the sake of it. It is overrated.

My father is a teacher; my mother was a telecom employee. I come from Palermo; I was raised in Ethiopia. I am homosexual. I didn’t go to film school.

I think that making a movie is not just making the movie – it is also about having thoughtful ideas and embracing all the aspects of its launch.

I think we shouldn’t be shy of thinking that we can interpret text like a movie again, depending on the point of view and what we do with it more than anything else. Of course a lot of remakes of important films, particularly of horror films, they suck.

I don’t much like post-modernism, because post-modernist has become the basket in which every mediocre person can shuffle things and pretend to do something significant, and we could also mention who use post-modernism in this way – maybe we shouldn’t.

I come from a petit bourgeois family, and I’ve always been drawn to artists and people who choose their own way of life instead of being chosen by the lives that people want for them.

The concept of muse is alien to me. To speak of a muse implies there is a couple in which one person is the objectified passive element – there to help the creative, active, often male part of the duo to create. A muse is very passive. Who wants a muse? I don’t want a muse.

I’m a very eclectic person, and I enjoy multiple tastes; I’m like a bee who jumps from flower to flower. Before I die, I have to make a war movie, a Western, and a movie like Mike Nichols, because I love him.

When you have great performers and have set your movie in the right direction, it’s a beautiful privilege to let the camera watch the action unfold without spoken words.

I grew up with a concept of cinema as a directorial thing, meaning the director is allowed to sail the ship. Not a dictatorial thing.

The point is that filmmaking is a collaborative effort; it isn’t about imposing your vision on other people. It’s about the talking, you know?

I need to have a great deal of control and the ability to share my control with my collaborators and grant them the freedom and the quality of work I think these people deserve. If I don’t have those elements, I walk away.

I’m incredibly inspired by the goofy edginess of teenagers and young people.