Top 19 Bruce Beresford Quotes

He’s wrong. That’s why his films look so terrible.

There’s a bright spot in every dark cloud.

Directing an opera is similar to directing a play. The singing must not get in the way of the drama.

At HBO, they seem to be well-informed. They make what I think are really quite mature films.

In opera, everyone‘s watching from a fixed viewpoint, and that really challenges you. Lighting, the sets, stage groupings, the music-but doesn’t relate too much to film.

It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created.

In silent movies, they tended to put the camera down, and everybody walked in front of it and acted, and then they all walked off. Cutting was quite infrequent.

Film is shot in fragments, and the same moments can be shot again and again until the director is satisfied.

When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match.

In Australia, they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films.

When I was 24 I went to Nigeria and it was such a culture shock, growing up in Australia and suddenly being the only white man in this unit full of black men.

With a film, I do my best to understand the author‘s intentions and try to bring the characters to life.

I’d really been interested in opera when I was about 16, and I really like staging them.

There were movies that always made me want to be a director. You see brilliant scenes and the way the emotions were handled. I thought, I’d really like to do that.

On stage, the audience watches from a fixed viewpoint and the director cannot retake something he doesn’t like. It has to work straight through.

In my view, the operas of Carlisle Floyd will find a place in the permanent repertoire.

Perhaps the most difficult thing is shooting scenes set 6,000 feet up in the mountains of Mexico.

For a director, the most challenging scenes are the dialogue scenes.

I didn’t get upset because I wasn’t nominated, but I was a little surprised.