Latest Costa-Gavras Quotes from Interviews

I'm trying to see if I can speak about our society today, but I cannot speak about the theme, because it's a bit difficult. I'm just starting to work on that. Because we live in a kind of world which has drastically changed in the last years. We speak about globalization, and how it's become the reason for everything. It has a kind of deep meaning. To be everywhere and to be nowhere at the same time. You think to globalize, you think, the Earth, it's your country. No, it's not your country. It's not easy to catch it in a cinema. It's too huge.

Costa-Gavras

Country, Thinking, Trying

Source: film.avclub.com
Make the movies you want to make in Europe is much easier. Of course, you don't have all the money you need, and if you go over budget, then you have to find the money, or you sell your house or something. But you have much more freedom.

Costa-Gavras

House

Source: film.avclub.com
Especially now, the immigrant problem is very dramatic around the world. Because we don't know what to do with them. They're in economic crisis, and there are more and more. There will be more and more. We speak about globalization of economy, but it's also globalization for immigration. Millions of people, they're willing to have a better life. A better life, they cannot have it where they live, so they move.

Costa-Gavras

Moving, People, Immigration

Source: film.avclub.com
The assistants in France are not like they are in the States. Assistants are much more close to the film directors, and they used to have a kind of very artistic task. They used to do the casting, scouting, and so forth.

Costa-Gavras

Artistic, Kind, Film

Source: film.avclub.com
I saw money becoming more and more important everywhere. It's one of the most abstract and important inventions by human beings. At the same time, money is capable of extraordinary corruption in every kind of relationship.

Costa-Gavras

Important, Saws, Becoming

Source: www.progressive.org
More and more, money is becoming a religion.

Costa-Gavras

Becoming, More Money

Source: www.progressive.org
I decided to go to the cinema school because I thought it was a new sort of media. Nowadays, it's not anymore, but in the '50s, cinema had a half century of age. Today it's more than one century. I thought it was a new media, a new way of telling stories.

Costa-Gavras

School, Media, Age

Source: www.avclub.com
Many years ago making movies was something. It was the major entertainment just to go to the cinema, once, twice a week. At the time, something like 400 million people went to the movies.

Costa-Gavras

Years, People, Cinema

Source: www.avclub.com
You know every time you change a decade, it's a problem, because you approach the end little by little. But my decision is to keep going. The problem is always to know when the head doesn't work well. Someone has to tell you. I hope my children will tell me.

Costa-Gavras

Children, Decision, Littles

Source: progressive.org
The American influence is not so aggressive anymore. The American big business influence in Latin America is not as strong, so people can vote and they can have a different life than before. They can have more liberal, more interesting, and more democratic governments.

Costa-Gavras

Strong, Latin, Government

Source: progressive.org
People say "the Americans" or "the United States," as if it was a kind of bloc. It's not. There's a lot of people thinking differently from other people in the U.S. This is very interesting to me and very important.

Costa-Gavras

Thinking, People, Interesting

Source: progressive.org
In the U.S., some extraordinary movies have been made on politics and social issues. We learned lots of things from American cinema. But in the last ten or fifteen years, this has changed drastically. Today, that kind of movie is much easier to make in Europe.

Costa-Gavras

Years, Europe, Issues

Source: progressive.org
Every time you have a crisis in a country you have an extreme wing coming up and proposing solutions. The way to fight them is by doing lots of work teaching people that every time these fascist systems gained power they ended up with big tragedies - lots of blood, lots of police, and lots of misery.

Costa-Gavras

Country, Teaching, Fighting

Source: progressive.org
We saw what happens with Bolsheviks. It was another catastrophe. I don't have the solution. The moviemaker can ask questions but not give solutions.

Costa-Gavras

Giving, Saws, Catastrophe

Source: progressive.org
Cinema has changed the world. If you go to the beginning of the cinema, you can see that the world started meeting other worlds. It was extraordinary. We saw how other people were living and thinking. How they were sad or happy. We also saw the body - naked or half-naked people, which was prohibited everywhere by religions. This was extremely important.

Costa-Gavras

Thinking, Other Worlds, People

Source: progressive.org
Essentially, filmmakers have to be free and not directed by power or politicians.

Costa-Gavras

Politician, Filmmaker

Source: progressive.org
[Akiro] Kurosawa, no doubt, was a big influence. Movies sometimes more than directors have influenced me: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Ford, was an extraordinary discovery. Sergei Eisenstein, of course. Later on, [Ingmar] Bergman.

Costa-Gavras

Wrath, Discovery, Doubt

Source: progressive.org
My life in Greece influenced what I am. My father was in the left because he was against the king and his family, who had created a war against the Turks at the beginning of the last century to revive the Byzantine Empire. For three years, there was fighting, and all my father's friends died. So he hated the royal family.

Costa-Gavras

Kings, Father, War

Source: progressive.org
I initially studied literature [in France], and then I went to cinema school. I discovered the Cinematheque, and saw not only action movies and westerns, but also lots of serious movies.

Costa-Gavras

School, Cinema, Literature

Source: progressive.org
Every morning you have the economic news from all over the world, from television, radio, the Internet, and an hour later the news changes and the numbers change. People run fast from one place to another, which is very risky because they don't have enough time to think.

Costa-Gavras

Running, Morning, Thinking

Source: progressive.org
Sometimes there are leftwing governments I'm very critical of. For me, being leftwing is to live in a society where there's permanent change. It also means to respect the freedom of everybody, and to not accept big organizations or rich, powerful people holding power.

Costa-Gavras

Powerful, Mean, Government

Source: progressive.org
Aggressive capitalism leads the world, and we can see the results, especially in Europe: more poverty for the vast majority, and more riches for a few.

Costa-Gavras

Europe, Majority, World

Source: progressive.org
This crisis started probably due to the freedom they gave to the banks. First President [Ronald] Reagan and then President [Bill] Clinton. So, for [Barack] Obama it is extremely difficult to change now, to find a way to organize this banking system [differently].

Costa-Gavras

President, Banking, Bills

Source: progressive.org
In the U.S. more than any other place, the banking system is insane. Millions of Americans lost their houses. Because of what? Because of the banking system. This American banking system is also coming to Europe. We can say today that the banks and high financiers run the world.

Costa-Gavras

Running, Europe, House

Source: progressive.org
I saw money becoming more and more important everywhere. It's one of the most abstract and important inventions by human beings. At the same time, money is capable of extraordinary corruption in every kind of relationship. I tried to see how and why, more and more, money is becoming a religion.

Costa-Gavras

Important, Saws, Becoming

Source: progressive.org

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Born: February 12, 1933
Occupation: Film director
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