Latest Michael Haneke Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Every form of anti-Semitism, every form of xenophobia plays on the fear of the unknown, and unfortunately there are all too many politicians who know how to manipulate that. The dumber people are, the more they feel the need for a broad set of shoulders they can lay their head against.

  Michael Haneke

  People, Politician, Manipulate

  Source: film.avclub.com

• My feeling, however, is that films that are open are more productive for the audience. The films that, if I'm in a cinema, and I'm watching a movie that answers all the questions that it raises, it's a film that bores me. In the same way, if I'm reading a book that doesn't leave me with questions, moving questions, that I feel confronted with, then for me it's a waste of time. I don't want to read a book that simply confirms what I already know.

  Michael Haneke

  Moving, Book, Reading

  Source: film.avclub.com

• That is one of the characteristics of fascism, the idea that the state can provide all of the answers for everyone.

  Michael Haneke

  Fascism

  Source: film.avclub.com

• If someone's lying to us, then it's rare that we know that they're lying to us. It's only in bad films that you recognize immediately that an actor's playing in such a way that you can see that he's lying, and that's simply dumb. But to reach that, it requires that you make a film in such a way that a spectator feels compelled to find his own explanation. You want to lead the spectator to find his own interpretation. To ask questions rather than provide all of the answers. Doing that leads to open endings and open dramaturgy.

  Michael Haneke

  Lying, Dumb, Film

  Source: film.avclub.com

• I always seek to mobilize, to call on the imagination of the spectator. It's well-known that the images that are created by one's imagination are far stronger than any that I can show. In fact, it's an error, a widespread error in mainstream cinema, to always want to show things and to depict things.

  Michael Haneke

  Imagination, Stronger

  Source: film.avclub.com

• Classicism becomes avant-garde when everyone else is doing their utmost to develop new stylistic forms. And I think it's healthy to return to classical forms.

  Michael Haneke

  Thinking, Healthy

  Source: film.avclub.com

• For me, it's always difficult when a historical film claims to depict or represent a reality that none of us can know, that is always different. It's always the case. We never know what happened then. So my approach with the narrator is to question that, to leave that open, to underline the fact that this is uncertain.

  Michael Haneke

  Reality, Historical, Different

  Source: film.avclub.com

• In general, in all my films, I choose to create a certain mistrust, rather than claiming that what I'm showing onscreen is an accurate reproduction of reality. I want people to question what they are seeing onscreen. In the same way as I used the narrator, I also used black and white, because it creates a distance toward what's being seen. I see the film as an artifact rather than a reliable reconstruction of a reality that we cannot know.

  Michael Haneke

  Distance, Black And White, Reality

  Source: film.avclub.com

• When you create a church, an institution, and you create a dogma. When you create an ideology, that's the danger. Communism, too, is a beautiful idea, but millions of people died when communism became an ideology.

  Michael Haneke

  Beautiful, People, Church

  Source: film.avclub.com

• When ideas lead to ideology, that's a very dangerous thing. Ideology then leads to creating the image of an enemy, and it leads to the murder and massacre.

  Michael Haneke

  Enemy, Murder, Dangerous

  Source: film.avclub.com

• Unfortunately, you're helpless when people interpret your work wrongly. There are simply people who can't or won't understand or accept what you're trying to do. When you take the risk of expressing yourself in public, you have to open yourself to that possibility.

  Michael Haneke

  People, Risk, Trying

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. December 30, 2009.

• The dumber people are, the more they feel the need for a broad set of shoulders they can lay their head against.

  Michael Haneke

  People, Needs, Broads

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. December 30, 2009.

• If I'm reading a book that doesn't leave me with questions, moving questions, that I feel confronted with, then for me it's a waste of time. I don't want to read a book that simply confirms what I already know.

  Michael Haneke

  Moving, Book, Reading

  Interview with Sam Adams, film.avclub.com. December 30, 2009.

• It is boring to have all the answers. Only political people have answers.

  Michael Haneke

  People, Political, Answers

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. December 30, 2009.

• Even the most elitist director or author who claims that he doesn't care if his works are seen or not, then I have to think that he's either a liar or a hypocrite.

  Michael Haneke

  Liars, Hypocrite, Thinking

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. December 30, 2009.

• For me, it's always difficult when a historical film claims to depict or represent a reality that none of us can know, that is always different. It's always the case. We never know what happened then.

  Michael Haneke

  Reality, Historical, Different

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. December 30, 2009.

• If a director says he doesn't care how many people see his films at all, I simply don't believe him. Otherwise why would he bother to make the film? The only explanation would be that it would be an act of masturbation. I think that every creator is looking for a receptor. He's looking for an audience. There are two parts of the equation: a creator and, necessarily, the receiver of the work. It's the same thing for a painter who wants his paintings to be seen.

  Michael Haneke

  Believe, Thinking, Two

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. December 30, 2009.

• The difficulty, then, is when you create a church, an institution, and you create a dogma. When you create an ideology, that's the danger. Communism, too, is a beautiful idea, but millions of people died when communism became an ideology.

  Michael Haneke

  Beautiful, Ideas, People

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. December 30, 2009.

• I think that religion is an integral part of human needs, but the question also is how you understand religion.

  Michael Haneke

  Thinking, Needs, Humans

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. December 30, 2009.

• Never say no. It always depends on what's possible. I don't care so much where it is; it's what I want to do that matters.

  Michael Haneke

  Care, Want, Matter

  Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• The trouble is that when you read criticisms about the other films that I've made you get the impression that they're all about themes, or problems, or ideas. But those are actually things that develop out of characters, out of images and out of other things. These more abstract things develop while working on the material, and out of it. It's not a theoretical exercise from the outset.

  Michael Haneke

  Character, Exercise, Ideas

  Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I want to be able to control things and that's very difficult to do if you're not 100% in a particular language. It makes you uncertain and it makes you nervous.

  Michael Haneke

  Want, Able, Language

  Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• Of course there are many films about the period of Fascism itself but I don't know of any about that period beforehand. But it wasn't that specific fact that they weren't there that got me to think about this in the first place. It's not what led to the basic idea for the film, although it became apparent when I began to think about it.

  Michael Haneke

  Thinking, Ideas, Firsts

  Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• The smaller and younger kids are, the more patient you have to be. But if they're gifted, then it's a wonderful present that you're given by having a child like that in your film... more so than in the case of actors because, for example, if you ask them to play a lion, they don't then play a lion, they actually are a lion. So, a gifted child is something very special. On the other hand, if a child has no gifts in that way it's absolutely hopeless and there's nothing you can do!

  Michael Haneke

  Children, Kids, Hands

  "The White Ribbon - Michael Haneke interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• It could be Fascist, religious or political - it's always the same model that operates in these circumstances, and it's that which is the actuality of this film. Therefore, it's not specifically an explanation of German Fascism because that would be an impossible thing to do in any case.

  Michael Haneke

  Religious, Impossible Things, Political

  Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.