Latest Frederick Wiseman Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I do not think that my films or films by any other filmmaker represent "THE TRUTH." I do not feel the need to categorize my films or anyone else's.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Thinking, Needs, Film

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

• I am bad at cultural generalizations but I would venture to say that by a wide margin there is less hypocrisy about sex in France than in America.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Sex, America, Hypocrisy

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

• If I worked in my apartment, I'd never leave my apartment.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Apartment, Ifs

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Unfortunately, I never played an instrument. I can't blame my parents, but I wish I had had music lessons. It's odd because I think I have a good sense of rhythm, as they say in some fields. But I don't know anything about music.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Thinking, Parent, Wish

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Paris is a beautiful city to walk around in. And, you know, all the obvious things: I like the museums, I like the theater, I like the dance. And it's manageable. The food's good. I know a lot of interesting people here. I lived in Boston for 50 years or more. Wherever I am, I'm usually holed up most of the time in the editing room, and so, when I leave the editing room, even if I just take a walk, it's gorgeous. And I walk everywhere. I'm a victim of the seduction of Paris.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Beautiful, Museums, Editing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• A lot of the issues of rhythm in film are found in the editing because it's very rare that any sequence is the sequence that is shot.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Editing, Issues, Film

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• It's rare in a documentary film that you have a repetitive act. So when you do, you can shoot it in different ways so that you have more choices when you're sitting down to edit that sequence six months later.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Choices, Sitting Down, Different

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• This whole business of documentary being a second-class citizen is bullshit. A documentary can be as interesting, as dramatic, as sad, as funny, blah, blah, blah, as a fiction movie. Or it can be as awful as a fiction movie!

  Frederick Wiseman

  Class, Interesting, Bullshit

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• There's the internal rhythm within a sequence, and then there's the rhythm between the sequences, and that's extremely important in constructing the narrative. For example, you don't put two big dramatic scenes right next to each other. But you can use the rhythm of the transition shots; they can often serve a double purpose.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Two, Important, Example

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• There's a literal track: who says what to whom, what are people wearing, etcetera. And there's the abstract track: what ideas are suggested by the literal. And the real movie takes place in the relationship between the literal and the abstract.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Real, Ideas, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I'm in no way suggesting that I succeed, but it's inspiring to read somebody who does succeed and from whom, in a general way, you can draw examples and nourishment and sustenance.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Example, Doe, Way

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• My job as a film editor is to construct a dramatic narrative because otherwise it's just a chaotic arrangement of sequences.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Jobs, Editors, Narrative

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I think I've learned a lot about how to make movies, and particularly about how to edit movies by thinking about how similar problems are resolved in other forms. The issues in all forms are the same in an abstract sense, aren't they? Characterization, abstraction, metaphor, passage of time... Whether it's a movie, a novel, a play, or a poem, those issues exist. And each person resolves them differently.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Thinking, Play, Issues

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Even if I know I'm going to go to a church, I don't know what the minister's going to say.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Church, Ministers, Knows

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I'm drawn to making movies about contemporary life. The reason I choose institutions is because they provide a limit, a boundary.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Limits, Boundaries, Reason

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I don't really know what I want, other than good sequences, whatever that means. What I find is always a matter of chance, judgment, and luck.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Mean, Luck, Want

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• Making movies is an effort is an attempt to leave a trace of your existence.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Effort, Existence

  "Frederick Wiseman on his new film and his dream of shooting in the White House". Interview with Sam Fragoso, www.avclub.com. November 3, 2015.

• I think my movies aren't sentimental. I think my movies are funny and sad and realistic. Not realistic in the sense that they're documentaries, but realistic in the sense that they're not idealistic, they're not optimistic, not pessimistic, and not propagandistic. They're an analysis of a situation. I call it as I see it, so to speak.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Optimistic, Thinking, Analysis

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I'm very careful of not being critical of other people's movies, which work in different styles. I think some of my movies can be interpreted as critical of their subjects.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Thinking, People, Style

  "Frederick Wiseman on his new film and his dream of shooting in the White House". Interview with Sam Fragoso, www.avclub.com. November 3, 2015.

• I'm too busy to be nostalgic, which is one of the reasons to keep busy. I'm not a very sentimental person.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Sentimental, Busy, Reason

  "Frederick Wiseman on his new film and his dream of shooting in the White House". Interview with Sam Fragoso, www.avclub.com. November 3, 2015.

• I'm interested in ordinary experience, and regardless of the precise definition of ordinary, and I've found that in so-called ordinary experience, there is as much comedy, tragedy, sadness, as there is in great drama. And I don't invent it, I recognize it.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Drama, Sadness, Tragedy

  "Frederick Wiseman on his new film and his dream of shooting in the White House". Interview with Sam Fragoso, www.avclub.com. November 3, 2015.

• One's relationship to time is complicated, and sometimes a day will drag on forever and sometimes it'll be over in a flash. When you look back, "I'm old," after 40 or 60 years, I can't believe I'm as old as I am.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Believe, Years, Forever

  "Frederick Wiseman on his new film and his dream of shooting in the White House". Interview with Sam Fragoso, www.avclub.com. November 3, 2015.

• Documentary filmmaking ruins you for real life, because you learn to be extremely attentive.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Real, Ruins, Documentaries

  "Frederick Wiseman on his new film and his dream of shooting in the White House". Interview with Sam Fragoso, www.avclub.com. November 3, 2015.

• In moviemaking, you learn to pay attention to detail, because so much is in the detail. And when you're shooting, you try to be very alert to what's going on, even if you're tired.

  Frederick Wiseman

  Tired, Trying, Details

  Source: www.avclub.com