Lumet Quotes & Sayings

My job is to care about and be responsible for every frame of every movie I make. I know that all over the world there are young people borrowing from relatives and saving their allowances to buy their first cameras and put together their first student movies, some of them dreaming of becoming famous and making a fortune. But a few are dreaming of finding out what matters to them, of saying to themselves and to anyone who will listen, "I care." A few of them want to make good movies. — Sidney Lumet

Don't let the difficulty of actually achieving a shot make you think that the shot is good. — Sidney Lumet

Family faces are magic mirrors...we see the past, present, and future. — Gail Lumet Buckley

Sometimes, on particularly good takes, I'm so moved that I stop "doing" the scene and just watch in awe at the miracle of good acting. As I said earlier, that's life up there. When it flows like that, that's when I say "Print. — Sidney Lumet

I was walking around with the babies so much that when I got to the Sidney Lumet picture, I would be on set in between takes and I'd be rocking back and forth. Just standing like this rocking back and forth, and Sidney would say, Why are you walking like that in between takes? — Vin Diesel

Alejandro Amenabar is a different kind of director than I lot of the directors I've asked for. He really asks you to enter his dream as opposed to, you know, a guy like Sidney Lumet or something is going to ask you to create a character almost like a documentary. He wants you to make the people really real and he's going to capture it like a documentarian. — Ethan Hawke

If I don't have a script I adore, I do one I like. If I don't have one I like, I do one that has an actor I like or that presents some technical challenge. — Sidney Lumet

Dolby was in the driver's seat. "Surround Sound" was added. Now we had three speakers behind the screen, two more on the left side of the theater, and two on the right. A closely guarded secret about all this is that you hear the correct balance only if you're sitting in the center of the theater. On the left or right side, those speakers tend to dominate. — Sidney Lumet

There are no personal revelations other than feelings arising from the work itself — Sidney Lumet

I know I'm going to sound like an idiot, because I actually think that everybody's the nicest guy ever, but I'm telling you: George Clooney, Roland Emmerich, Sidney Lumet - these are literally the nicest people. — Peter Jacobson

I don't know how to choose work that illuminates what my life is about. I don't know what my life is about and don't examine it. My life will define itself as I live it. The movies will define themselves as I make them. As long as the theme is something I care about at the moment, it's enough for me to start work. Maybe work itself is what my life is about. — Sidney Lumet

Sidney Poitier and Sidney Lumet were instrumental in helping me get started as the first black composer to get name credit for movie scores. — Quincy Jones

I approach 'Fast & Furious 6' the same way I would approach a Sidney Lumet film. Getting into character's getting into character. — Vin Diesel

I'm a product of older filmmakers I guess, the past where you get to make movies and scenes are what they are. You know if you think about Scorsese back in the day when he was making Taxi Driver, or Coppola or Frankenheimer, Sidney Lumet, they're making films where you witness violence in a real way. — Antoine Fuqua

But he meant beauty in the sense of its organic connection to the material. And this is the connection that, for me, separates true stylists from decorators. The decorators are easy to recognize. That's why critics love them so. — Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet's chief preoccupation wasn't art. It was right and wrong in the American city, nearly always in New York. — Wesley Morris

I did this thing for HBO called 'Strip Search' with Sidney Lumet, who was one of the best directors I've ever worked with. We actually had a rehearsal period before we shot, which is unusual. — Ken Leung

Bradley Cooper was an asshole, but he was - like Sidney Lumet, like George Clooney - the nicest guy in the world. I sound like the biggest ass-kisser ever. But I'm telling the truth, I swear to God! — Peter Jacobson

There are no minor decisions in movie making. Each decision will either contribute to a good piece of work or bring the whole movie crashing down around my head many months later. — Sidney Lumet

During 'Chicago Hope,' I never let directors talk to me, because I was so spoiled. I started off with people like Milos Forman, Sidney Lumet, James Lapine, unbelievably gifted people. So there I was, saying, 'Don't talk to me, I don't want your opinion.' I behaved abominably. — Mandy Patinkin

I don't know if you've ever seen some of the Sidney Lumet movies, like Dog Day Afternoon [1975] or Network [1976]. They're real events that happen in real time, and there are all of these different characters experiencing the same thing in different parts of the movie ... I am so bad at explaining my films. But it's in the world of finance and the world of media, and how they connect. It was a big undertaking. A big, mainstream movie, which stars Julia Roberts and George Clooney. But for me, it's really just a small story about character and people. — Jodie Foster

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen. — Sidney Lumet

'The Color Purple' is the kind of character piece that a director like Sidney Lumet could do brilliantly with one hand tied behind his back. — Steven Spielberg

There's no such thing as a small part. There are just small actors. — Sidney Lumet

Good style, to me, is unseen style. — Sidney Lumet

Over-length is one of the things that most often results in the destruction of the movie in the cutting room. — Sidney Lumet

You try to follow suit and the directors I work with, like Sidney Lumet (on film in Before The Devil Knows You're Dead and TV in 100 Centre Street) who thinks actors hung the moon, thinks they can do anything, but he also works really quickly, the same like Clint Eastwood, and so you better also do your homework, you know? — Amy Ryan

In drama, the characters should determine the story. In melodrama, the story determines the characters. — Sidney Lumet

Work is my norm. I have mad energy, insane energy, a kind of stamina in terms of work that's a little crazy. — Sidney Lumet

I only said 'Titanic' is unwatchable because one can not watch it. — Sidney Lumet

Everything becomes creative if the person doing the job is — Sidney Lumet

I'm a huge fan of the films of the '70s and even into the '80s, Sidney Lumet, all those films that used what was going on in people's lives as drama. And not only are you entertained, but hopefully have a greater understanding of your world coming out of it. — J. C. Chandor

The nature of the work is to prepare for a good accident . — Sidney Lumet

All good work requires self-revelation. — Sidney Lumet

The varying physical characteristics of the actors may also necessitate changes. Sean Connery is six feet four. Dustin Hoffman isn't. — Sidney Lumet

The basic 110-volt AC power line moves the electrons at 60 cycles. If a transformer is close to the power source (and all speakers have transformers), the 60 cycles produce an audible hum. Crackling, caused by dirt on the sound head, can also be heard. — Sidney Lumet

While the goal of all movies is to entertain, the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and sets the mental juices flowing. — Sidney Lumet

It's art. It's commerce. It's heartbreaking and it's fun. It's a great way to live. — Sidney Lumet

There's a powerful magic about being a writer that I still marvel at. — Sidney Lumet

Books are made out of books." - Cormac McCarthy Brian Eno, A Year With Swollen Appendices Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come From David Byrne, How Music Works Mike Monteiro, Design Is a Job Kio Stark, Don't Go Back to School Ian Svenonius, Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group Sidney Lumet, Making Movies P.T. Barnum, The Art of Money Getting — Austin Kleon

Suffice to say that the theme (the WHAT of the movie) is going to determine the style (the HOW of the movie). — Sidney Lumet

For any director with a little lucidity, masterpieces are films that come to you by accident. — Sidney Lumet