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Portrait of Jonathan Demme

Jonathan Demme

(1944–2017) Film Director

66 quotes in 362 categories

Jonathan Demme was a film director, best known for Swing shift.

Quick Facts About Jonathan Demme

Born: February 22, 1944
Died: April 26, 2017
Profession: Film Director
Notable works: Swing shift

About Jonathan Demme

Robert Jonathan Demme was an American filmmaker. His career of directing, producing, and screenwriting spanned more than 30 years and 70 feature films, documentaries, and television productions. In addition to being an Academy Award and a Directors Guild of America Award winner, he received nominations for a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three Independent Spirit Awards.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Jonathan Demme

The occupied territories and the movement of settlements - moving people today off of their property and claiming it - is illegal.

Illegal

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I only work with actors who take full responsibility for their characters.

Actors

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I love the idea of documentaries. I love seeing documentaries, and I love making them. Documentaries are incredibly easy to shoot. The…

Camera

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I get creeped out by Francis Bacon's paintings, and I can't say exactly why. They're all really disturbing, and there is an…

Bacon

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I had had no aspirations to be a filmmaker or a writer.

Aspirations

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Extraordinary people are the Green Berets and the Navy Seals and the Olympic athletes - these are the ones who can face…

Athlete

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In early 1983, Gary Goetzman and I went to see my favorite band, the Talking Heads, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los…

Band

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I was a Talking Heads fan from the very beginning.

Beginning

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When Silence of the Lambs did well commercially it was more than anything. My partner Ed Saxon and I were just so…

Lambs

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I adore film, and I adore music.

Adore

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Nothing beats a live performance. Nothing.

Beats

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Everything I've made - it doesn't mean they've all been good - but everything I've made so far, big or little, fiction…

Bigs

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There is so much going on in our country and in the world today... We're getting the headlines for a second, shaped…

Country

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I'm of Neil Young's generation. Neil Young's songs have spoken to what it's like to be at least a white male of…

Care

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I think music is just a wonderful ingredient that helps us understand a scene better. And certainly you can overuse music, and…

Film

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I've always followed my enthusiasm. Whether the pictures have turned out good or not is one thing - but I've always had…

Always

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I like finding a great shot and then just staying with it for a long time, not trying to pump things up…

Artificial

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I like seeing the cameras because it helps visualize how the music people and the movie people teamed up.

Movie

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I'm guided by my enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm

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All of us who lived outside of New Orleans were horrified and heartbroken by what we saw when Katrina hit, the floods…

Hurricane

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The excitement of wading into 'reality' and just finding out what happens - and then the challenge of selecting those things that…

Adventure

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I'm all for streaming, and I do think it's thrilling that a gazillion people can see our film the day it drops.…

Cinema

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I felt from time to time that shooting live music is the most purely cinematic thing you can do. Ideally, the cinema…

Acting

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Documentaries - my God, there is so much going on in our country and in the world today that every time you…

Corporate

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It was so easy for me to see that Anthony would be a superb Dr. Lecter because he had been such an…

Amazing

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Jonathan Demme by topic

Film (15) Music (14) Cinema (13) Time (9)