Alejandro Amenabar Quotations

My movies, in general, I have the impression that when they finish of course they're never originally what you had in mind.

I would love to stay alone when I'm creating.

For my first movie, I think my first cut was like three hours, because when you first direct a movie, you want to keep everything. But I'm not one of those directors who falls in love with the stuff they've done. Already when I'm doing my first cut, I'm willing to cut out everything that is necessary.

My first cut is always pretty similar to the final cut.

In Hollywood you always feel a bit like a hake. The publicists march people up and down in front of you and they interview you... You feel like the turbot and the sea-bream go by, and you're the hake.

Sometimes a piece of music in the score isn't effective. When a score is too well finished with too many elements, sometimes it's too much.

Sometimes it depends on the actor or the actress. Sometimes they demand a lot of rehearsals. Sometimes they don't. Making movies is not like making a play, so I guess you can leave some of the work for improvisation when they do the work.

An Oscar means a lot of things because it's like the ultimate award for a filmmaker so it feels great. But I think you have to consider awards with some distance and not get obsessed with it. When you're creating you shouldn't think about it.

What we wanted to show was that this man, after 30 years, decides he wants to die and he doesn't seem to us like someone who was unstable, as some people have suggested.

Trying to get the attention of the audience in the opposite way it's done in Hollywood today, which is to bombard the audience.