You go overseas and people are oppressed and scared and worried but we're not like that... we're more like my films and how people come out at the end of seeing them - they feel good.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I absolutely refuse to accept the fact that any country in the world goes into a kind of film-making crisis. What happens is they lose confidence, they lose focus and the young film-makers of any particular generation can very easily get lost in that mix. It's happened in Italy, happened in France, happened in the U.K. during my lifetime.
Even some of us who make movies underestimate their influence abroad. American movies sell American culture. Foreigners want to see American movies. But that's also why so many foreign governments and groups object to them.
I always say to anybody who's going over to America for the first time, 'Whatever you do, go and see a popular mainstream film with a big audience.' Because people shout out. You never get that in Britain. Everybody's so quiet, scared to laugh. It's like being in church.
Movies are becoming more global, which is making them less intimate. If you make a movie for the world, you don't make it for any country.
I think there's a fear of difference in American cinema.
I feel like I have lived all over the world since I get to go everywhere to film.
I think as an American society, when we're paying too many taxes or dealing with war, we don't want to see sad things at the movies.
Movies are such an integral part of American culture. We're so spread out in this country, and movies offer us a chance to come together and have a communal experience.
People have to identify with their own stories, with their own lives, so a movie belongs to a country and to a culture. Sometimes we can share, but it's very rare.
I think America becomes more disgruntled by going to the movies and having an endlessly good time at them.