If you wanted to make a film about British teenagers, it would be… well, it wouldn’t interest me; let’s put it like that. They’d be listening to music I hate, watching TV all the time, and talking about ‘Big Brother.’ Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
I grew up cinematically in the ’70s. I was watching a lot of Godard, Bresson, Dreyer, and all sorts of old films and the Czech New Wave. Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
I’m more interested in people the way they are than what they’ve done onscreen before. So I don’t worry much about the acting skills or the name, the status. I just think, ‘Do I believe this person? Do I like them? Are they interesting, complicated, have the right aura, energy?’ Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
To cast Ida, it took ages, and I was a bit desperate. I couldn’t find somebody I could believe in. I spent months looking for the lead among young actresses and drama students. Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
What’s been lost is allowing cinema to be artful, playful, to have ambiguity, to have form, to be contemplative, to wish to be art. This slightly timeless approach to reality, like Chekhov in literature, where you look at all humanity and try to find what’s transcendent. Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
I love good TV shows, but it’s not what I do. I kind of sculpt my films as I go along. And TV is all about writing, so you just shoot, shoot, shoot what’s written. Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
Ida’ is about humanity, about guilt and forgiveness. It’s not a film that deals with an issue as such. It’s more universal. Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
The whole world, it’s a problem that there’s too much stuff being produced. We don’t have time to reflect on the important things in life. Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
It’s wonderful that Poland is free again and there’s open debate and people can pursue their interests. I’m all for it. Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
I grew up in a secular environment, you know, in the ’60s and ’70s. My mother’s family was Catholic, but you know, just very kind of conventionally Catholic. You know, nothing – there was nothing, you know, extreme about their version of religion. And my father was a free spirit, you know? He had no time for religion at all. Pawel Pawlikowski Read Quote
