Walter Salles quotes

Walter Salles, a visionary Brazilian filmmaker, is renowned for his captivating storytelling and visually stunning movies. With a passion for exploring the human experience, Salles brings a unique perspective to every project he undertakes. From the critically acclaimed "Central Station" to the iconic "The Motorcycle Diaries," his films have received worldwide praise. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Salles graduated from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema and Television. His masterful direction and dedication to authenticity have earned him numerous accolades, including the prestigious Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or. As a filmmaker, Salles seamlessly blends social, political, and personal narratives, offering profound insights into the complexities of the human condition. Explore the cinematic world of Walter Salles and be captivated by his transformative storytelling.

The necessity to conceptualise has to come very early on, and defining a vector of development for that film also at the beginning of the process will allow you much more freedom as you go along.

- Walter Salles

The Peruvian faces are completely different from that faces in Argentina and in Brazil.

- Walter Salles

On the contrary, I'm a strong believer in the necessity of imperfection coming into the film.

- Walter Salles

So the search for a father in Central Station is also a search for a country.

- Walter Salles

A filmmaker can never be distant from his roots.

- Walter Salles

That's why I have always admired documentaries, because they open windows that can make you understand much better where you come from, much better than fiction, I think.

- Walter Salles

So I feel a responsibility to help first-time film-makers in Brazil, but also to increase the dialogue between film cultures which are really wonderful and so much closer to us than what we do see on our screens.

- Walter Salles

Also, I knew that the impact of Motorcycle Diaries was going to be so resonant for all of us who went through the experience of making it that I didn't want to do anything that could reflect it.

- Walter Salles

The films that I've done before were original stories most of the time, I did two adaptations before this, but they were mostly original stories where I had complete freedom to evolve in the direction I wanted.

- Walter Salles

The Sundance Institute has been vital to the film communities of Latin America.

- Walter Salles

And my generation in Brazil was influenced by Cinema Novo. So we're echoing what's been done way in the past.

- Walter Salles

There are still 500,000 persons afflicted with leprosy in Latin America, so it is still very much present.

- Walter Salles

I'm much more interested in living specific experiences in films.

- Walter Salles

When I come to London, I always like to see what's playing at the NFT.

- Walter Salles

But I also think that the more you reason collectively about what the project should be at the beginning of the process, the more you can improvise later.

- Walter Salles

I did documentaries for maybe 10 years before I turned to fiction films.

- Walter Salles

We all knew the book well because it's the cult book in Latin America. For me, this was a sacred territory. I would not have ventured into it by myself.

- Walter Salles

My father was a diplomat for part of his life and I jumped from country to country and culture to culture.

- Walter Salles

So when I was very young, I longed for Brazil.

- Walter Salles

The other aspect is that you become much more aware of the structural problems that pertain to that continent. You feel the need to act to try and solve them.

- Walter Salles

Also, there are now new laws in Brazil which create incentives for Argentine and Latin American films to be premiered and distributed in Brazil and vice versa.

- Walter Salles

It was a complex endeavor so without Robert Redford's constant support we wouldn't have gotten to the end.

- Walter Salles

I come from a country and also a continent whose identity is in the making. We're a very young culture, and I think that things are not yet crystallised.

- Walter Salles