"That's like saying Americans are gangsters because they like Michael Corleone in The Godfather."

Thursday, July 31, 2008 | 3:25 PM

Quotes from the interview circuit:

"That's basically ridiculous. That's like saying Americans are gangsters because they like Michael Corleone in The Godfather. We don't take ourselves that seriously."
--José Padilha, director of "Elite Squad" (I'm filled with urge to follow that title up with sound effects -- "Elite Squad: BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!") on why the success of his film doesn't indicate a nation-wide endorsement of vigilante justice, at the London Times.

"I've been noticing that a lot of young people today don't want to grow up. Why is that? It's because, in their eyes, society has stopped advancing."
--"Ghost in the Shell"'s Mamoru Oshii on his new, bleakish film "The Sky Crawlers," which will screen in competition at Venice this year, at the Daily Yomiuri.

"It's more demanding for the viewer, but I'd become frustrated at sitting in a cinema and being able to predict the cuts back and forth between Meryl Streep and Mel Gibson... In fact I was very interested when the Dogme rules came out, supposedly against 'manipulation', because they seemed completely happy with the conventional editing of film, which seems to me the most manipulative technique of all."
--Alex Cox on plano secuencia at Film in Focus.

"Well, I don't like to single out a film, mostly 'cos I don't want to embarrass any particular director or anyone else involved. You know, you simply do not set out to do a bad movie. And on top of that, 'bad movie,' well, it's sort of really an opinion, isn't it... I felt pretty self-conscious seeing myself in 'George of the Jungle,' in the loincloth and with the dialogue I had to say, and with the talking ape and everything."
--Brendan Fraser on why it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done, at the Japan Times.

"Huey Lewis and the News made music for my movie. It's such a benchmark, I don't know where to go professionally from here. I can't think of anything cooler."
--David Gordon Green on Lewis' "Pineapple Express" title song, at the LA Times.

[Photo: "Elite Squad," IFC Films, 2007]