Time & Perspective Quote by Barbet Schroeder

Restlessness is the point, not a side effect. When Barbet Schroeder says, "Every time, I try to make something different", he is staking out a director's identity built on refusal: refusal to become a brand, to let a previous success dictate the next project, to turn style into a cage. Coming from a filmmaker whose career zigzags across documentaries, true crime, political paranoia, and psychological dread, the line reads less like a mission statement than a survival tactic in an industry that rewards repetition.

The phrasing matters. "Every time" suggests ritual and discipline, a repeated act of self-interruption. "Try" is the honest word: difference isn't guaranteed, especially when financing, casting, and audience expectations all pressure a director toward the familiar. Schroeder frames innovation as effort, not destiny. He isn't claiming genius; he's claiming appetite.

The subtext is a quiet argument about authorship. In auteur culture, directors are often praised for a consistent signature - the recognizable shot, the recurring theme, the same mood in new costumes. Schroeder flips that logic: his signature is the willingness to change signatures. It's also a subtle rebuke to prestige storytelling's current incentives, where algorithms and franchises turn novelty into a risk category.

Contextually, the quote lands as both artistic creed and professional strategy. To keep making films over decades, you either become predictable or become hard to pin down. Schroeder chooses the second, making difference itself the throughline.