Daily Inspiration Quote by Barbet Schroeder

Schroeder is doing that sly director move: praising the past while protecting the present. When he says he tries not to have favorites, he’s not dodging the question so much as refusing the consumer-grade ranking system we’re trained to impose on artists. A filmography isn’t a playlist. Picking a “best” turns messy, contingent work into a tidy brand narrative, and he’s pushing back against that simplification.

The nod to Barfly is strategic candor. It’s a cult object with a certain credibility: Charles Bukowski’s aura, Mickey Rourke at his most unvarnished, a grimy romanticism about self-destruction that plays like anti-Hollywood Hollywood. Admitting affection for it signals taste without sounding self-mythologizing. He’s telling you what kind of filmmaker he is: drawn to unruly characters, morally compromised rooms, stories that smell like real life.

Then comes the kicker: “My favorite is always the one I just finished.” That’s less sentiment than survival tactic. Directing is an ordeal of compromises, financing, logistics, bruised egos, and second-guessing. To call the newest work your favorite is to keep faith with the process, to defend the thing you can still shape in the culture’s mind. It’s also a quiet confession that films aren’t finished when they’re finished; they keep changing in retrospect. The latest one is the only one that hasn’t yet calcified into legend, regret, or trivia.