"It would be great to make a movie that had the style of a great '30s film"
About this Quote
The subtext is a quiet critique of contemporary naturalism, where realism often gets treated as moral virtue and “invisible” craft is the default. Dern’s career has moved fluidly between heightened art-house intensity and mainstream polish, so this isn’t nostalgia from the sidelines. It’s an actor’s desire for a stronger aesthetic container, one that gives performance permission to be bigger, cleaner, and more deliberate without apologizing for itself.
There’s also a cultural itch behind the line: in an era of streaming abundance and digital flatness, the ’30s read like an antidote - not because the period was purer, but because its movies made constraint look like confidence. The Great Depression decade produced fantasies with steel in their spine: escapism that knew it was escapism, and leaned into the architecture of illusion. Dern’s intent, ultimately, is a challenge: what if we stopped chasing “authentic” and started chasing “crafted”?
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Dern, Laura. (2026, February 16). It would be great to make a movie that had the style of a great '30s film. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-would-be-great-to-make-a-movie-that-had-the-152113/
Chicago Style
Dern, Laura. "It would be great to make a movie that had the style of a great '30s film." FixQuotes. February 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-would-be-great-to-make-a-movie-that-had-the-152113/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It would be great to make a movie that had the style of a great '30s film." FixQuotes, 16 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-would-be-great-to-make-a-movie-that-had-the-152113/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.







