Arthur Hiller on Open City:

“When I did Hospital, I wanted the feeling that the audience was peeking around the corner. So I did a lot of it handheld. I kept saying to the operators on certain shots, “Messy good, messy good.” Which is very hard for the operator to hear. They’re trained to be good and they can’t be messy. Then you’d say, “But I want that.” Deep down the camera operators were afraid that other operators would look at it and say, “You’re messy.” So I’d have to create shots that they couldn’t do well, or I’d go handheld. And a lot of it is done that way.”