Mumbai, Nov 6 (IANS) Greek director Theo Angelopoulos, who received the lifetime achievement award at the 11th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), says festivals show cinema as an art and not a commodity.

"I like festivals because it shows cinema as an art and not a commodity," Angelopoulos told IANS.

The director, who doesn't speak or understand English, had an interpreter by his side while talking to IANS on the sidelines of the film fest that concluded Thursday.

The films he has made are episodic, meticulously choreographed and have narratives with long takes.

"It's like a literature having long sentences with comma and full stop. Like that, the manner of writing my films also has a long take. Sometimes I take short takes as well, if the scene is small," explained Angelopoulos.

The director, who is famous for his trilogies, says the story never gets exhausted with one film.

"The stories do not get exhausted. There is always another angle from where we can see the same thing. For example the trilogy of silence, there is a silence of history 'Voyage to Cythera', silence of love 'The Beekeeper' and silence of god 'Landscape in the Mist'. There are three angles under the same word silence," said Angelopoulos.

The 74-year-old director is known for writing the story, dialogues and screenplay.

"I write my own stories, dialogues and screenplays. I have worked with other scriptwriters but they are just devil's advocates. If they like the story they say yes, else no. They can't change my script into a good screenplay. They do not offer you anything new," said Angelopoulos, who has made films like "Ulysses" and "The Dust of Time".