-
You have to strike hard from the beginning and create a depressurizing zone between the viewer's own life and the one onscreen. The creators of James Bond got it right: the attention-grabbing scene of each Bond movie is the very first one, before the opening credits.
-
Appearance is valued too much in our society.
-
I am the guinea pig of my films in a way. I test the stories a bit before I make them. I've never hung myself like the character in my latest film, but I've tried to be a reporter of life.
-
The real loser of our times is the one who is expected to win.
-
It's funny: half my films were flops, half did well. It would be terrible if I'd had only success.
-
The more I go, the more I love life. Despite all the downfalls, I think it is extraordinary. I feel like I'm an observer in a science laboratory where you study life, lies and love. I'm delighted to be part of the experience. If you love life everything's possible. When you love life, life loves you back.
-
Shame is very painful to endure. For me it makes perfect sense that the character would kill herself.
-
I think my English gets worse. It's a tough language for the French, we phrase things completely different.
-
People are too pretentious in France to like Sarkozy. But he'd be a fabulous president for America.
-
The screenplay talks to the conscious mind and the music to the subconscious mind. Our subconscious tells us we are eternal but our consciousness tell us we are mortals. Music is part of eternity. If God exists he is the composer.
-
Each time I hit a low point I learn the most. Failure is the best university.
-
The perfect crime is when you push someone to suicide. I once read a study that said everyone in the course of their life has thought of killing someone.
-
Hollwood creates useful entertainment. There are millions of people on earth who need distraction and American cinema fulfills that function.
-
I decided that one day I had to make a film where the viewer couldn't possibly guess the end.
-
Cinema is dominated by stars you like from the get go.
-
Film-making is like spermatozoa: only one in a million makes it.
-
One day I'll make a film for the critics, when I have money to lose.
-
The constant in my films is love stories. I consider love the chief business of humanity.
-
I sometimes follow people who attract my curiosity in the street for five, ten minutes.
-
I deal with my actors as if they were my friends and people I love. They want to make me feel good and make me happy, and I want to make them happy. We are not in a professional relationship, we are in a passionate relationship.
-
I've seen many films and read lots of thrillers - and I'm always disappointed that I can guess the story before the other viewers.
-
If you want to kill someone, you'd better pull off a perfect crime. Our security lies in the fact that that's damnably hard to do.
-
I see a film as a puzzle, with a beginning, middle, and end, but I like to start at the end sometimes.
-
When a film is good, the spectators feel like they are the actors. What I love in film is not to watch the film but to live the film.