To use an image, making a film is like climbing a mountain or crossing an ocean. Every day has its challenges.

I have many projects in various states of development. Some are on paper and some are in my head. But as I go on, I feel the need to be guided in my choices.

What really enthralls me is working with the actor and seeing where you can go with that. It's in that exchange and that relationship.

This film [ Blue is the Warmest Color] actually is the result of me talking with my producer Vincent [Maraval]. I gave him a bunch of ideas and then Vincent helped guide me and develop this particular film. I enjoy that rapport to have somebody else help guide me in my choices for the next film. The poetic way of looking at it is which project is going to choose me as a director.

Every day, there's that tension and the pressure. Each scene that you shoot is like getting to that next step, but there's still that mountain to climb. So it's not like one day is harder or one scene is harder. They are all equally challenging.

When it comes time to make the scenes concrete and shoot them, I want the freedom for it to exist which means adding, subtracting or modifying.

[ Blue is the Warmest Color ] was really a film about two people having to go through a relationship which everyone knew would lead to a breakup and the pain that that entails. Anybody can see that story, what leads to that, and identify with it. As a filmmaker, I wanted to construct this identification process with the characters so that you fully connect to their emotions and what their breakup [represents].