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.

It's funny: half my films were flops, half did well. It would be terrible if I'd had only success.

I see a film as a puzzle, with a beginning, middle, and end, but I like to start at the end sometimes.

Shame is very painful to endure. For me it makes perfect sense that the character would kill herself.

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.

I decided that one day I had to make a film where the viewer couldn't possibly guess the end.

Hollwood creates useful entertainment. There are millions of people on earth who need distraction and American cinema fulfills that function.