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.

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.

The last film is always the most important.

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

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.

People are too pretentious in France to like Sarkozy. But he'd be a fabulous president for America.