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.
Claude LelouchI see a film as a puzzle, with a beginning, middle, and end, but I like to start at the end sometimes.
Claude LelouchHollwood creates useful entertainment. There are millions of people on earth who need distraction and American cinema fulfills that function.
Claude Lelouch