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

I sometimes follow people who attract my curiosity in the street for five, ten minutes.

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.

Each time I hit a low point I learn the most. Failure is the best university.

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

The constant in my films is love stories. I consider love the chief business of humanity.

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.