The first idea of Young and Beautiful was to have a young boy and to explore the sexuality of boys. But, I realized, with a boy doing prostitution, of course it has to deal with homosexuality. And I had a feeling it was too much for the film, you know, sexuality, prostitution, adolescence ... there were too many films for one film.

Speaking with many young people, they act like their virginity is something you have to turn the page very quickly on. "It's done."

It's funny how people want to sometimes think that Young and Beautiful film is about all adolescents, but it's just the case of one girl. It doesn't mean all the adolescents are like that, of course.

It was not easy when I was a teenager. But today, with the new technology, with the Internet, everybody can do prostitution with two clicks. During the period of Belle du Jour, it was a very strong decision to go into the profession, but now, if you need a little bit money, you go on a website and you say, "Can I have 50 dollars?" It's easy! I wanted to show these facilities.

There is a kind of syndrome of girls who want to dirty themselves. They have the power. They control everything.

Sometimes it's easier for me to do films about, and with, women, because I have more distance, I'm more lucid.

I think young people are aware, more than when I was young. There is such an obsession in the media of young people, about their beauty. The magazines and the fashion, all these kinds of things. They know that, and they use this power.