I try to get closer to reality, to get close to the contradictions. The cinema world can be a real world rather than a dream world.

Well, the first thing I had to do was to read a lot. First of all, about education... and looking at education from the Middle Ages right through to the 20th Century. The second major area was country life in the 19th Century, which I don't know much about these days.

What I like are films that take me seriously, that don't treat me as more stupid than I am.

Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth, or at the service of the attempt to find the truth.

I think watching a movie that simply confirms my feelings is a waste of time. That applies not only to movies, but also to books and every form of art.

For me, it's always difficult when a historical film claims to depict or represent a reality that none of us can know, that is always different. It's always the case. We never know what happened then. So my approach with the narrator is to question that, to leave that open, to underline the fact that this is uncertain.

What we're doing for another person is more important than what we're feeling for them.