To me the recognition of the audience is part of the filmmaking process. When you make a movie, it's for them.

I watched a lot of movies from all over the world. The Russians were very good at editing. They were specialists in editing. The Man with a Camera, if you know that movie, is incredible. I still don't understand how it works. It's a movie with no script, no actors and still it works. It's really good. It's really about editing.

I think the writer is always the creator, because he's starting with nothing, but the actor comes in and gives flesh and blood.

Bernard Herrmann was a genius, a great, great composer.

I looked at a lot of photos from Hollywood in the '20s, photographs of silent movies being filmed all over the world which are very specific and very evocative. Berenice, the lead actress, is my wife. She really followed the same path with me.

I make almost all the decisions on set and have to deal with all the financial aspects.

But I don't think of myself as a foreigner or a Frenchman! I just think of myself as a director. Whether I'm French or Australian or whatever, it's really not important.