You know what happened, you know, in 1938: France, England, you know, just sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler.

First of all, to defend my work, I had to believe that I am doing a totally silly, stupid, innocent comedy.

So I left with Jean Claude and went to Paris, so when the Russians came to Prague, I was in Paris.

You really see life around the principals to be as important as the main, principal actors. That's what cinéma vérité taught me - that it's not a question of having a main character, a great actor, and the rest is unimportant. Every detail, every face in the crowd is important.

You know what happened, you know, in 1938: France, England, you know, just sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler.

So, thanks God, our films, our first films were suddenly being appreciated by the Western media; especially France was very good, and Switzerland was very good.

Communists love to make films about composers, because composers compose music and don't talk subversive things.