It's almost scary how stylish things can look if you take the color out - how much more you see the essence of things and how much more something can appear elegant.

In this age of consumerism film criticism all over the world - in America first but also in Europe - has become something that caters for the movie industry instead of being a counterbalance.

Take opera for example - to go to the opera you have to dress up in a tuxedo and pay lots of money.

There are a lot of things that dancers can do that actors cannot and actors can do that dancers cannot.

Everything is entertainment; criticism is now entertainment and it seems that the French directors have woken up one day and suddenly realised that they were not backed up any more.

Many French directors, having now realised there was no more real criticism, that the standards of the past have gone, are very offended about the quality of film criticism.

So I am getting a little bored with defining one type of film as American and the other European or from somewhere else because the division is no longer true.