Cinema is great as long as the acting is good, which means good directing. It's at the heart of everything. If a scene doesn't work, if a film seems unconvincing, it is because the actors are bad, or there is a bad vibe on the set.

I knew a director, Pierre Romans, who said an actor must never act poetic and to be poetic, you have to act in a realistic manner, with a trivial element. I agreed with him and ever since, I've been thinking that way about everything, including the way I compose shots. Poetry in cinema can only exist unconsciously. It comes out if the film has a soul.

[on his favorite films] My three top films are Godard's Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962), Bergman's Monika (1953) and Murnau's L'aurore (1927).