Michel Hazanavicius

When you write a script that you've felt in your soul for a long time, you can't ask the actors to go through the same emotions. You have to do part of the job to make things as easy as possible for them.

I watched a lot of silent movies. It's a very specific way of writing, which is more of a challenge than the directing. You have to describe images. It's easier to shoot them.

'Avatar' is a great movie. I really love it.

I can't force people to agree with me.

You - as a director, you have to do your job, you have to show things, and you don't have to ask the actors to do it, or the dialogue.

The silent movie is an emotional cinema: it's sensory; the fact that you don't go through a text brings you back to a basic way of telling a story predicated on the feelings you have created.

I don't make films to reproduce reality.

What I love is to create a show and for people to enjoy it and be aware that's what it is: a show.

Even if I make fun of him, I try to portray him as a human being. Sometimes because he's the great Jean-Luc Godard, we see him as a concept.

I always try to make popular films. Even in black-and-white and silent.

When you speak of silent movies, everyone thinks of Charlie Chaplin first.

I only have one obsession - not to be boring.

French people are strange about America, I think.

I am unusual for a Frenchman - I have absolutely nothing against the United States.

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

I always loved silent movies. I was not a specialist, but I loved them. And when I started directing, I became really fascinated by the format - how it works, the device of the silent movie.

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

I'm very happy in France making movies.

But sometimes I think you have to try to do things that people don't think are doable.

I love silent cinema but don't hold it sacred. Like any branch of film there are some very boring films alongside the masterpieces.