Everything man does creates more harm than good. We have to accept that fact and not delude ourselves into thinking something is sustainable.

There is an awful lot of pious theatre at the moment, where you go to have what you already believed reinforced.

You now have to address the fact that we might live in so-called wealthy countries at the expense of people who live in poor countries. Our wealth is maybe dependent on somebody else from the poverty side of the equation, suffering on our behalf.

I just don't really see the dialectic between inside and outside, and corporate and revolutionary, as being as cut and dry as I used to.

But I need to show my work during the process. In the editing room, very often I invite friends and I do some test screenings with friends or people I know: editors, journalists sometimes. I ask them, Is it boring? Is it too long? What do you think?

Truffaut, Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, they were the great directors of the Nouvelle Vague. They found the freedom to make exactly the films they wanted. Chabrol was important because he was able to make very strong portraits of women and very complex portraits of women. He was very clever and he had a lot of joy and pleasure. He didn’t have some big theories about his work, he just enjoyed making films. I try to work like that.

I didn’t think anything actually [before],” he nods. “And now I ask many questions. Because I don’t know what I will do in such a situation.

No. You don't have to have rules. If you have rules—you know in cinema you have to be very pragmatic.

But I need to show my work during the process. In the editing room, very often I invite friends and I do some test screenings with friends or people I know: editors, journalists sometimes. I ask them, Is it boring? Is it too long? What do you think?

The truth is that the actresses supposedly have to get operated on and go through cosmetic surgery.