— I work as a cinematographer for very different types of projects: fictions, documentaries, commercials... I also worked a lot as an editor. Whether you work as a cinematographer, as an editor or as a director, your goal is the same: to tell a story with images and sound.
Except that this time, as a director, I had to work for myself, for my own personal vision, and not for someone else's.

— First, I received a short story written by a novelist named Vincent Mondiot. I thought there was something to do with it.
Then, I saw Hovnatan Avédikian, a great actor and a good friend, playing in theatre. I really wanted to offer him a role in a film, aso the idea came up to adapt Vincent's short story into a short film. I then asked Hovnatan to propose me an actor that he would like to play with, and with whom he already had some kind of complicity, because I wanted it to be obvious on screen, the fact that they knew each other, and not that they were getting to know each other (I had less than two days of shooting, so I knew I couldn't create this complicity on set).
He proposed me to hire Jean-Claude Dreyfus, a wonderful actor who acted in movies directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Werner Herzog, Yves Boisset, Eric Rohmer... and I was actually thinking of him too. I called him, he accepted. Once I had a story and my actors, I couldn't go back, I just had to do it, because I made a commitment to these people.

—I knew from the beginning that I didn't want any funding. In France, getting funds take too much time, and you have to justify everything to people in commissions who might not have the same artistic sensibility than you. Or who might not be friends enough with you.
Besides, I didn't want to lose the creative energy, so I just wanted to take a camera, a few lenses, a sound recordist, actors, to find a nice set, and to create an artistic space where we could all express ourselves, and have fun even though we worked hard, but without answering to no one about what we were doing.
It allowed us to really go fast in terms of shooting, and to all be able to participate in the creative process. It was like an artistic orgy. Besides, having a very light crew allowed us to be really together, and to be free. And freedom, in the cinema industry, is a luxury.

— The whole shooting was a very funny moment in itself.

— I don't think you can make movies if you don't have dreams. Or I should rather say: I don't think you can make movies, if you don't have the capacity to make dreams come true. Because this is, I believe, the essence of what we do in cinema. One of my many dreams would be to create a musical comedy, adapted from a book. It would be a way for me to mix all my passions together: music, literature, and cinema.

— "Ulysse's gaze" (1995), by Theo Angelopoulos. Because it is not a movie. It is much more than that. It goes beyond cinema, it goes beyond everything. It is unique.
The actors (Harvey Keitel, Maia Morgenstern...), the camera movements, the music, even the extras... Everything in this movie is extraordinary. So full of emotions. So powerful.

— Surround yourself with the right people. Trust them (this is why you chose them in the first place), and make them trust you by being honest, sincere, and open. And stay away from assholes. There are so many of them in this industry.