Michel Hazanavicius

People inside the theaters usually, not 100 percent but most of them, enjoy the movie. Usually they come with a small negative view. In a way, they\'re prepared to get bored because it\'s silent and because it\'s black and white. So they are much more pleased to be entertained in a way. They\'re very happy when they go out. This was my job. For the other ones, I can do nothing except screen the movie and hope that they will say to their friends that it\'s not so [bad].

I think the writer is always the creator, because he\'s starting with nothing, but the actor comes in and gives flesh and blood.

Finally, you\'re right about one point, your entire way of thinking is predicted by what you\'re immersed in so you know you won\'t make a bad decision. You can make a bad decision but it\'s still in the good sphere normally if you work well. You\'re prepared to face a crew who wants to know everything and poses a hundred questions a minute, because you know you have good reflexes and can respond very quickly.

Usually, when you do a period movie, you just recreate what you are shooting. You don\'t recreate the way you shoot it. I think I did the same thing here as I did in the OSS 117 movies. I recreated the way to shoot that period, because to me, like what I was saying about the Steadicam, there\'s no sense to do a Steadicam shot in the 1920s because you have never seen the \'20s like that. You can\'t believe there was a Steadicam in the 1920s. I believe it\'s a continuation of the OSS 117 in a way but without the irony.

Sometimes I think you have to try to do things that people don\'t think are doable. I remember at the very beginning actually, the first person I had to convince was myself really because there\'s a self-censorship. When everybody says \'we don\'t do silent movies anymore,\' you agree with everybody, and you say \'yeah, you\'re right.\' It was a fantasy.

At the very beginning, it\'s a desire and that\'s not the same thing at all, because when you have the desire to do something, all the work you can do is a positive thing. It\'s not something that you calculate. An idea is something you work on to make it work and a desire is much deeper in a way. The immersion, it\'s classical, I watched a lot of movies.

I like to shoot beautiful things. My two previous movies were one in the \'60s, the other one in the \'50s, and this one is in the \'20s. This is a period that\'s very cinegenic. The cars, the props, the suits, the haircuts, the dresses, everything, and it gives you pleasure to compose frames with that material. The music, I really love jazz, so for me, when you have good materials and nice things, it\'s very pleasant.

I chose the American ones, more or less the last five years of the silent era, because those are the ones that aged the best in the way they tell the story. One, it\'s about human beings with context. It\'s a very classical story with feelings, with laughter, melodrama and it really works, the good ones - Murnau\'s American movies, John Ford\'s Four Sons, King Vidor\'s The Crowd, or the (Josef) von Sternberg movies. You can watch it now and it still works. I mean they are really, really good pieces so this is where I tried to work.

First of all, I had the desire for that format [silent movie], and then when I was talking to people, I felt that people needed justification. Why are you doing a silent movie? Is it just for your own pleasure? I felt it was not enough for them so I realized I have to choose the subject that will make things easier for them and to tell the story of a silent actor makes sense for doing a silent movie.

I went to Hollywood. I put the action in Hollywood. I watched a lot of movies, maybe 100 or something close to that. I have tons of DVDs now at home. I don\'t know what to do with them because they\'re not useful anymore. My kids never watched them. I read a lot of autobiographies, listened to a lot of music by classical era composers like Franz Waxman, Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman and Leonard Bernstein. I listened to only that kind of music the entire time I was writing, even at home.

Robert DeNiro, who may be the greatest living actor, usually acts in a way which is very stone-faced, like Steve McQueen. For example, Steve McQueen, if you cut the sound, you don\'t know what he\'s acting really. He gives to the lines, to the text, something very special, and he\'s very good. He was a great actor. But, to do a silent movie, you have to have more expressive actors.

I guess all the directors in France are influenced by Hitchcock, because he\'s the perfect visual director, in my eyes.

In France, it\'s really different the way you live. It\'s a non-religious country. The public space is not religious; religion is a private thing.

I think all the history of the Jewish people is about adaptation.

Anne Wiazemsky wrote two books about her life with Jean-Luc Godard between 1966 and 1969. And I first read the second one, which is about the fall of their love story and their marriage. I immediately thought there was a movie to make with this book because it was so funny, and I thought the love story was very, very touching.

I made a movie in Morocco. I made a movie in Brazil. I\'ve made commercials all over the world. Every set looks like another set.

The fact that I made a special movie with an old-fashioned style - even if it\'s a mix between with modern and old-fashioned things - must mean I feel both ways about change. In a way I\'m resisting, but in a way adapting myself to the times.

Here in France, what we love is Life. And all the pleasures that go with it.

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.

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

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

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.

My ambition with \'Redoubtable\' was to make a film that would be aesthetically pleasing, charming, and touching.

I can\'t force people to agree with me.

When you write a 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.

To work with kids is difficult. To work with non-actors is difficult.

With silent films, you\'re better off avoiding irony, because the spectator is your accomplice. It\'s this pact that leads to emotion being created.

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

It\'s a dream for a director, at least to try a studio movie.