Unfortunately. And it’s mostly a made-up story. It was incredible to see how it was created here. All over the news: Muslim rage or whatever. The rioting was not about being Muslim. These people have not been able to integrate. So if they have a crisis of identity, it’s forced upon them. If, after three generations of living in France, Arabs are still called Arabs and not French, then of course they will be angry. People ask why the Arabs don’t consider themselves French. Well, it’s because the French don’t consider them French. Then you had the Ministry of the Interior talking about cleaning the scum off the street. That doesn’t justify the violence—they don’t have the right to burn cities—but it explains what happened.

Anyway, what’s the point of a plot, you know? Has life got a plot? Not that I know of. So why should a novel have a plot? But it has to have some kind of story. It has to have some kind of structure.

Technology itself does not decide what the future looks like.

we are bashed by the media who say we should compete with Hollywood.

No, I’m afraid of nothing, actually. Maybe there are some genres that I would not feel uncomfortable with. I’m not sure I’d be able to do a western or a science-fiction film, but you never know.

That was the case for me when I made Angel, which was in English and was a big flop.

But I don’t want to repeat myself. And I realised that in America, the producer is the master of the film and the director is just a technician.

I would be able to shoot even more if I didn’t have the promotion and all these kinds of things to do. I would do it like Fassbinder — seven films a year — if I could. Making films is a pleasure for me.

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

Not always. Actually I like to do movies but I’m quite bored with all the work around. All the promotion. Actually, when you’re successful, all this work around is quite difficult. But, I have to deal with that.