My way of remaining French was the financing scheme I used for Quest for Fire, with Fox funds, since it started as a 100% American production. The film was not in French and yet was French in style, reflecting my personality.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I had always studied French and was obsessed with French films. I hated the way American films always had happy endings. I liked the way French films had dark and unpleasant characters; it was much more realistic.
I grew up watching a lot of French cinema.
It's funny, I started by making fake American movies, 'The Transporter' and stuff like that. I was shooting in France, but everything was in English. But then afterwards, I was looking at real French movies like the Jacques Audiard movies.
What I think I'm perceived as in France is, like, I'm this leading man always doing strange movies because most of the movies I did, like 'Irreversible' or 'Brotherhood of the Wolf' and a bunch of others, and even in France, they always come out as a particular movie, not like the typical French kind of movies that people know most of the time.
I guess, being French, I love Hollywood.
I love shooting French films because I don't have to stick with being sophisticated or stuck-up.
I hope to continue my friendship with France and its filmmakers for many years to come.
France loves American cinema because when an American remake is successful, it makes us money to produce more French films.
Sure, I watched a lot of Hollywood movies. Maybe I've seen more Hollywood movies than French movies.
The French have got to understand that a film is so expensive that it can no longer afford to be regional or even national in scope.