Serious drama in a significant degree began at Harvard in the 1880s. In 1881, the Cercle Francais initiated the annual French play, and shortly afterwards the German and Spanish clubs added their productions.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I went to university in the north of England at University of Birmingham to do an English literature degree, and I knew I could do extracurricular stuff with theater and drama. I started a theater company, called Article 19, and I did it with a bunch of friends. I wrote and directed plays. I had a radio show.
I grew up watching a lot of French cinema.
I was thinking of going to London drama schools or to New York, because France didn't accommodate the things I wanted to do in film.
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.
When I arrived at Columbia, I gave up acting and became interested in all things French. French poetry, French history, French literature.
I think what's very French is the mixture of comedy with intimacy and a kind of reflectiveness. For U.S. audiences, the nearest thing is Woody Allen.
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.
I went to drama school and, after that, went to Paris to train at a place called Ecole Philippe Gaulier. When I came home, I realised I'd have to have a serious stab at it. I didn't have an agent and didn't have the traditional drama school showcase, so I started a comedy group with a couple of friends.
We don't have drama in public schools in France. I had never taking an acting class.
I went to Paris for a year in 1986 to study theatre; there was a lot of clowning around, buffoonery and fencing. It was then that my own style kind of blossomed.