Leos Carax, as a leading French "new wave" film director, was known by his works Boy Meets Girl and The Lovers on the Bridge. He is also known as a man with little words.In this interview, Carax,jury member of Golden Goblet Award of Shanghai International Film Festival, talks about his attitudes toward film and life.
Daily News: You once said you don\'t see movies very often, so as a judge of Golden Goblet Award, you must see a lot in these days. How do you feel?
Carax: I said that because in my mind, there are only very few good films worth watching in this world. The majority are not worth the time of watching. But a good movie calls for the investment of time of viewing and studying. Film is the core of my work and watching movies is always an important part of my life, no matter I were 24 or 70 years old.
Daily News: You\'ll give a lecture named "Make Your Own Movies" in the "Masters\' Class" program. What does mean to you? I mean "make your own movies".
Carax: First, you can\'t make others\' movies, right? (laugh) The most important is to respect the audiences. The movies should be your own style and have your own originality, even your crazy ideas. You can do by yourself, but when making a movie we should be practical because lots of factors, such as capital, production and communication with others should be considered. Although I hate to communicate with others, filmmaking is teamwork and it\'s not easy to find proper partners.
Daily News: As a European director, how do you like Hollywood commercial movies?
Carax: Hollywood is like a big factory, and workers work, have lunch, drink coffee, and make movies every day. Movies are sold to the market like goods off the assembly lines. Besides, Hollywood values money very much and they usually invest a large amount of money. But we can\'t deny that Hollywood have great filmmaking team and equipments.
Daily News: Do you think Hollywood\'s commercial movies lack of art?
Carax: (Laugh) May be, a little.
Daily News: Do you know Chinese movies and directors?
Carax: I watched a few Chinese movies, such as movies by Wang Xiaoshuai and Jia Zhangke. I know John Woo a lot because he\'s famous in the world.
Daily News: Will you take this chance to find new actors?
Carax: Life can\'t be predicted. It\'s my aim to travel around including this trip to Shanghai. As I said above, it\'s not easy to find proper partners and we can wait and see.
Daily News: You\'re regarded as a man with few words. What\'s your opinion?
Carax: Most of time, I\'m silent, maybe this is my personality. But I say a lot when working and making movies. Like most people, this is decided by your interest. I\'m interested in movies and love, and I talk a lot with people who have common things with me.
Daily News: Do you mind people saying you are low in productivity, since you have only 4 films under your name?
Carax: I don\'t mind because it\'s ture.
Daily News: There\'s an old Chinese saying "Slow work yields fine products." Does the quality of your work related to the speed of the production?
Carax: Low productivity doesn\'t mean I make movies slowly. I took 6 weeks to make my first movie, 17 weeks for the second and 2 weeks for my third movie. There\'s also a movie taking a long time, such as The Lovers on the Bridge. The length of time is decided by the content of movies. I don’t have many works not only because filmmaking is difficult as I said above but films are not all my life.
Daily News: Then, what do you do when you don’t make movies?
Carax: I\'m busy in thinking, loving, caring my daughter. In addition, I have lots of jobs for fun and money.
Daily News: Do you have work plan in the following time?
Carax: I plan to make a new movie in December this year, but I\'m sorry I can\'t tell the details. There\'ll be some old cast of The Lovers on the Bridge, including Juliette Binoche of course. And I\'ll cooperate with her again 20 years later after the first cooperation.