"When you are in love with a story, you have to take your time to follow it and to fall in love again one time. You need some time. And I need to be in love with a story because I am going to spend four years of my life inside without pleasure, without seeing anybody, you work 16 hours per day and at the weekend and I need to be in love with each detail." "Audrey [Tautou] looks like a little elf with big eyes, like a deer. She's the perfect actress for me, because she's able to do both comedy and drama. That's pretty rare in France. Most French actors are only able to play realistic. Even Catherine Deneuve plays the same way all the time." Cinema since the New Wave always seems to be about a couple fighting in the kitchen. I prefer to write positive stories. I got something pretty rare: American power and a lot of money to distribute the film ['A Very Long Engagement'] worldwide. I can tell you politicians from right to left are so proud of the film, actors, technicians, everybody except the independent French producers who campaigned against it. But, you know we live in a capitalist world where the only thing is to earn money. They want to get rid of Warners from France. They are not prepared to share the cake.