Celine Sciamma

“But what I think I like about coming-of-age stories is that there's everything in them. It's a genre that kind of contains everything: you have the chronicle, you can go into naturalism, but it's also about transforming physically, so it's kind of a fantastical genre.”

“Thinking about making a love story without music was really frightening, Sciamma admitted. Because every love story we know, we think about 'Titanic' we think about the music, we think about 'Gone with the Wind' we think about the music, we think about 'E.T.' we think about the music, and every love story has its own tune, 'That's our song.'”

“When I made my first film I was 25 years old, and that's pretty rare. Being so young my experience and the thing that I wanted to talk about was teenagehood, plus in France we have that strong tradition of the coming-of-age story being made as your first film.”

“I filmed 'Water Lilies' in Cergy-Pointoise, a middle-class suburb about 20 km outside Paris. It's where I grew up and where Eric Rohmer filmed 'My Girlfriend's Boyfriend' in 1986.”

“I think that childhood is innocent, but not in the way we usually believe. I think it's a very sensual age, where emotions and feelings are so strong just for the simple fact that we are living them for the first time.”

“When I turned 13 all of my life was designed around earning money to buy cinema tickets.”

“Ninety per cent of what we look at is the male gaze. They don't see themselves anymore.”

“I mean, putting women in the center of a movie and not talking about men, that's already political, right?”

“Lady Gaga is not saying anything new, she's just quoting something that's already been said, and staging it. It rarely seems sincere. That's why I always try to say something authentic.”

“We all have to deconstruct the looks in ourselves. It's easier if you see different cultures and different imagery than just the pure straight male gaze and that you're aware that images are political. Not everybody is.”

“I think movies, I think art, can change the world.”

“I grew up in a world where stories and images were made and told by men. So I know this world very well. I am moved by this world.”

“I like the sensitive look of traditional French films and the fact that the children are often portrayed as rebels, but I also like the way the American tradition stylises everything and is full of fantasy around childhood.”

“I decided to put cinema at the centre of my life when I was 13 and going through the biggest crisis of my life: teenagehood.”

“I always wish for the audience to feel less lonely when they leave the room. To have the film as a companion, as a shelter for themselves.”

“I identify myself with the male gaze, I grew up with the male gaze, I've been excited by the male gaze. I'm a product of that culture.”

“I was kind of a tomboy when I was the age of the character. I could be mistaken for a boy - sometimes I found it cool and sometimes I found it hard, but I remember the excitement.”

“I think my movies are very much about the female gaze... But it's not going to happen magically if you're a woman. It's still something you have to deconstruct, but it's not something you have to be vigilant about.”

“My grandmother introduced me to musicals and Fred Astaire and Cary Grant and all the American comedies and classics.”

“Of course, every movie is political, some people just deny it because they like the world the way it is.”