Jean-Jacques Annaud

“America is the only country capable of producing national movies: its culture has become a global culture.”

“The world distribution of French movies is a laughing matter. That is a fact.”

“When Picasso painted in Paris, was he a Spanish or a French painter? It does not matter, he was Picasso, whatever the influences surrounding him. He simply chose Paris because it was the ideal place for him to sell his creation.”

“I had to choose between American and British actors, and it didn't take me more than a second to decide: Russians are Europeans and should be played by other Europeans.”

“The art of motion pictures is pictorial and language comes a distant second.”

“Today's cinema is a global art form, it is impossible to make movies for a market the size of France, representing no more than 4% of the world's total.”

“War scenes are less difficult than love scenes.”

“When Americans shoot movies they aim at the entire planet. When the French make movies, they aim at Paris.”

“British actors behave like Europeans; they are also extremely well trained.”

“If you make a movie about Elizabeth I, how much of the dialogue is her real words? Audiences know when they go see a movie that it is fiction.”

“The financing of my films has always been international.”

“To do the writing, I have to have time to do research.”

“When you create a movie, you create something in your image.”

“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.”

“I think it is a mistake to identify a movie according to its language, as if movies were literature.”

“I make movies just as painters paint: I work where I can.”

“When a French book becomes an international hit it is because of the author and not because of the language. The same goes for movies.”

“There is a broad cultural current that conveys the idea that a film is like a football team, it represents a nation, it is illustrated literature, filmed radio. These are outdated concepts, totally out of touch with today's realities.”

“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.”