INT: We’ve been talking more about writing than visuals, and choice of camera, angles, or anything else, because to me more than any other Director I know, the supremacy of the spoken word, of dialogue, it’s strongest in you, in your work. So I'm deeply interested in talking about the process that you, by which you write. Because for you, I believe that the script is absolutely the road map that you use. [BB: Yes, of course.] And I think you’re far more particular when you were talking about rehearsing with your father and he was saying, you know, “Make sure I don’t even miss a comma,” you know, a virgule. I thought that was so interesting that your father, as an Actor, speaking words, is also thinking about a comma that is actually written. So, let’s talk a little more about how you write your scripts. You're hearing Actors speak, aren't you, when you write. I can tell by your writing. Do you write with Actors in mind? We'll talk in a minute about Depardieu [Gerard Depardieu] and how you met him, and the importance for him, but.. 

BB: I understand the entire process, because my first time, when I wrote GOING PLACES, I didn’t know Gerard Depardieu or Patrick Dewaere, so I didn’t write the script with them in mind. As a matter of fact they thought it was written for them. They’d say things like “Wow this is us!” Actually, Gerard Depardieu said, “This is me.”[LAUGHS] And he was right, it was him. He came from the countryside, from humble beginnings, trying to make it in Paris, while I was born into an elite family from a wealthy neighborhood. You don’t see that. [INT: No.] And so the book was written for Gerard Depardieu. And we made eight films together and it went very well. His career is incomprehensible. It’s probably my family’s legacy. My family wasn’t…my father’s family wasn’t rich. My father became rich through his acting. But his parents, his brother, his sister weren’t rich. So it’s something that my father instilled in me. I was the opposite. I was a young, elegant, famous, and he was fat and I was skinny. I was the opposite of him. And so when I started to make films, I had the air of an elegant Director. GOING PLACES is a voyeur film. Why are we talking about that? [INT: Well, we’re talking about writing, the process of writing]. Yes. Writing is difficult because I never--I’ve written so many things. There were things that I wrote easily and others that were very difficult to write. A lot of things that I wrote I put aside. Sometimes I don’t finish a piece because of scope or because I felt discouraged by the task. Being a director, you can’t take your self as a Leonardo DeVinci or Kubrick [Stanley Kubrick]. So the moment it became too important I dropped it. It’s unfortunate because sometimes it’s the big pictures that are easier to direct than the smaller ones. It’s easier to direct a cavalier or a squadron of tanks than it is directing a man and a woman in a room. [INT: Oh, it’s most difficult.] The most difficult. So you see my writings have all started a bit differently. For example, one day, there were very mysterious things. For example, BUFFET FROID, COLD CUTS, is a picture I wrote in two weeks. Two weeks, a script like that is miraculous, it’s extraordinary. People don’t believe me. Doesn’t matter; it’s the truth. I wrote it like you do mathematics. You know, you’re given an equation at the top of the page, then you begin and at the end you get x=b. You finish the equation; it’s easy when you know what to do. A script is also easy. One scene per day, two weeks of writing and you’ve got your script. But it doesn’t always work out like that. [INT: No.]

INT: For example TOO BEAUTIFUL FOR YOU [TROP BELLE POUR TOI] I believe is a-- 

BB: Now TOO BEAUTIFUL FOR YOU was easy because I used personal memories. I used some things that were autobiographical, that I’d never portray in film before, but that was closely linked to the idea of being with a beautiful woman, but being in love with a less attractive woman or worse, hideous. So that was the idea from the start and I wrote the script with ease. In preparing the film we looked at set designs the same time I wrote the script. It was easy. Actually something spurring happened to me one day. After filming GOING PLACES [LES VALSEUSES], I was on vacation because I had just come off a great success. When you have a successful film, it’s very difficult to live after you’ve been successful. So it’s important to savor the success and above all you mustn’t write, to do nothing, for fear of failing. You have to let the high of success settle back down before beginning again. So I went to the mountains and hunkered down in a chalet. All I did was do puzzles; I mean 4,000 to 5,000 piece puzzles while listening to music. That’s all I did. So I spent my day looking for puzzle pieces and I was completely stupefied by this and it was great because I wasn’t working. I wasn’t thinking about films or anything else. And then one day as I was working on my puzzle I decided to put some music on. I chose a Mozart piece that I’ve listened over and over and committed to memory. Even though I knew this piece by heart I decided to put it on. The first movement passed with nothing to report. Then the second movement started. I grabbed a piece of paper, went to the table and wrote the scene, the famous scene that Gerard Depardieu explains to Patrick [Patrick Dewaere], “Can you believe I died at 33?” He imagined that he was on the stairs, all that scene, I wrote that dialogue during Mozart’s andante. And I wrote it in real time, during Mozart’s Symphony No. 12. Live, live! At the end of the andante I put the paper away and returned to my puzzle. In the evening as I was getting things in order, I came across the same little paper I was working on earlier that day. I read it and thought to myself what is this? I’m going to put this in the trash, because I couldn’t find anything to go with it. But instead of tossing it I kept it because it wasn’t bad. But I couldn’t figure it out. It took me six months to write the script because I was asking myself questions like “Who are these characters?” “Why these two guys?” “What’s the context of the situation?’ There was nothing to complete this finding because it was all dialogue. So it actually took six months to create and develop even though the scene took three and a half minute to four minutes to write. [INT: That was the kernel, the seed.] You know the screenwriting gods were like we’re going to give this guy a gift.

INT: Now do you often work listening to music? 

BB: Not when I write, no. [INT: Not when you write.] Never. Except the one time when I was working on TOO BEAUTIFUL FOR YOU [TROP BELLES POUR TOI] when I worked with headphones, with Shubert during certain scenes because I needed to have a timer, a chronometer. I had to have the dialogue match up exactly with the music. But that was the only time. I only listen to music before or during the writing process because I’m looking for emotions. I look for a composer that can help me create. There’s always a composer who can help me. Sometimes it’s jazz, sometimes it’s songs and dance, sometimes it’s Braums, sometimes it’s Shubert, sometimes it’s… Often the songs that I do want I’m not able to have because of copyright or the records are so old we can’t use them because the quality is poor. In short, we need these emotions to write. Once I complete a scene, I usually listen to music through my headphones. I would read the scenes over the music at my desk to see if it flows. I’m a Director by not far removed from being an Actor so I was able to play out these scenes while listening to Brahms, to Shubert, or it doesn’t matter whom.

INT: So you were always read, you always read your scenes aloud? 

BB: No I read them once or twice to see if… You see with Actors you need to be sure that they can do it. I can never do it because I’m not an Actor but when it comes to Actors I tell them you have to play the role. For example, the dialogue, I work hard on dialogue so that the words are able to roll of their lips. So that there is emphasis and meaning when they speak so that the dialogue is like rock n roll. We use words like musical notes, so that the Actors take great pleasure in saying the words. So if all is in place, I would read the scene by myself at home and the next day they would do the work. If they were unable to play the scene out then we would work until they got it.

INT: You know, before I started directing, I was a dramatogue and I would work with Writers on their scripts. And, you know, in retrospect, I realize I was very much up in my head. And I had a terrible moment that I never forget. I was working with Judi Dench and it was a moment where I had written this--with the Writer, and I said, “This is great! This is so funny. This is so clever.” It was a line, it was a little speech that I was very proud of. And then as a Director, go to rehearse the scene and Judi Dench stops right at this line. My line, my beautiful line and goes, “Why am I saying that, dear?” And I remember all the blood draining from my face. I felt deeply exposed because I suddenly realized there was no reason for her character to say this line, other than I thought it was clever. So for me, now, when I work on script, I have invisible Actors saying to me, "Why am I saying this?" For me, I listen not just to the line. But I always try and have these invisible Actors saying, “Why, why am I saying? What’s the reason? What’s the motivation?” Do you have those invisible Actors that.. 

BB: Not really. I mean Actors have asked me, “Why am I saying this?” I'd say, “Because that's what written and so you have to do it.” [LAUGHS] But I'm always editing and reediting dialogue, I mean you have to. Because you will always have too much dialogue. I tend to cut out 15%, 10% of what I originally had in the film. [INT: So you cut a lot.] Yes. And of course there are times I use dialogue simply for amusement. We would just have these great outtakes and do them over and over. That’s one of my favorite things.

INT: Yes, repetition is also rhythm and you talk about rock n roll as dialogue and that’s a very important part of, you know, when two players play with each other in music. It’s the same thing. 

BB: What’s so wonderful about language is our ability to play with words, because language is constantly changing so it’s very important not to be trendy with dialogue. What's great is being able to convey the various behaviors and mannerism when people speak. Take for instance old people talking. One says to the other "Great weather today." "Great weather today." You see that’s brilliant. So when you have a young Actor like Gerard Depardieu speaking like that I mean it’s hilarious. Or with Dujardin [Jean Dujardin]. What ends up happening almost all the time is when you have great Actors working with great dialogue and everything is going great, it’s actually really annoying because you have to act like everyday life. You have to snap out of that mindset. Just because you have great dialogue isn't a reason for the scene to be played out like a piece by Claudel [Paul Claudel]. You have to speak like they do on the streets. So you must break the Actors out of that habit.

INT: But you never encourage Actors to improvise? 

BB: No. I never encourage Actors to improvise. They do not seek that from me. They expect to have something written out for them. They crave my written work; they do not want anything else. I actually had some difficulties on the set of GOING PLACES [LES VALSEUSES] with Depardieu [Gerard Depardieu] and Dewaere [Patrick Dewaere] because their spontaneity was so second nature that they would actually add words to the dialogue. So when they were given a line, for example, " The car is here, " they would say "Alright, the car is here." So when I started to edit I came across so many lines where they added unnecessary words. It became a problem. I brought Gerard back with me and in the editing room I showed him what I was dealing with. I said " You see this, you see what your doing? Don't do it anymore" He said, “You’re right,” and he never did it again. He understood. You see he is a very perceptive and intelligent man and understood immediately what I was asking of him. He began to attack the words and use them as they were meant to be said.

INT: American Actors love to naturalize language all the time, so they add words like “like”, “sort of”, you know, in order to facilitate a line. So, yes you get this diffused, a diffusion, a dilution of language. In your films language, it’s like each word is like a little jewel that’s polished. [BB: Yes, perhaps, perhaps. Not always.] No. It’s not precious; I didn’t mean it was precious. But it has a hard quality, like a small stone. Yeah? 

BB: Yes and also the lyrics to songs, they’re enunciated. I often work with Actors on enunciation. You see in French there is a lot of mashing of words such as "umm" or "m'oui" and things like that. So when you have a great talent working with you such as Anne Alvaro in THE CLINK OF ICE [LE BRUIT DES GLACONS], who is an extraordinary theatre actress. So, I was able to tell her to enunciate the first or second syllable and hit the "umme" and "emme." Theatre Actors like to work on that.

INT: Let’s talk a little more about GOING PLACES [LES VALSEUSES] because that in a sense was the first film, probably, that really exploded on everyone’s conscious. And that was also the first time you worked with Depardieu [Gerard Depardieu], Dewaere [Patrick Dewaere] and Miou-Miou. So tell me how that came about? I think there’s some story how you met Depardieu in a café or something. You know, how did that meeting happen? How did you choose three Actors who in a sense really came to embody the zeitgeist didn’t they, those three guys? They captured something in the air of the time. 

BB: I was hesitant to cast GOING PLACES because it was so important to pick the right cast. I interviewed every single young Actor of the time and I still couldn't make a decision. Gerard came to see me fast. I knew him because he was in a play with my father. Actually my dad told me what's the point of holding a casting call since you know you’re going to pick Depardieu. I got mad and told him that I wasn’t going to cast Depardieu. Perhaps, but I wasn’t sure. So I saw everyone and Gerard would come over everyday. And everyday, he’d come in different character. One day he would come as a bourgeois, the next as a motorcyclist, like Marlon Brando, the day after that as an old person. I mean he came to the with the intention of proving to me that he could play everything, and that he could play the part. I mean he was just not taking no for an answer and we were a little scared because we had never dealt with an Actor like him before. I was also looking for the second Actor, so I changed my office into a make shift studio and would rehearse three to four times a week. I asked Depardieu to come and read lines to other Actors, when in actuality these rehearsals were meant to assess Gerard at the same time. So when Dewaere was asked to read the lines I thought to myself "wow this guy is good." The problem was that Dewaere was just as big if not bigger than Gerard and I was looking for a smaller and meek individual to play the second role. So one day Dewaere said he understood and that he took time to think about what I had said. He said, " Listen I hear you, and I thought it over, but you're pissing me off. I'm going to play the role you'll see me as less intimidating and meeker. I'm going to place myself behind Gerard and I'm going to play fragile." Patrick took his place behind Gerard and began to act, It was incredible. Because Patrick was a genius, he was really good, marvelous. A dream come true in terms of cinema. [INT: Yes, without a doubt. What a tragedy that...] Yes.

BB: I was supposed to do my third film about two contrary gay men, its called MENAGE [TENUE DE SOIREE] in English. It’s a story I got during the filming of GOING PLACES [LES VALSEUSES]. Anyways the idea was spurred on by the playful bantering by Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere. One night I said to them the day the industry hurts due to a loss is when we will shoot this film. We all agreed, but as you know one day Patrick killed himself, and on that day I said I would never make the film. Because I couldn’t imagine it without Patrick, so I let it go for 10 years. Then one day I had the idea to try out another Actor, Bernard Giraudeau, who was wonderful at the time. I thought well maybe Bernard Giraudeau can replace Patrick. And so I told Gerard Depardieu and he said that it was a good idea. I met Bernard, told him the story, I wrote the script, prepared the contract. At the last minute Actors always ask to read the script before signing a contract; it’s normal. Gerard read it and there wasn’t a problem. Bernard Giraudeau came to my house. I told him to come to my house for a reading. I invited them both to read the scene out loud. As he was reading his face began to change colors from white to green and at the end he said, “Listen Bertrand, I’m telling you the truth, I can’t do the film.” [INT: It scared him.] He was scared of something. It was difficult to recast. That’s when I decided to go with a comedic Actor so I chose Michel Blanc who was wonderful. [INT: Yeah, and the incarnation of that--Michel Blanc incarnation of that character was completely different from say Patrick Dewaere’s, would completely different imagination for that character.]

INT: And Miou-Miou, how did you find her? 

BB: Miou-miou was chosen immediately for GOING PLACES [LES VALSEUSES]. I didn’t audition other Actors. [INT: So just?] I knew I wanted her because she played a couple of minor roles in a few films, plus I saw her live on stage. It was fantastic. I immediately asked her. There was no hesitation. She was amazing. [INT: Beautiful.]

INT: Let’s talk a little bit about how you work with Actors, to create their roles. [BB: On the set?] Before, during… Yes, before and during. Because I know you don’t rehearse in the conventional sense of the word. 

BB: It’s about the writing. If we could write for every Actor that we know then yes, but that almost never happens. Ideally, for me, it’s about writing to the Actors’ ability, knowing who the Actor was. I’ve written characters for Actors that I didn’t necessarily want and it turned out to be a disaster. [INT: Example?] MON HOMME for example was a difficult film to complete. I didn’t get the Actors I wanted and so on. I mean Gerard Lanvin was then selected, who was a very good Actor, but at the end of the day it wasn’t meant to be. [INT: So going back to--] Or MY BEST FRIEND’S GIRL [LA FEMME DE MON POTE] with Coluche, that was a film that was written for Patrick Dewaere. It was during the time he killed himself. I was in the process of writing the script. I was writing a scene with the two in mind because they were going to star in the film. Then at 3:00pm I received a phone call from a Senior Editor asking if I would like to comment on the recent suicide of Patrick Dewaere. I didn’t even know. I found out through the newspaper. So I jumped in my car, raced over to Patrick’s place and there you have it. So then I chose another Actor. I mean it was a horrifying and terrible experience. I mean it was a great blow to all Directors since he was slated to act in several films. He worked with Alain Corneau on SERIE NOIRE. There are no real explanations regarding the causes of suicide. The only thing experts say is that when thoughts of suicide come up its important to not be alone. It was all just awful timing, I mean his personal assistant/chauffeur was on vacation with his family while Patrick was under these conditions and as a result he killed himself for no reason. Well actually not for no reason but you know what I mean.

INT: Returning to working with Actors, some Actors like to talk, some Actors don't like to talk. Some Actors like to rehearse, some don't like to rehearse. Some like to [Snaps fingers] get on camera, shoot immediately, some like to do off-camera and gradually warm up. You know, so I try to be very adaptive. Do you have a kind of methodology for working with Actors, or is it-- does it change each time with the actor? 

BB: My process comes in stages. That’s to say I start slowly so I will start with a dry run, then add some costumes and décor. Something we call Italian rehearsal. When we would practice an important scene I wouldn’t say or do anything other than let them do. So that there’s an environment that becomes familiar, so that they can take their cues and then we start to rehearse. Afterwards we talk and if I agree with the rehearsal, I tell them and we begin rehearsal on set. I mean no technical equipment just us, no set dressing, nothing. When I made my feature film debut, I was a Stalinist, but now I’m open to any suggestions without any thoughts.

INT: Do you ever have the shot in your mind before the Actors rehearse? Do sometimes like in THE CLINK OF ICE [LE BRUIT DES GLACONS] where the camera moves up the stairs like death. But do you have those shots, or is it always coming from the Actors? 

BB: When I have a scene with the Actors, I generally arrive before them and I act out the scenes. I play all the roles to see how they can move, where they should move, so that I can develop ideas as to what I want them to do. There’s a lot of things that I improvise. You have to understand we all come with a plan; it’s necessary. As a matter of fact, filmmaking has planned element, which includes scripts, rough drafts, storyboards, as well as the improvise aspect. I mean you always have an idea but it’s a matter of time do we have enough time to make it happen. I mean if you’re doing something complicated like capturing a waterfall’s cascade, then you do need to plan. But if you’re doing comedy or something similar, then no I don’t think you need to do as much. You should just let the Actors do their thing and let them have fun. At least give them the impression that you want them to have fun while acting.

INT: You were saying yesterday when we were talking, that although you don’t rehearse with the Actors, you talk to them a great deal beforehand. 

BB: Yes. I talk with the Actors, obviously, and with the Crew, and the Lighting Director, but I speak with the Actors a lot to give them a tool kit to tell them things about their character. I also talk to them a lot about what I was thinking while writing the scene. You see you have to get them thinking about the thought process behind the scene as it was being created. You have to guide them. I use literature in my works that have nothing to do with the story, but it’s the literature that motivates and helps the Actors as well as the Crew to focus on the task at hand. For example, I say, “She laid there in bed with a white nightgown like a Fra Angelico painting.” You see that has nothing to do with the film; it doesn’t enhance the film but it brings everyone to a place where we want to be. You see it’s the set only; it’s on paper. Just like sex scenes that are very difficult, especially when there is no dialogue. Also in the film with Monica Bellucci, HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE ME [COMBIEN TU M’AMIES], there’s a scene like that, very erotic. So I approach this scene like a novel, like Marguerite Duras. I wrote all that goes through the mind of the man and woman in two pages. I explain how the man will grasp her by the shoulders, because it’s difficult to explain while filming. But when it’s written the Actors and crew already understand what is expected of the scene, what’s expected of the Director. It’s super interesting to see the Actors relish this type of approach. You have to do it well and it’s important to have literature. True writing has a special place in my craft; it helps develop the film’s sensibility, the Actors, everyone. Everyone understands what the film is trying to convey. [INT: Yes. Sometimes even describing a smell can, you know, can infuse a scene.] Yes. For example, I can write well for Jean Dujardin. He's playing an imbecile and we don’t understand all of what the character says, but something about his presence, his stare, informs us that he isn’t an imbecile as we had thought. It’s not written in the script. It’s the Actor’s direction. That’s it. It’s good to do it beforehand, during rehearsal, not at the last minute because we don’t have a lot of time on set. So if you can rehearse it beforehand… But I don’t rehearse on the set. I rehearse before, like a lot of Directors do. Everyone has their own reasons. I don’t like doing that. I like discovering with the Actors, to discover things together. I prepare them with our conversations, with the script I’ve written, that’s my preparation. It’s very important for Actors, for example, that they believe the Director is working for them…. It’s a gift. They are honored when you treat them that way, when you write two pages to explain something that you can explain in three words. That you write two pages or a page to simply convey the emotion that you’d like to see. I think that Actors are very sensitive. The problem is having them agree with you. [INT: It’s part of your benevolent dictatorship. [LAUGHS] Do you understand?] Pardon? [INT: I can’t translate that--translate that for me. (Off-camera translation)] [LAUGHS] Soft, soft. [INT: Yes, soft.] No, but the Director is position of a power, but the power is kind, accepting, and very loving especially when it comes to the Actors.

INT: I’d like to talk about how you work with different members of your team and I’d like to talk first about cinematography. I notice that you work very often with the same Actors. Do you work with the same Cinematographer or do you… 

BB: I often have the same Crew, but not always. The most important member is the Director of Photography. I usually make three or four films with the same DP and then I change them. I change them because I want to change them or there are scheduling problems. The DP may not be free, or I work with Philippe Russelot, for example. But right now, he’s here. He left to live in the United States. Okay, so I can’t work with Philippe Rousselot. [INT: That’s unfortunate.] Unfortunate. Right now, he’s back in France. So potentially I can work on a film with him. [INT: That’s wonderful.] But after he left, I hired another DP. I like trying DPs who are old, young… Not once did I hire a DP because he resembled a character or characters in the script. There was the girl, the character… But I think, for example, lighting the picture, honestly, the DP say the same, “It’s the Director who does it.” But he doesn’t do it. He has an influence over it, demands over the Lighting Director that enormously helps to set the lighting. And the same DPs, you see them make films with horrible photography. And the film after, you work with them and the lighting is wonderful. Why? It’s because you pass on your vision, you say, “You are going to jump high. You’re not going to jump there. You’re going to jump very high.”

INT: So do you find that you work with the Actors, you let them create the scene, you let the…Cinematographer create the shot, or do you find, or do you, are you very, very specific about the, what the shot should be? 

BB: Yes. For the image, for the schedule, for the blocking. Right now I am in a great hurry because of the digital age. There wasn’t anything like it before. When I began making films, you would have to look into the camera, then you say, “Cut.” You couldn’t see well through a camera. Nowadays we’ve got hand held devices and monitors that allow us to see and do what we want on set. The interesting thing is that most of the time the Actors think we are focusing on them, but in actuality we are looking at the shots and set ups. It’s a marvelous thing.

INT: On average how long are you, how long do you take to shoot a movie? Difficult question, I know, but… 

BB: Right now, it’s fast. My last film I shot in six weeks. [INT: Six weeks?] Yes. [INT: Five days a week?] Six. [INT: 30 days?] Yes, 30 days. I think that the Americans also work fast, a bit faster than the French. [INT: Yes. It depends.] But they have a longer morning. We also have terms and conditions that are in my opinion too Draconion. [INT: Yes.] So I work very fast, especially on my last film, I filmed it with a Steadicam, all the shots were with Steadicam, and so it was a lot faster. It was extraordinary. Before, I didn’t use it. I made classic films with the dolly, tracking, etcetera. And so one day I said, “This is not possible.” So I looked for a Steadicam and I found two--Remember, during that time you couldn’t shoot with a… The Steadicam is good for walking fast, for running, for action. But a love scene, the Steadicam, it’s difficult. Today, it’s possible.

INT: Do you think you have a style of shooting? If you were to describe it, I mean it’s a question I would hate somebody to ask me because I’m not sure… 

BB: No. It depends on the film. There are films where I have a style for that film. For example BUFFET FROID, I said, “We’re starting with 20mm, for the entire film, except for the close ups so 20mm, sometimes 18mm just to capture a particular style. I wanted the characters to be lost in the environment… But my other films I made them in normal style. The last film was done in a new style. It’s different. The set on THE CLINK OF ICE [LE BRUIT DES GLACONS] is different from other films. It’s different due to the Steadicam, perhaps the story, I don’t know. But I do know that it’s different and I have a feeling that it’s better that I progress. [INT: Yes.] I think that I’m progressing because I have a better distance, I am, I am--it’s difficult to have a distance. At what distance should you be from the Actor? Should he be there? Should he be there? Things like that. That’s a Director who has known all that. I think that I’m making progress with that. Always make progress with the mis-en-scene. [INT: My feeling about THE CLINK OF ICE, looking at that movie, is that you’re using the camera more as a dynamic tool, to convey, you know, that the camera was conveying emotion and sensibility.] Yes, yes, yes. [INT: In a new way.] Yes, I agree. It’s very different, it’s different. It’s something else. But it’s also a different story.

INT: I want to talk about how you work with other members of your crew. I’d like to talk about editing first, because I think your films, the editing is astonishing to me. [BB: Why?] Yeah. Because you have a very, very strong sense of discipline about where a scene begins and where it ends. You, for me, one of the things that gives your films great excitement is that you start a scene in the middle and you end it before it’s finished. And yet in the middle you stretch out, you allow everything to take its time, and you buy that privilege by being very disciplined about where your scene start and finish. Now is this something that is always in the, begins with the writing for you? 

BB: Yes. It begins in the writing. But the editing for me is always a pleasure. I like editing a lot; I do it myself. In France we do have “final cut” so we don’t have problems. In general, I do my editing in the script, when I write the script I know that…I know the rhythm. I see how it’s going to function, so editing is easy. I edited BUFFET FROID in two days--the image. I’m only talking about the images. Two days. [INT: Two days?] Yes. My Editor does the editing and then I only worked for two days. I removed what I wanted to be removed and my Editor cleans it up a bit. That’s all. There’s no reason to do more than that. When it’s good it’s good. [INT: So you’re cutting when you’re writing. And are you also cutting in the camera? Essentially, do you really just shoot exactly what--] No. I shoot comfortable, large. Yes. My films are always a bit long. I cut them afterwards.

INT: Do you work often with the same Editor, or again, do you use different Editors for different… 

BB: I’ve had several Editors and I work primarily with women. I often work with, principally with one Editor who has worked on all of my films up until MERCI LA VIE. And at one point I changed Editors because we had become like an old couple. I had a woman for 30 years in the editing room, 25 years. There were many times when we wanted to kill each other. It’s normal. So, I had to change Editors. It’s good to find yourself with people who you are familiar with in the editing bay when it comes to editing, especially when you are beginning the process and you’re doing it in small steps. You must work with an Editor who understands your vision. It’s very important. It’s good to only have one or two people; you don’t need other people to involved in the process. There are Directors who do everything themselves. Luc Besson, for example, he can edit alone. He knows how to use Avid. Luc Besson takes his laptop to the countryside and he does the editing all alone. He knows how to do that. I can’t do that. [INT: No, neither can I. But the relationship with an Editor, it’s a lot of time in a small room.] It’s very pleasant. [INT: Yes.] Especially when--I love listening to music so I often come with CDs. 30, 40 CDs and we listen and magic happens with the film. We would try different music, sometimes they were good and other times they were atrocious. If it was released the previous year, and it’s a Nina Simone song… [INT: “Ne Me Quitte Pas”?] Yes. I listened to 80 songs before I got to her song. [INT: That was an extraordinary choice, actually, because, you know, obviously that songs is completely associated with Jacques Brel. And to hear Nina Simone sing it was surprising.] Yes, because… I didn’t like Jacques Brel’s version. It was too polished. I liked Nina Simone’s. She broke it and you don’t understand everything. So it’s wonderful. [INT: Yes. That’s true. You listen to the song more than the singer, with Brel you listen to the singer, yeah. I totally agree. And do you...]

INT: Is there anything do you think distinctive when you work with décor, with Production Designer? 

BB: I love that. I love working with Set Designers the most. It depends because I’ve made films in the studio with great set designs. I love the studio, building things. [INT: Yes, control.] But right now I’m working with natural settings. I am very amused…I love arriving at the studio and smelling the scent of wood, see the set under construction. I love that. But I don’t work at the studio a lot. And I also love filming on location, like last year, when I made--there’s also work for the Set Designer. We change the interior. So that’s terribly interesting. But I love working with the Set Designer. [INT: Do you--] Those are the people with a great profession because they design, they plan, I love shots. I look at things in a shot and I also like to rest--before the film shooting begins, a week before or two weeks before when the director is alone with the Set Designer and assistants, choosing the mise-en-scene. For example, the postcard that’s in THE CLINK OF ICE [LE BRUIT DES GLACONS]. It’s wonderful. It’s a luxury.