“Any woman who wishes to smash into the world of men isn’t very feminine […] Baby, we can’t go smashing. I believe women should be struck regularly – like a gong. Or is it bong? If a woman has a man who loves her, she better stick close to home.

“This is the story of a man and a gun and a car. The gun belonged to the man. The car might have been yours – or that young couple across the aisle. What you will see in the next seventy minutes could have happened to you. For the facts are actual.”

Opening titles

“A director [metteur en scène] should never stop being young.”

“From the opening minutes to the last, the aesthetic of Les Statues meurent aussi draws attention self–reflexively to acts of looking.

“But why would I be an anti-Communist? If I made a movie about Lenin today, people would say that I’m a Communist! It’s idiotic. I don’t give a fuck about being a Communist, or a reactionary. You are never the same as your characters.

“Bazin’s approach goes a long way to unpacking Singin’ in the Rain. But it does not take us far enough with The Band Wagon. Repeat viewings of Singin’ in the Rain merely confirm its initial pleasures.

“It makes me sound old-fashioned, but I think I am an anarchist.”

Jacques Tati

“In a normal world, one would go out and walk into just any theater to see a film by Jacques Tati. Or Chaplin.”

Pedro Costa