The people follow what the media say. So if you said that Bruno Dumont is fantastic, it follows that more people would go to see my films. I have no wish to remain on the sidelines. I have no wish to make films that are only seen by bohemians in London and Paris.

Bruno Dumont

The landscape is a reflection of the inner life. Since I can't shoot the inner life, all I can shoot is the exterior but I know that when I'm filming outside, I'm filming inside. I can only really touch the inside through the mise-en-scene. So through the mise-en-scene of the outside we can explore the inside

Bruno Dumont

landscape scene reflection

Cinema is all about going back from shadow to light and back and forth: cinema is a place of transgression.

Bruno Dumont

cinema shadow light

The battle between two men over a girl is the same as the fight for two men over a piece of land. It is all about desire. There is no difference between a love triangle and the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Bruno Dumont

girl fighting men

The more elaborate your narrative, the more the spectator shuts up and listens obediently. And if the filmmaker keeps quiet, the spectator will himself project his own assumptions and sentiments onto the screen.

Bruno Dumont

assumption narrative quiet

I like the idea of challenging Hollywood on its own turf. It's important to do that.

Bruno Dumont

important challenges ideas

The United States is such a potent political, cultural, and economic model in the evocation of the contemporary world, that to come here, select some elements from the prototype and rearrange them, that's really interesting artistically.

Bruno Dumont

economic-models political interesting

There is no god. I am an atheist. It is up to us to become God. We need to be elevated, to become saints. God alienates people from themselves.

Bruno Dumont

saint atheist people

Good and evil are polar concepts - one can't exist without the other.

Bruno Dumont

good-and-evil concepts evil

Sex becomes violent when you eliminate all the sentiments... voila, it gets crude.

Bruno Dumont

crude violent sex

You can't go further than being naked.

Bruno Dumont

naked

There's a longstanding myth about the United States that is still very prevalent in Europe [despite recent developments]. Historically the "America" of this myth is an incredible human adventure and an experiment in political democracy. But at the same time, or so we're told, it's the land of extremes where the worst can happen.

Bruno Dumont

land europe adventure

My thinking was that today's spectator is so well-versed in film language that all theories about suspense, as argued by Dreyer and Hitchcock, on what makes you scared in cinema, can be ditched. It's the spectator, finally, who's going to construct the menace and the fear.

Bruno Dumont

suspense cinema thinking

My life is existing. Cinema is certainly not my life

Bruno Dumont

cinema life-is

To retain his dignity, an artist must live in opposition. He must be critical of his country. If not, then he is worthless.

Bruno Dumont

dignity artist country

An actor is an instrument. One needs to control them.

Bruno Dumont

instruments actors needs

Hollywood films are alienating to the spectator because they use too much dialogue, too much explication and leave no space for the viewer. They depress me.

Bruno Dumont

hollywood-films depressing space

Matching character and actor is what a good director does.

Bruno Dumont

doe character directors

Sound creates an intimate effect: the sensation to feel the place. It makes the viewer enter. You have the liberty to hear what you want.

Bruno Dumont

liberty sound want

Hollywood films are alienating to the spectator because they use too much dialogue, too much explication and leave no space for the viewer. They depress me. I use direct sound, mono not stereo. Just direct sound, so for every shot there are only two sources. Sound creates an intimate effect: the sensation to feel the place. It makes the viewer enter. You have the liberty to hear what you want.

Bruno Dumont

hollywood-films depressing two

The carnival is a real tradition in the North. What you have to do is look under these characters who are larger than life, cinema is a metaphor. So what is local becomes a metaphor. So I don't see a problem in making a very French film that at the same time, because it is very French, will become an international film.

Bruno Dumont

entertainment