Bertrand Bonello

“I'm going to start with The Age of Innocence by Martin Scorsese. The Beast is a film that has three periods in it and one is 1910 and I've done a film called House of Tolerance that took place in 1900 and every time I do a period film I rewatch this film because he made the past so contemporary. I really wanted to find a film in which the emotions are so strong and so hidden at the same time and the portrait of these three women played by Michelle Pfeiffer is so heartbreaking.”

“Another film very important to me is David Cronenberg's Crash. The way he mixes reality and Dreams, the way the body affects the spirit, and all these themes are very important to me. The mise-en-scène is so minimalistic and precise and the tone of the voice and the music of Howard Shore in this film is amazing. It's like a set of electric guitars, I mean something I've never heard before and that I copied in a way for some music I do.”

“This one, Clean, Shaven by Lodge Kerrigan. Lodge is a director that's very, very strong, very precise. I picked up this film, it's not actually my favorite of him, but because I just miss Lodge's films. I know it's hard for him to make films, it's hard for everyone, but I think he's an amazing director and I'd like to see more of his work. Come on Lodge, if you see me, if you listen to me, go back to work.”

“Another director very important to me, Abbas Kiarostami, and my favorite of him is Close-Up. He saw in the paper a story that someone pretended to be Mohsen Makhmalbaf, another Iranian director, just to be able to talk to people. One of The Most Beautiful sentences that the guy says when he asks him 'why do you do that?' and he says 'because I was alone and but alone is not a pain.' This film is really fantastic and the last scene, Kiarostami goes and picks him up at the prison.”

“This is one of the most important directors for me, Pier Paolo Pasolini. My first short movie was an adaptation of his book called Who I Am. It's not only the films, it's the whole man, the thought of a man, this mix of pure intelligence and poetry. I miss his thinking. This is like the '60s film, if I have to pick one up, it's difficult but I would say it's The Gospel According to Matthew. He says about the film, 'Look at the Faces I picked up, I never go wrong on a face.'”