Citations

[press conference for Titane (2021) at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival] I started writing Titane during the post-production phase of Grave (2016). When one works for five years on a film like Raw, sometimes you need to survive by having other stories in your mind, so that's why I started Titane at that moment. The first thing is that Titane was born with the idea of putting love at the centre of the narrative - unconditional love, absolute love, without any form of determinism. It appears in other films like Raw, but is peripheral to the characters' trajectory and I was somewhat frustrated in that regard, and so I wanted to go further and discover everything that was possible about the acceptance of another person. When people hear of Titane, not everyone will necessarily think of a love story, but for me it is a love story.

[Cannes press conference for Titane (2021)] When we make such a film, of course we note that it will create a divide in the audience. What is important is that it should move people - whether it elicits rejection or admiration. If it creates a reaction it means that we are touching something in people and that it creates a debate, sparks an interior debate. I think that's what is most important. If cinema were a world of statutes, of ready-made answers where we try to elicit agreement, it would be a dead art form. I therefore think that it's important that it should bubble and I think that's why we make films. I'm absolutely delighted. So long as it elicits reaction, so long as it elicits liveliness, I am happy.

[on winning the Palme d'Or for Titane (2021)] I still did not believe it throughout the whole ceremony. I thought maybe I misheard it, he [Spike Lee] must have said something else, or he must have misread his card. At no moment I thought that I actually had the Palme d'Or. I had a feeling, when I was onstage, that it was bigger than me, and it was bigger than my film. It was very, very intense. Being the second woman [after Jane Campion] feels like I'm part of a movement that is going forward.....things were moving through me at that moment, and through my film.