Leos Carax and his island

You can inhabit cinema without making film. That’s why cinephilia and cinema are two different things in my mind. I’m not a cinephile. I saw lots of films when I was 16, 17, until I made my second film.I don’t really know much, but, I still inhabit cinema—the way I see things, the way I think. It’s somehow miraculous that cinema exists. It’s an invention. No other art has been invented. Painting, sculpture was already there.

I felt very relieved when I was sixteen to discover cinema. To discover there was a land, a place, I call it an island, from where you could see life, and death. From another perspective, another angle, from many different angles. I think every young person should be interested in that island. It’s a beautiful place.

I like cinema. I don’t like cinephilia. I don’t care so much about film. I care about cinema – in terms of a place, this place, where you can see. So although I haven’t made many films, and I can’t consider myself a filmmaker, I believe – and I hope it’s not arrogant – that I live on this island.

It’s good living there.

Leos Carax (2012)