In cinema, just as elsewhere, I’ve advanced in hostile zone. Each of my films since L’Affaire des Divisions Morturi (1984) has earned me a desert crossing. However, I’ve often written a new script just after the release of a film. Le Tresor des Iles Chiennes was written at the end of 1986, but wasn’t totally produced until 1990, and went out in 1991. After the release of Docteur Chance in 1998, all the doors in France were closed – I only resurfaced with a silent short film shot in 16mm in 2006 made with ten thousand euros, on the initiative of Festival Temps d’Images Portugal, which was awarded with Jean Vigo Award before going to Cannes’ La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in 2007. Suddenly, I obtained a waiver to re-apply to CNC with Dharma Guns, which I shot in 2009 – but was released in 2011!
Then it went relatively fast, I wrote the book Mercure Insolent in 2012, and the script of 9 Doigts in 2013, but it’s taken me more than three years to find minimum funds, always without the support of any French TV. 9 Doigts was shot in 2016 and selected in Locarno in 2017. And voilà: 1982-2017, five feature films, five short films; the time of a lifetime.