French filmmaker Claude Lelouch b. Since then, Mr. This film has changed my life, and the lives of everyone involved like Jean-Louis Trintignant or Francis Lai—and also the lives of the worldwide audience, which is estimated at approximately one billion people who have seen it in theaters and on television over the years.
I was very interested to see what the characters would be like today, how things are going now, or what they feel. There are no limits when it comes to loving someone; I wanted to show that love has no age—being in love is not a privilege for young people—and I thought this man and this woman are living the most precious moments of their lives. I set out to make a spontaneous film, not a film with my actors playing their characters.
That created a sort of spontaneity which is also one of the charms of the film. The scene when they first meet again, we shot that in forty minutes, including two rehearsals, and without interrupting the shoot. So I preferred to work fast—we even shot the entire film in ten days. You really need the experience of a lifetime to make this film the way we did. Yes, it was easy because we share the same history, we are like oldtimers in this business, and we know our craft.
The film was one big risk, and because of that, it was passionate and interesting to do. We made a mistake with that film. But those things happen. We all make mistakes. Life is an experience of joyful and dramatic events, highs and lows, and you have to live with that.
I always focused on stories of men and women who interested me more than others did. There are no real heroes nor villains in my films, but the characters could become heroes or villains one day. That paradox within human nature interests me because I like people; I like human beings with all their flaws—most importantly, our ego, which causes so much misery.
