At Its Best, Film Should

I Love Actors, Both My Parents Were Actors, And The Work With Actors Is The Most Enjoyable Part Of Making A Film. It's Important That They Feel Protected And Are Confident They Won't Be Betrayed. When You Create That Atmosphere Of Trust, It's In The Bag - The Actors Will Do Everything To Satisfy You.

To Me, It's Far More Efficient To Mobilize The Imagination. It's Far More Efficient To Hear A Creaking Step, For Example, Than To See The Face Of A Monster, Which Usually Looks Ridiculous, And Where You Know That The Blood Is Ketchup.

And If There Was One Title That Could Be Applied To All My Films, It Would Be 'civil War' - Not Civil War In The Way We Know It, But The Daily War That Goes On Between Us All.

Films That Are Entertainments Give Simple Answers But I Think That's Ultimately More Cynical, As It Denies The Viewer Room To Think. If There Are More Answers At The End, Then Surely It Is A Richer Experience.

Well, The First Thing I Had To Do Was To Read A Lot. First Of All, About Education... And Looking At Education From The Middle Ages Right Through To The 20th Century. The Second Major Area Was Country Life In The 19th Century, Which I Don't Know Much About These Days.