SUMMARY OF THE MORNING DISCUSSION WITH ROBERT GUÉDIGUIAN

"I don't want to do anything what has been already done. Instead I take risks that I am aware of. I don't write stories because something works well. There always has to be a risk involved so that I can maintain my motivation", tells French director Robert Guédiguian.

Marseille-born Guédiguian followed his spouse Ariane Ascaride to Paris. Ascaride is a child of an amaturer actor who has acted on stage since childhood. Guédiguiain ended up doing cinema through his wife, who has a role in almost all of Guédiguian's movies.

Guédiguian has studied economics and sociology. He used to be an active communist.

"I couldn't imagine doing a movie without a societal meaning. All my movies include political purposes."

"Berlin wall came down in 1989 and a handful of socialistic countries disappeared, which, in my opinion, had to happen, even in philosophical sense. But at the same time, counter-culture disappeared with a whole historical memory, which had nothing to do with socialistic countries. A large pile of proletarian struggles were forgotten. I wanted to give artifical respiration for the struggles of the proletarians and dig up all the things left from the old movement."

In 'Marie-Jo and Her 2 Lovers", Guédiguian portrayed bodies while trying to search and find lost innocence:

"Through picturing a body I wanted to show that body was much more than just a space of perversion and disgrace. I wanted to show the body the way it used to be before civilization and clothes arrived - kind of a paradise lost."

In his movies, Guédiguian remains in his childhood landscapes.

"Marseille is the shape of my story, while the content of my story is very universal. I think that the audience has the right to see their story in our colours, in our bodies and told through our light. Public has the right to recognize themselves."

"I used to live in a working class block right near the harbour and my father worked in the harbour as well. Around 80 percent of the working class voted for communists. I saw the movies at the cinema in our block. Every block had its own cinema where my mother used to go in her morning jacket. It was like walking into an own living room."

"I was a very hard working student in school, but I think that the partial reason was that my parents pushed me very hard. Every time I had bad grades, my mother lost a few kilos and I wanted to keep her in shape, physically and mentally. In the beginning, I studied to please my mother, but rapidly my mother stepped aside and she was replaced by a personal motive that was linked to political enlightment. In France, communism had a strong role as a folk educator linked to the ideas of enlightment."

Guédiguian has worked a long way with the same cast of actors. Movies filmed through quarter of a century form a cross-section of that period of time. The director himself thinks that the generation experience is vital.

"Common will forms movies. I have noticed that my movies tell stories about people my age, which hasn't been conscious at all. I still work with the same people, and they grow old just as fast as I do."