Many French directors, having now realised there was no more real criticism, that the standards of the past have gone, are very offended about the quality of film criticism.

Of course the French are making very credible movies and it is still one of the greatest nations in terms of world cinema but the real problem is the decay in film criticism.

The culture of independent film criticism has totally gone down the drain and this seems to come with the territory of the consumer age that we are now living in.

In this age of consumerism film criticism all over the world - in America first but also in Europe - has become something that caters for the movie industry instead of being a counterbalance.

(I must) drive around a bit in this country before I have the right to make a film here again.

Film criticism became the means whereby a stream of young intellectuals could go straight from the campus film society into the professionals' screening room with- out managing to get a glimpse of the real world in between.