"I’ve stopped reading film reviews," French director Patrice Leconte admitted at the Telluride Film Festival 2000. "If the reviews are good, it makes you feel fine --- but just one bad one can be catastrophic," he explained through his interpreter. That could be a mistake on his part. Judging from the positive Festival response to The Widow of Saint-Pierre (starring Chocolate’s Juliette Binoche), this dedicated filmmaker might miss some excellent reviews for his latest film.

Leconte, who has directed such acclaimed films as Girl on the Bridge, Ridicule, Monsieur Hire, and The Hairdresser’s Husband, stated he has finally put his war with French film critics to rest. "That battle happened in the previous century," he declared with a sly smile. "It seems filmmakers like movies, the audience likes movies, but critics don’t like movies. I’ve seen a critic look at his watch, then complain about having to go to a movie at a certain time," he added.

Finding inspiration from images rather than subject matter, Leconte described his interest in The Widow of Saint-Pierre as starting from his visions of "the sea, a boat, a horse." With Girl on the Bridge, he simply thought about "this girl on a bridge and a man meeting her there." According to Leconte, he then let the characters write their own story. "The characters are the real screenwriters," he insisted. "However, The Widow of Saint-Pierre is based on a true incident --- the execution of a man in 1850 on an island where no other executions had ever taken place."

With his wire-rimmed glasses and intense concentration, Leconte appears more like a professor than a moviemaker. It seems incongruous to hear him worry about films being too intellectual and dull. " I’m so afraid of boring audiences, and I don’t want to bore myself," he said. "I like to make each film as if I didn’t know how. I need to surprise myself."

Leconte’s film choices prove his willingness to experiment with different eras, genres, and techniques. For example, Girl on the Bridge presents an offbeat romance photographed in glorious black and white; Ridicule satirizes the court of Louis XVI, and The Widow of Saint-Pierre emerges as a powerful emotional melodrama.

In spite of his eagerness to work on different types of films, Leconte relies on the same production designer (Yvan Maussion) and editor (Joelle Hache) over and over again. "If I’d lose them, I would feel like an orphan," he confessed. "The editing of a film is so intense I hope the woman who edits my films never leaves. I actually make a movie to motivate her."

To Leconte, everything about filmmaking is important. "If we want film to resemble us, we have to take care of everything," he explained. He becomes deeply involved in all aspects of his films --- from writing and camera work to music and lighting. His method of inspiring cast members is a simple one. "When the actors and director know they are making the same movie, you don’t have to talk much," observed the man who has worked with such fine French actors as Binoche, Daniel Autiel, Jean Rochefort, Vanessa Paradis, and Judith Godreche.

Will Leconte ever make an English-language film? "It would be hard to give up being in charge of everything," he mused. "But I did agree once to do an English version of one of my films if Woody Allen would star in it. You see, I’m a great admirer of his. When Woody refused, that was that." How unfortunate for American moviegoers!