THINKING ABOUT DALI...

Even after saying yes, I always want to laugh when someone offers me an
honour of any kind, a title, a podium, a free hand or a free lunch. When Gilles
Jacob asked me to give a lesson in cinema at the Cannes Festival 2000 to a
number of renowned scenario writers, I was, naturally, flattered but I
immediately thought of when Salvador Dali was invited to give a conference at
the Sorbonne, at the time when my first film was about to be released in only
one cinema. He arrived in a Rolls Roys filled with cauliflowers. I thought about
this episode and accepted the proposal in good heart. In my mind's eye, I
would arrive at the Palace in a pink Cadillac convertible, filled with melons, and,
on the cloth-draped table of the Ambassadors room, will stand a carafe of
lemonade on a layer of acanthus leaves and mimosa. As for a lecture, I feel
unable to give one but, if a few people are prepared to listen to me, I'm more
than willing to talk or chat with them. To speak about cinema, the one I create
and the one I love, is always a pleasure.
Agnès Varda (April 2000)