Women from Belgium

"Your work creates a foundation for these children's future, ... But most of all, I've been struck by the children's own desire to solve their problems."

"The homework is obviously in Dutch. I adapt myself accordingly. The kids just think in Dutch."

"Laeken is becoming the enchanted Burg Prunn. Nobody dares to approach it anymore."

"The colonial system was wrong. It was an exploitation of the natural resources at the expense of the local population. In Belgium there is still a taboo on that subject, the place of Leopold II is in the museum, provided with the necessary explanation."

"The fact that our public space is dominated by images to the glory of white men, conquerors, and certain colonizers or slavers undoubtedly contributes to the sense that history celebrates the supremacy of the white race. The "discovery" of America by Christopher Columbus, regardless of the explorer's merits, reflects a Eurocentric view of the world. Wasn't it a continent that has essentially been 'discovered' since it was inhabited? His troops plundered the local wealth, enslaved the natives and spread unknown diseases."

"The colonial past has never been discussed in a transparent and systematic manner in Belgium. Many historians have certainly studied the subject, but at the political level the theme has been very little addressed, if not avoided. And the biggest gap is in education. Our 21st century multicultural society needs to know the facts, not the myths passed down from generation to generation. The detachment of the statues of Leopold II is part of a desire to purge a past partisan by the settlers, without regard for the colonized population and their suffering."

"I am accused of attacking my family and especially the person of the king. That was clearly never my intention, I know how complex and delicate the situation in Belgium is. I know that the king cannot act politically without the permission of the government. I also know how passionate my cousin is about history, but also sensitive to the aspirations and feelings of his fellow citizens. We live in a crucial moment. The opportunity for inter-community dialogue must be seized."

"What more could I ask on earth than to be your friend, to be your only friend? All my happiness I owe to you all that is lacking from my happiness is my fault, alone, and I blame only myself for all that troubles me. If I am no longer young, if I have none of the gifts or graces that might have made your home a happy one, if I have been unable to bring any pleasure to your life, I must attribute it to my ill fortune. And so, if I cannot but regret, I only regret what I cannot do for you. It has been the thorn in my happiness that I could not help you; but alas, the feeling of all that is lacking in me, of all that has been wanting, and will always be wanting only increases my adoration and gratitude."

"I well knew your present King’s father and pious mother. I was often admitted to the friendly intimacy of the royal family, and I have held the little Leopold, Duke of Brabant, in my arms. I remember that good Christian, Queen Marie Louise, asking me to give my benediction to her eldest son, then eight or nine years old, so that he might become a good king."

"She had failed to judge her public. Louise had won the gratitude and affection of Belgium by her quiet nobility her gentle charity; and her personal misfortunes had only increased the people's devotion."

"I always wanted to be a femme fatale. Even when I was a young girl, I never really wanted to be a girl. I wanted to be a woman."

"The girls who were unanimously considered beautiful often rested on their beauty alone. I felt I had to do things, to be intelligent and develop a personality in order to be seen as attractive. By the time I realized maybe I wasn't plain and might even possibly be pretty, I had already trained myself to be a little more interesting and informed."

"Usually, the fairy tale ends with the girl marrying the prince. But mine started as soon as the marriage was over."

"Confidence. If you have it, you can make anything look good."

"I've been working seriously in giving fashion a place that it deserves."

"I wanted to be an empowered woman, and I became an empowered woman. And now I want to empower every woman. And I do it through my clothes, I do it through my words, I do it through my money, I do it through everything."

"When you read a text, you’re on your own time. That is not the case in film. In fact, in film, you’re dominated by my time. But time is different for everyone. Five minutes isn’t the same thing for you as it is for me. And five minutes sometimes seems long, sometimes seems short. Take a specific film, say, D’Est: I imagine the way each viewer experiences time is different. And on my end, when I edit, the timing isn’t done just any way. I draw it out to the point where we have to cut. Or take another example, News from Home: How much time should we take to show this street so that what’s happening is something other than a mere piece of information? So that we can go from the concrete to the abstract and come back to the concrete—or move forward in another way. I’m the one who decides. At times I’ve shot things and I’ve said, "Now this is getting unbearable!" And I’ll cut. For News from Home it’s something else, but I have a hard time explaining it."

"Everyone thought, for example, that Jeanne Dielman was in real time, but the time was totally recomposed, to give the impression of real time. There I was with Delphine [Seyrig], and I told her, "When you put down the Wiener schnitzels like that, do it more slowly. When you take the sugar, move your arm forward more quickly." Only dealing with externals. When she asked why, I’d say, "Do it, and you’ll see why later." I didn’t want to manipulate her. I showed her afterward and said to her, "You see, I don’t want it to 'look real,' I don’t want it to look natural, but I want people to feel the time that it takes, which is not the time that it really takes." I only saw that after Delphine did it. I hadn’t thought of it before."

"[On directing Jeanne Dielman aged 25.] It’s not very modest of me, but I’m still so proud I did it at that age."

"A lot of it came unconsciously. [...] When I wrote it, it ran like a river."

"Delphine Seyrig complained that there was so much detail she didn’t have to invent anything."

"[On the isms ("feminism, minimalism, structuralism") present in analysis of Jeanne Dielman.] I don’t think it’s minimalist, [...] I think it’s maximalist. It’s big! And if I did the film now I don’t know that it would be called feminist. It could have been done about a man, too. All those labels are a bit annoying [...] To name something is a way to possess it. I think it makes the film smaller. And O.K., maybe they are right, but they are never right enough."

"[A male client of the lead character, a part-time prostitute, is stabbed with scissors near the end of the film.] In most movies you have crashes or accidents or things out of the ordinary, so the viewer is distracted from his own life. [...] This film is about his own life."

"Jeanne has to organize her life, to not have any space, any time, so she won’t be depressed or anxious [...] She didn’t want to have one free hour because she didn’t know how to fill that hour."

"It came from what I saw as a kid, all those gestures of my mother. [...] That’s why the film is so precise."

"I sometimes think I should have made it after many other films, at the end of my career. [...] I remember saying to myself, how can I make a better film? But it was also exactly the film I had to make then. It says something about a woman, about a way of living a life, about life after the war. It was the first thing I had to pour out of myself. [...] I would have changed nothing about it."

"For many reasons, I believe more in books than images. The image is an idol in an idolatrous world. In a book, there’s no idolatry, even if you can idolise the characters. I believe in the book; when you immerse yourself in a huge book, it’s like an event, an extraordinary one."

"Previously, I had felt a kind of energy in life, with moments of depression of course – but I read constantly, took notes, was curious about everything. Then it was gone … The breakdown knocked me out. Before, I walked barefoot in the street, I brought poor people home, I wanted to save the world. Imagine, I telephoned Amnesty International to try to get them to dig a hole to the other side of the earth, to Siberia, so they’d get out all the people imprisoned in the camps! I wanted them to have 10,000 Socialist Jews brought to Israel to change the government and make peace … But I wasn’t living there, and it’s for the Israelis to know what’s to be done. Not for us who live here, for the time being, securely. I want the days to end early. I go to bed at 5pm, at 8pm, with sleeping pills. Without complaining. That’s how it is. I cope with my illness. It’s an illness like any other."

"I think if I knew I was going to do this, I wouldn’t have dared to do it."

"Even if I have a home in Paris and sometimes in New York, whenever I was saying I have to go home, it was going to my mother. And there is 'no home' anymore, because she isn’t there, and when I came the last time, the home was empty."

"She never wanted to speak about Auschwitz. [...] I asked her once to tell me more, and she said, 'No, I will get crazy.' So we could speak around, or after, or before, but the real moment, never. Not directly."

"I panicked, and thought I will have so many regrets if I don’t keep chasing my racing career. And just like that, W Series dropped out of the sky. That was the beginning of a whole new chapter."

"F1 was always my goal and although I planned to be there as a driver, I got there in a different shape and form which is fine. That was the most mind-blowing thing to me"

"“Since I was very young, I’ve looked up to Lewis Hamilton. He was, for me, the only, call it ‘identifiable’ role model that I had in my career, so he held a special place in my heart and you know, I have always been motivated to do as well as he’s done, and hopefully be that identifiable role model to someone else, thanks to him.”"

"There weren’t many girls or people of color. I didn’t feel like I fit in, and the idea of being compared with my counterparts was frightening.“If little girls turn on the TV, they’ll see my face … If I was wearing a helmet, they probably wouldn’t.” (Talking about being visible as a woman in motorsport, and how being without the helmet matters for visibility.)"

"People aren’t always going to enjoy change, change is most often met with resistance, but it has been good. There’s been a lot of support which has surprised me … You’re going to face that criticism, but it doesn’t change the way I feel. I love motorsport and I feel grateful to be there … keyboard warriors … but … everyone I work with … has been great."

"I was always going to be known as the bastard."

"I represent myself."

"I know I can opt to go along with death But I decide to wake myself up, the roller blinds are dirty And outside people are walking around who try to set me on fire and go unpunished."

"I get up and watch the end of the slow film with him, the dénouement is a damp squib."

"I wanted to run faster, but in the end, I am happy with my timing. It is a good course with good weather conditions which made it easier for me."