I never see things I make in the same way that the audience does. You can never do that.

Opera was the cinema of its time, so to bring back that popular appeal, you just need to unleash its visceral immediacy and excitement. Most productions don't manage that - but when an opera does do it, you never forget it.

I've tried to make 'Strictly Ballroom' impossible to date. It does feel a bit '80s but I consciously made sure there was no technology in the movie that could date it.

Some of the greatest relationship films of all time, the two stars have hated each other, but mostly you see that chemistry.

When I was growing up you would see big American films that really mythologised their landscape, that really showed the vastness and the drama of their country.

Everything I make starts very personally.