People come up with all sorts of ideas. Some even think it might be interesting to make a film director meet another film director. How nice would it be for two people to meet who have such a thing in common! In fact, it would be quite burdensome for a filmmaker. This is because we have nothing to talk about. All filmmakers have their minds filled with their own thoughts. We are left with nothing else to talk about. Although we would speak to critics and newspaper journalists whose job it is to lend us an ear, talking to other film directors would be something else. For us, talking about another director's film also poses a difficulty. This is because we all know how it is going to go. We will either be thinking ‘hmm, you are pretty impressive’ while underneath an expression of interest our hearts are filled with scorn, or, we&'re completely uninterested.

In other words, it is impossible for us to speak about films. Even so, it is not like we can start talking about the restaurant we discovered yesterday that serves quite delicious food. If we are both Japanese, we could kill time by discussing cinemas that only attract small audiences or complain about film sets where it is a difficult task even to gather crew members with little experience. With film directors from abroad, however, reporting on our individual situations would be a futile process, a bit like the world socialist movement.

Although I cannot guarantee whether this is true or not as it is only something I was told, apparently there was once someone who came up with the tremendous idea of arranging a meeting between Ingmar Bergman and Alain Resnais. Arrangements were made for a dinner that, of course, not only involved the two of them but also some others who joined them. As the dinner proceeded, however, no word was exchanged between the two of them. The guests were kept in suspense. When they had become convinced the dinner would end without a conversation between the directors, one of the two looked over to the other when the coffee was served and asked, ‘What lens did you use in that shot in the film, xxx’? The other responded, ‘It was a xxx-mm lens’.