"After spotting a then-unknown Delphine Seyrig in a New York theater production, director Alain Resnais cast her as the female lead of his superb and enigmatic meditation on time and memory, then enlisted Chanel to transform his ingenue into a star. The exquisite gowns she designed are integral to the film’s highly influential visual design, and Chanel and Seyrig began a long-lasting friendship, united by mutual respect and their devotion to the cause of women."

"I remember it as a strong anticolonialist film, with parallels with the American civil rights movement. In fact, a scene you won’t see in Medium Cool, of black militants going into a theater where The Battle of Algiers was playing, was deleted as a concession to Paramount’s concerns that it would provoke violence against Paramount executives. Paramount argued that if audience members came out of Medium Cool and committed a violent act, Paramount would be liable."

"This trilogy was rereleased at Film Forum in the summer of 2015, right before we started shooting Menashe. I went once a week and cried in the theater by myself. A universal story of birth, death, love, and coming of age. So many moments I can never forget: the joy of the school montage, and the famous scene in which the children see a train for the first time, a symbol of the arrival of modernity."