Olivier Assayas (Masterclass)

Irma Vep writer/director Assayas moved from film journalism to filmmaking – a fascinating journey told with disarming honesty to Jonathan Romney.

"I had a conviction that whatever you need to learn in cinema can be learned in a week," says Olivier Assayas. "I still believe that". Charting his move from film journalist to feted writer/director of films like Irma Vep and L'eau froide, he tells Jonathan Romney how Cahiers du Cinéma changed his life, and how, with disarming honesty, film was not a major fascination for him as a youth.