If the question is supposed to be that does my Jewish background have anything to do with my work, it may be that certain humanitarian influences have seeped into my work, but it hasn't really affected my work, no. I can't answer that question, because there's a lot of films that vie for that privelege, but I can list a few of them. Mike, many of your films are very funny but also extremely dark. I don't decide. I try and make films that are as real as possible, I try to create a reality, like the reality we experience in life.
Life is comic and tragic.
So the material I create in the films is both comic and tragic. It comes that way, it's hewn from the theme. Of course I do use comic skills and tragic skills as a filmmaker and dramatist. But I don't make a conscious decision as to when it should be comic and tragic. And so I wanted for years to make a film which explored this predicament in a fictitious way.