From an interview with Nobel laureat Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.
When did you first hear about AIDS?
This was 1982. The first cases were reported in the United States in June 1981. I was working on retroviruses and the relationship between retroviruses and cancer and leukemia. In 1982 the clinicians saw similar cases as reported in the US and came to us and said that we have to face this new disease. Nobody knew what its cause was. A lot of viruses had been suspected. And they asked what we thought about the potential role of retroviruses.
Were there a lot of rumors?
Not to my knowledge. Several families of viruses were already suspected. A lot of viruses that infect humans and viruses that effect lymphocytes. But the possibility of retroviruses was not yet explored.
From an interview with film director Jean-Jacques Beineix:
Was Diva the time when business took over?
It was the beginning of mass reproduction and games. The defeat of some kind of cinema which was made for everybody. Which could play in large theaters and small theaters.
The age of the producer.
Yes. The age of the producer. First the producers were the nice guys but they don’t exist anymore. The producer is the worst and he’s the best, he has a foot in both doors. He’s fighting the system, but at the same time he is the biggest success of the system. Now it is a stock market. Owned by people who want to have the quickest return of investment with the cheapest product. Steven Spielberg said that good films are industrial accidents. I don’t like these times, I feel more and more like a stranger.
Designers: David Knowles and Petra Langhammer
Production Manager: Katinka Deecke