"Ian Palach happens in the midst of the cold war, the events in Czechoslovakia took place six months ago, and with two friends journalists, we had just arrived in Czechoslovakia via Nuremberg - I had two cameras, I do not know which, I think an Arriflex, but I know I shot, everyone stopped like that, for a minute on Wenceslas Square, it was very impressive, I had reels of two-three minutes I made some still shots and I thought, I remember I thought about Marienbad, "Last year in Marienbad," because people were stopped on the subway stairs, they did not move more, like statues, and it's true that it was a real moment, unthinkable in France, it was a real moment when all the weight of the oppression of the system was there - I must say that it is a bit of a miracle too and a chance to have filmed this first minute of silence - "Raymond Depardon, comments collected by Bertrand Loutte for Court-Circuit (magazine), Arte, March 2004.
—ARTE MAGAZINE