A rare conversation with a reserved, mysterious auteur who in 2012 told us of the need to invent new challenges in order to maintain courage in an era when the virtual experience is trivializing our relationship with risk. The presentation of Holy Motors (2012) in Piazza Grande offered the chance to listen to a highly original point of view on the use of cinema as language, the rejection of cinephilia, the evolution of mise en scène in the transition to digital and the relation to beauty.