In his native France Michel Blanc is respected as an actor of some considerable range, with films like "Monsieur Hire" and "Merci La Vie" to his credit. But he shows signs of becoming every bit as successful a director too, with his second movie, a challenging, English language drama called "The Escort" now on release.

A tale of middle class disaffection colliding with mid-life crisis for Parisian professor Pierre, it is a story that Blanc understands but does not personally share. But he knows a man who does.

"This story was always very close to some of my own personal preoccupations," he explains in perfect English. "Things that I always had in mind, questions of identity, changing your identity and at times escaping from it. I’m very happy with my own professional life, so I have a totally different background to Pierre, but I know what it is suddenly to wonder if I am who I think I am or just someone who is trying to please the people around him by being what they want me to be."

"But it’s strange because when I started writing this script my best friend told me he was leaving his wife. He had the same feelings that Pierre had in my story. I remember thinking that when he married he stopped being exactly the same guy that I was friends with when we were younger. He was still my best friend, but he had a different life and different priorities. Suddenly when I saw him after his marriage had ended, he was that boy again, free again and much more open minded. It was a very strange thing."