"This," he said more than once, "existed in reality AND in the film".
At once rooted in reality and dream, Beasts is a delirious attempt at Louisiana myth-making – indeed, at a sort of neo-prehistoric cinema.
"If you peel away the knocks that we had against us -- that were once founded in reality -- you find a wonderful city".
Life may have seemed more beautiful once, but, in reality, the only thing beautiful about a duel was the spot where it might take place: a leafy glade in the Bois de Boulogne, or a snow-laden field along the Rhine.
Pope Francis may be building up quite an image as a tech-savvy Bishop of Rome, what with his Twitter presence and that $30,500 iPad he touched once, but in reality the guy can't use a computer and hasn't even watched TV in 25 years.
Once in-app purchasing became a reality it gaming, it forever transformed that universal desire and demand for freedom of movement and expression from a concept of human nature to something quantifiable, measurable and financially groundbreaking to any gamer.
But whatever their offenses may be, the cast members of "The A-List" have become conversation pieces for many gay men in New York, proving once again that in reality television, watchable doesn't always mean likeable.
In spite of another year of relentless cost-cutting, layoffs, and the shuttering and sale of the vast printing plants where the company's flagship newspapers were once produced, profit, in reality, was down a "solid" 86% on the year before, to a wafer-thin $26m, one of the worst results on record.
Once in a while, reality bursts on to the stage to disrupt the show - and that has happened again just as the producers are getting ready to take it on tour to Annapolis, where President Bush plans to hold a meeting of key leaders some time this autumn.
