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I like to be in a huis clos, as the French say – in one place. It’s something that in general can create a bit of claustrophobia. But for me, claustrophobia becomes almost immediately claustrophilia. I love it!

Bernardo Bertolucci

Pornography is not in the hands of the child who discovers his sexuality by masturbating, but in the heart of the adult who slaps him.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Adult Children Hands Hearts Masturbating
The life before ’68 was very different from the life after ’68. Before ’68, our days were full of authoritarian moments. There were authorities everywhere. In fact, the movement of ’68 was young people against their authorities, children against their parents. And that remained.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Authoritarian Children Feminist Moments People
I left the ending ambiguous, because that is the way life is.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Ambiguous Ending Life Way
This is something that I dream about: to live films, to arrive at the point at which one can live for films, can think cinematographically, eat cinematographically, sleep cinematographically, as a poet, a painter, lives, eats, sleeps painting.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Cinematographical Dream Painter Sleep Thinking
English dialogues are always just what you need and nothing more – like something out of Hemingway. In Italian and in French, dialogues are always theatrical, literary. You can do more with it.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Country Dialogue Italian More Need Needs Nothing
As a loyal believer in the Auteur Theory I first felt editing was but the logical consequence of the way in which one shoots. But, what I learned is that it is actually another writing.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Consequences Editing Loyal Shoot Writing
I think that Hollywood should also be influenced by directors from Hong Kong. You see how Quentin Tarantino is really the example of how you can develop, and how you can go ahead if you accept the existence of different cinematic cultures.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Ahead Culture Develo Example Interesting Thinking
You live day by day. You can’t build your life.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Build Day Life Live
Commuting in a wheelchair is not easy. I live in a very old part of Rome. These cobbles everywhere… terrible! In London, it is the same. Every pavement is uneven.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Cobbles Country Easy Everywhere Pavement
New York has always embraced me.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Always Country Embraced
A dolly move is a moral commitment.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Commitment Dolly Moral Moving
What happened in the late Fifties, early Sixties in French cinema was a fantastic revolution.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Cinema Director Dreamers Revolution
I accept all interpretations of my films. The only reality is before the camera. Each film I make is kind of a return to poetry for me, or at least an attempt to create a poem.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Cameras Each Poem Reality Return Time
The movies I like are always movies where cinema is reinvented like if it was the beginning of cinema.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Beginning Cinema Movies Reinvented
I think that what I learned then, I didn’t know I was learning. I just knew that I was very privileged to see somebody who was a writer, a great poet, and very smart-faced. Suddenly Pasolini becomes a director, so he has to invent cinema.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Character Learning Privilege Reality Thinking
I haven’t made a movie for a while, but I’ve watched a lot. It’s my major waste of time. I like to work, but also to be waiting for work.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Mademwatch Time Waiting Waste Work
If New York is the Big Apple, tonight Hollywood is the Big Nipple.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Apples Big Country Hollywood Nipple
I was seduced by the nouvelle vague, because it was really reinventing everything. And the Italian cinema that one would see in the theaters in the late ’50s, early ’60s was Italian comedy, Italian style, which, to me, was like the end of neo-realism.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Cinema Country Seduced Style Thinking Vague
Young people now don’t care for politics. It isn’t present in life as it used to be. And increasingly I like films which reflect present-day reality.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Increasingly People Politics Reality Youth
Every film I have made has corresponded to a very special moment of my life. I like to think that if someone wanted to reconstruct the story of my life, they can just see my movies and know what I have been through.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Life Reconstruct Someone Special Stories Thinking
If you mention any ideological thing about shooting Last Tango in Paris, I was thinking I was doing a political film.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Country Political Shooting Thinking
I don’t film messages. I let the post office take care of those.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Care Message Office
For example, Jewish directors coming from Germany or Austria and enriching Hollywood. In 15, 20 years, Hollywood became imperialistic. Cinema goes ahead when it is marriaged by other culture. Otherwise, it turns on itself.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Ahead Cinema Enriching Example Hollywood Imperialisytic
A name? Oh, Jesus Christ. Ah, God, I’ve been called by a million names all my life. I don’t want a name. I’m better off with a grunt or a groan for a name.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Better Jesus Life Million Names Self
I am still against any kind of censorship. It’s a subject in my life that has been very important.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Censorship Important Kind Subject
After many, many years, I fell out of love with politics. It’s not something I like but it’s the truth.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Love Politics Truth Years
There was a sense of future that was the result of the mixture of politics, cinema, music, the first joints. And the movies were a very important part of that cocktail.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI

Cinema Cocktail Important Mixture Music Result

I like to be in a huis clos, as the French say – in one place. It’s something that in general can create a bit of claustrophobia. But for me, claustrophobia becomes almost immediately claustrophilia. I love it!

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I like to be in a huis clos, as the French say – in one place. It’s something that in general can create a bit of claustrophobia. But for me, claustrophobia becomes almost immediately claustrophilia. I love it!

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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