I think cinema all over the world was influenced by it, which was Italy finding its freedom at the end of fascism, the end of the Nazi invasion. It was a kind of incredible energy. Then, late ’50s, early ’60s, the neo-realism lost its great energy and became comedy.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCII 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.
More Bernardo Bertolucci Quotes
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I’m no longer interested in making political films. There’s something old-fashioned about them.
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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.
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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.
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I was in Italy, but completely in love with the nouvelle vague movement, and directors like Godard, Truffaut, Demy. ‘The Dreamers’ was a total homage to cinema and that love for it.
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To explore technology for me is something that I have to do. Otherwise, I feel completely left in the back… abandoned.
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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.
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The problem in Hollywood is that they try to become the only kind of cinema in the world, okay?
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If you mention any ideological thing about shooting Last Tango in Paris, I was thinking I was doing a political film.
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A dolly move is a moral commitment.
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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.
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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.
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I don’t see my movies. I think it’s healthier and safer to keep a bit of distance. I’m afraid to be disappointed.
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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.
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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.
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If New York is the Big Apple, tonight Hollywood is the Big Nipple.
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I am still against any kind of censorship. It’s a subject in my life that has been very important.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Having no children had been a kind of choice up to the moment when, from a choice, it became a sadness.
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After many, many years, I fell out of love with politics. It’s not something I like but it’s the truth.
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What I was talking about was, of course, very autobiographical – ’68 was the moment when all the young people were incredibly excited, because when we were going to sleep, we knew we would wake up not tomorrow, but in the future.
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Sometimes you are in sync with the times, sometimes you are in advance, sometimes you are late.
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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.
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I think that I used to love Hollywood movies. I remember great phases and moments. But, unfortunately, now is not the moment.
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There you have Quentin playing with kung-fu. That’s why the independents are the most interesting.
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