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 BERTOLUCCIThe 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.
More Bernardo Bertolucci Quotes
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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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Sometimes I think that I understand my movies after I make them. Really. I go very often off of instinct.
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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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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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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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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.
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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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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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A dolly move is a moral commitment.
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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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There you have Quentin playing with kung-fu. That’s why the independents are the most interesting.
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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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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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New York has always embraced me.
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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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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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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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You live day by day. You can’t build your life.
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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.
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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.
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If New York is the Big Apple, tonight Hollywood is the Big Nipple.
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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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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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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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I was writing poems when I was young, you know, because my father was a poet, so it was absolutely normal to follow my father.
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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.
BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI