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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. It Was Like Watching The Invention Of Cinema. But I Found Out That Pasolini Taught Me A Lot. It Was, Especially, The Kind Of Respect That He Had For Reality. He Had Kind Of Epiphanies In His Movies, Like When A Moment Becomes Full Of Grace, And It Is Like As If It Was The Most Important Moment In The Life Of A Character.

-Bernardo Bertolucci

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I Think That What

Bernardo Bertolucci

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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. It Was Like Watching The Invention Of Cinema. But I Found Out That Pasolini Taught Me A Lot. It Was, Especially, The Kind Of Respect That He Had For Reality. He Had Kind Of Epiphanies In His Movies, Like When A Moment Becomes Full Of Grace, And It Is Like As If It Was The Most Important Moment In The Life Of A Character.

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Film Students Should Stay As Far Away From Film Schools And Film Teachers As Possible. The Only School For The Cinema Is The Cinema.

I Don't Film Messages. I Let The Post Office Take Care Of Those.

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. 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.

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.

You Know, In Ten Years You're Gonna Be Playing Soccer With Your Tits, What Do You Think Of That?

If You Mention Any Ideological Thing About Shooting Last Tango In Paris, I Was Thinking I Was Doing A Political Film.

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.

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.

I Left The Ending Ambiguous, Because That Is The Way Life Is.

Sometimes You Are In Sync With The Times, Sometimes You Are In Advance, Sometimes You Are Late.

Sometimes I Think That I Understand My Movies After I Make Them. Really. I Go Very Often Off Of Instinct.

The Movies I Like Are Always Movies Where Cinema Is Reinvented Like If It Was The Beginning Of Cinema.

After Many, Many Years, I Fell Out Of Love With Politics. It's Not Something I Like But It's The Truth.

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. It Was Like Watching The Invention Of Cinema. But I Found Out That Pasolini Taught Me A Lot. It Was, Especially, The Kind Of Respect That He Had For Reality. He Had Kind Of Epiphanies In His Movies, Like When A Moment Becomes Full Of Grace, And It Is Like As If It Was The Most Important Moment In The Life Of A Character.

There's No More Film; Now Everything's Digital. I Welcome This. It's Fantastic For Me To Have A New Chance.

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.

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. There You Have Quentin Playing With Kung-fu. That's Why The Independents Are The Most Interesting.

A Dolly Move Is A Moral Commitment.

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!

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.

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.

To Explore Technology For Me Is Something That I Have To Do. Otherwise, I Feel Completely Left In The Back... Abandoned.

What Happened In The Late Fifties, Early Sixties In French Cinema Was A Fantastic Revolution. 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.

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. The Most Important Thing Of All, The Thing That Lasted, Was The First Feminist Movement And The Position Of Women In Society. That Completely Changed And That Was Very, Very Important.

I Am Still Against Any Kind Of Censorship. It's A Subject In My Life That Has Been Very Important.

The Problem In Hollywood Is That They Try To Become The Only Kind Of Cinema In The World, Okay? The Imposition Everywhere Of A Unique Culture, Which Is Hollywood Culture, And A Unique Way Of Life, Which Is The American Way Of Life. But Hollywood Has Forgotten That, In The Past, What Made Hollywood Great And What Made It Go Ahead Was The Fact That Hollywood Was Fed With, 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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If New York Is The Big Apple, Tonight Hollywood Is The Big Nipple.

I Am In Love With The Idea Of Doing A Movie In 3d. I Think 3d Would Be Great For The Story I Want To Do, In A Realistic, Normal Story, Using 3d On The Emotions In A Kind Of Intimate Story.

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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.

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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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I'm No Longer Interested In Making Political Films. There's Something Old-fashioned About Them. 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.

You Live Day By Day. You Can't Build Your Life.

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