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Bernardo Bertolucci
Birthday:
16 March 1941
Height:
178 cm
Biography
What you want from a movie when you begin it is 150,000 miles from what you reach at the end. Moviemaking is a process. You end with something different; that's what gives it life. I cannot plan a film as a script or as a storyboard. I need the camera; I need the actors. I can't do it on a desk. I need the reality to whisper to me. If you leave the door open...
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What you want from a movie when you begin it is 150,000 miles from what you reach at the end. Moviemaking is a process. You end with something different; that's what gives it life. I cannot plan a film as a script or as a storyboard. I need the camera; I need the actors. I can't do it on a desk. I need the reality to whisper to me. If you leave the door open to reality, the smell of reality is so strong, it adds so much. It attacks and enters and infiltrates, that's what I enjoy.
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What interests me in The Sheltering Sky (1990) is not where the story goes but what it is and what it does on the way. It's about the mystery in the characters and the couple - the mystery of their chemistry. The interesting thing is the mystery itself, not its solution or resolution.
What interests me in The Sheltering Sky (1990) is not where the story goes but what it is and what it does on the way. It's about the mystery in the characters and the couple - the mystery of their chemistry. The interesting thing is the mystery itself, not its solution or resolution.
When a movie does very well, like some of mine, they ask you to re-do it, to make No. 2. This is dangerous, and I'm trying not to do it. You can become a copier of yourself. There are other filmmakers who can copy you better than you can yourself.
When a movie does very well, like some of mine, they ask you to re-do it, to make No. 2. This is dangerous, and I'm trying not to do it. You can become a copier of yourself. There are other filmmakers who can copy you better than you can yourself.
Very often the filmmaker will not receive money if he doesn't make the kind of film the Hollywood studios want.
Very often the filmmaker will not receive money if he doesn't make the kind of film the Hollywood studios want.
My way of directing actors is always, first of all, to be very curious about what they really are because you can't lie to the camera. I try to get close to the person's reality and then use what I find there in the direction of the character. Since I think the camera sees the truth, I prefer to go with the actor - like Brando, for instance - because if you ...
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My way of directing actors is always, first of all, to be very curious about what they really are because you can't lie to the camera. I try to get close to the person's reality and then use what I find there in the direction of the character. Since I think the camera sees the truth, I prefer to go with the actor - like Brando, for instance - because if you involve actors in the whole process, they will give you so much more.
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In Hollywood there used to be a sort of 'miracle of harmony' - harmony between the people writing the story, director, cast, set designer, and the grace of some of the Hollywood movies became inevitable - something within that system that made it all work. But today the production system has lost that grace.
In Hollywood there used to be a sort of 'miracle of harmony' - harmony between the people writing the story, director, cast, set designer, and the grace of some of the Hollywood movies became inevitable - something within that system that made it all work. But today the production system has lost that grace.
,,, With each of my movies, every time is the first time... which means taking risks...
,,, With each of my movies, every time is the first time... which means taking risks...
[on The Sheltering Sky (1990)] It's not an epic with a thousand extras. It's an epic of the heart. It's a love story. And the most common love story of all, about two people who adore each other but cannot be happy. On another, perhaps deeper level, it's about the difference between the traveler and the tourist. It's a distinction Paul Bowles makes in the ea...
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[on The Sheltering Sky (1990)] It's not an epic with a thousand extras. It's an epic of the heart. It's a love story. And the most common love story of all, about two people who adore each other but cannot be happy. On another, perhaps deeper level, it's about the difference between the traveler and the tourist. It's a distinction Paul Bowles makes in the early part of the book. A tourist wants to go home as soon as he has seen what he set out for. But a traveler wants to disappear, he wants to drown.
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[on Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)] I chose two actors, Dominique Sanda and Jean-Louis Trintignant for Last Tango. She gets pregnant. He can't get naked and do love scenes. I end up with Brando and Schneider. Thank God!
[on Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)] I chose two actors, Dominique Sanda and Jean-Louis Trintignant for Last Tango. She gets pregnant. He can't get naked and do love scenes. I end up with Brando and Schneider. Thank God!
[accepting his Golden Globe for The Last Emperor (1987)] I always thought The Last Emperor was almost an impossible project - because of China, because of the cost, because of no major stars in the movie; to be here with five nominations is the proof that although it's the story of a unique destiny, of a Chinaman, the movie goes beyond, can be understood eve...
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[accepting his Golden Globe for The Last Emperor (1987)] I always thought The Last Emperor was almost an impossible project - because of China, because of the cost, because of no major stars in the movie; to be here with five nominations is the proof that although it's the story of a unique destiny, of a Chinaman, the movie goes beyond, can be understood everywhere.
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[on describing Hollywood as "the big nipple" at the 1988 Academy Awards] The day after I remember I was driving in Sunset Boulevard and on the radio there was the disc jockey saying, "and now music from the Big Nipple..." And so they adopted it...I just meant that night these nine Oscars (for The Last Emperor (1987)) were like a big, big breast feeding all o...
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[on describing Hollywood as "the big nipple" at the 1988 Academy Awards] The day after I remember I was driving in Sunset Boulevard and on the radio there was the disc jockey saying, "and now music from the Big Nipple..." And so they adopted it...I just meant that night these nine Oscars (for The Last Emperor (1987)) were like a big, big breast feeding all of us. It was a joke. Sometimes from Hollywood is a very dry nipple; that time it was big and very generous.
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[on Silvio Berlusconi] We had 20 years with him. With his big TV channels, he created many subcultural values. He killed culture, in a way. He anaesthetised the brains of young people growing up in those years. Often, you can see an ignorance that is so big and so terrifying.
[on Silvio Berlusconi] We had 20 years with him. With his big TV channels, he created many subcultural values. He killed culture, in a way. He anaesthetised the brains of young people growing up in those years. Often, you can see an ignorance that is so big and so terrifying.
[on Breaking Bad (2008)] In the story, there is a freedom. But there are many other things which are free in terms of style. With TV series, they don't have the obsession in the editing room to do chop-chop-chop-chop. There are moments when the character is not doing something. In a series, you have a long time where the camera rests on the face of Walter Wh...
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[on Breaking Bad (2008)] In the story, there is a freedom. But there are many other things which are free in terms of style. With TV series, they don't have the obsession in the editing room to do chop-chop-chop-chop. There are moments when the character is not doing something. In a series, you have a long time where the camera rests on the face of Walter White, and it stays forever, which is not allowed in cinema anymore.
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My generation had an affair with American culture, there's no doubt about it. A street lamp and a fire hydrant made me sing in the rain. But the American films I like now do not come from Hollywood studios but from television series, like Mad Men (2007), Breaking Bad (2008), The Americans (2013). I like when they last 13 episodes but then there is a new seri...
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My generation had an affair with American culture, there's no doubt about it. A street lamp and a fire hydrant made me sing in the rain. But the American films I like now do not come from Hollywood studios but from television series, like Mad Men (2007), Breaking Bad (2008), The Americans (2013). I like when they last 13 episodes but then there is a new series coming with another 13 episodes. Apart from a few independent productions, I think that everything that comes from Hollywood is generally sad. It makes me very sad.
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[on the end of Breaking Bad (2008)] I'm sad about it. I want more.
[on the end of Breaking Bad (2008)] I'm sad about it. I want more.
[on American movies] I saw Stagecoach (1939) and for me, John Ford became Homer. I was in front of a full-length mirror and what I was seeing at 12 wasn't me, it was John Wayne.
[on American movies] I saw Stagecoach (1939) and for me, John Ford became Homer. I was in front of a full-length mirror and what I was seeing at 12 wasn't me, it was John Wayne.
The best work being done now is for television. Breaking Bad (2008) - a masterpiece. House of Cards (2013) - very, very good.
The best work being done now is for television. Breaking Bad (2008) - a masterpiece. House of Cards (2013) - very, very good.
Kurosawa's movies and La dolce vita (1960), Fellini, are the things that pushed me into being a film director.
Kurosawa's movies and La dolce vita (1960), Fellini, are the things that pushed me into being a film director.
[on Marlon Brando] An angel as a man, a monster as an actor.
[on Marlon Brando] An angel as a man, a monster as an actor.
[on Gérard Depardieu] Fills the space like a young Marlon Brando. He has an extraordinary intensity.
[on Gérard Depardieu] Fills the space like a young Marlon Brando. He has an extraordinary intensity.
[on the untimely death of Pier Paolo Pasolini] A remarkable director - a great loss to Italian culture. It was as if he was discovering cinema from scratch.
[on the untimely death of Pier Paolo Pasolini] A remarkable director - a great loss to Italian culture. It was as if he was discovering cinema from scratch.
You know for American filmmakers, the Oscars is like a mystic thing. For me it was being in a mirror of my dreams when I was dreaming of Hollywood when I was an adolescent.
You know for American filmmakers, the Oscars is like a mystic thing. For me it was being in a mirror of my dreams when I was dreaming of Hollywood when I was an adolescent.
[In response to Ingmar Bergman's contention that Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) (US title: "Last Tango in Paris") was really about homosexuals, and only in those terms did the film make sense and become interesting] 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 leas...
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[In response to Ingmar Bergman's contention that Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) (US title: "Last Tango in Paris") was really about homosexuals, and only in those terms did the film make sense and become interesting] 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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[on making The Dreamers (2003)] It gave me the chance of visiting a moment that I really loved a lot, the late 1960s. It was a kind of magic moment in many senses. There was a fantastic projection of the future, of utopias, which were very noble in some ways. I remember being young in the 1960s. We had a great sense of the future, a great big hope. This is w...
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[on making The Dreamers (2003)] It gave me the chance of visiting a moment that I really loved a lot, the late 1960s. It was a kind of magic moment in many senses. There was a fantastic projection of the future, of utopias, which were very noble in some ways. I remember being young in the 1960s. We had a great sense of the future, a great big hope. This is what is missing in the youth today. This being able to dream and to change the world.
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A monoculture is not only Hollywood, but Americans trying to export democracy. I don't think you can in any way export culture with guns or tanks. I think that I used to love Hollywood movies. I remember great phases and moments. But, unfortunately, now is not the moment.
A monoculture is not only Hollywood, but Americans trying to export democracy. I don't think you can in any way export culture with guns or tanks. I think that I used to love Hollywood movies. I remember great phases and moments. But, unfortunately, now is not the moment.
I am still against any kind of censorship. It's a subject in my life that has been very important.
I am still against any kind of censorship. It's a subject in my life that has been very important.
I don't film messages. I let the post office take care of those.
I don't film messages. I let the post office take care of those.
[His answer on 2 October 1979 to a woman who had just seen a special screening of La luna (1979) at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute, Chicago] I left the ending ambiguous, because that is the way life is.
[His answer on 2 October 1979 to a woman who had just seen a special screening of La luna (1979) at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute, Chicago] I left the ending ambiguous, because that is the way life is.
[on Los Angeles] The Big Nipple.
[on Los Angeles] The Big Nipple.
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films are known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy, in 1940. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed La commare secca (1962). His second film, Prima della rivoluzione (1964), which was released in 1971, received an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay. Bertolucci also received an Academy Award nomination as best director for Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972), and the best director and best screenplay for the film The Last Emperor (1987), which walked away with nine Academy Awards.
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