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.

Bernardo Bertolucci

Categorized in : Thinking Italian Style

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

dream sleep thinking

I don't film messages. I let the post office take care of those.

Bernardo Bertolucci

care office messages

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.

Bernardo Bertolucci

missing dream world

Sometimes you are in sync with the times, sometimes you are in advance, sometimes you are late.

Bernardo Bertolucci

sync late sometimes

Film students should stay as far away from film schools and film teachers as possible. The only school for the cinema is the cinema.

Bernardo Bertolucci

cinema teacher school

I left the ending ambiguous, because that is the way life is.

Bernardo Bertolucci

ambiguous life-is way

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 return reality

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

self names jesus

A monoculture is not only Hollywood, but Americans trying to export democracy.

Bernardo Bertolucci

hollywood democracy trying

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

special stories thinking

A dolly move is a moral commitment.

Bernardo Bertolucci

moral commitment moving

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

heart children hands

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.

Bernardo Bertolucci

dreamer cinema directors

I don't think you can in any way export culture with guns or tanks.

Bernardo Bertolucci

tanks gun thinking

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

loyal editing writing

The movies I like are always movies where cinema is reinvented like if it was the beginning of cinema.

Bernardo Bertolucci

There's no more film; now everything's digital. I welcome this. It's fantastic for me to have a new chance.

Bernardo Bertolucci

welcome digital chance

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.

Bernardo Bertolucci

cameras ideas thinking

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.

Bernardo Bertolucci

political reality people

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