I would throw out the sense of nation, "good breeding," certain forms and ceremonies that govern relationships - perhaps even jealousy. We're not aware of all of them yet, though we suffer from them. And they mislead us not only about ethics but also about aesthetics.

Michelangelo Antonioni

Categorized in : Suffering Ethics Mislead Us

A film you can explain in words is not a real film.

Michelangelo Antonioni

film real

When I am shooting a film I never think of how I want to shoot something; I simply shoot it.

Michelangelo Antonioni

shooting want thinking

We know that behind every image revealed there is another image more faithful to reality, and in the back of that image there is another, and yet another behind the last one, and so on, up to the true image of that absolute, mysterious reality that no one will ever see.

Michelangelo Antonioni

creativity photography art

I read somewhere that happiness is like the bluebird of Maeterlinck: Try to catch it and it loses its color. It's like trying to hold water in your hands. The more you squeeze it, the more the water runs away.

Michelangelo Antonioni

color running hands

It's obvious that I must explain what I want from an actor, but I don't want to discuss everything I ask him to do, because often my requests are completely instinctive and there are things I can't explain. It's like painting: You don't know why you use pink instead of blue. You simply feel that's how it should be - pink. Then the phone rings and you answer it. When you come back, you don't want pink anymore and you use blue - without knowing why. You can't help it; that's just the way it is.

Michelangelo Antonioni

phones knowing blue

A film that can be described in words is not really a film.

Michelangelo Antonioni

film

I think people talk too much; that's the truth of the matter. I do. I don't believe in words. People use too many words and usually wrongly. I am sure that in the distant future people will talk much less and in a more essential way. If people talk a lot less, they will be happier. Don't ask me why.

Michelangelo Antonioni

believe people thinking

When I see nature, when I look into the sky, the dawn, the sun, the colors of insects, snow crystals, the night stars, I don't feel a need for God. Perhaps when I can no longer look and wonder, when I believe in nothing - then, perhaps, I might need something else. But I don't know what.

Michelangelo Antonioni

stars night believe

The script is simply a series of notes for the film.

Michelangelo Antonioni

notes scripts film

If an actor tries to understand too much, he will act in an intellectual and unnatural manner.

Michelangelo Antonioni

actors intellectual trying

A woman's sex appeal is an inner matter. It stems from her mental make-up, basically. It's an attitude, not just a question of her physical features - that arrogant quality in a woman's femininity. Otherwise, all beautiful women would have sex appeal, which is not so.

Michelangelo Antonioni

attitude beautiful sex

The photographer in Blow-Up, who is not a philosopher, wants to see things closer up. But it so happens that, by enlarging too far, the object itself decomposes and disappears. Hence there's a moment in which we grasp reality, but then the moment passes. This was in part the meaning of Blow-Up.

Michelangelo Antonioni

blow want reality

A man who renounces something is also a man who believes in something.

Michelangelo Antonioni

renounce men believe

A scene has to have a rhythm of its own, a structure of its own.

Michelangelo Antonioni

rhythm structure scene

I can't give any absolute definition of what love is, or even whether it ought to exist.

Michelangelo Antonioni

definitions love-is giving

You cannot penetrate events with reportage.

Michelangelo Antonioni

penetrate events

Often to understand, we have to look into emptiness.

Michelangelo Antonioni

emptiness looks

We live in a society that compels us to go on using these concepts, and we no longer know what they mean.

Michelangelo Antonioni

goes-on knows mean

I meant exactly what I said: that we are saddled with a culture that hasn't advanced as far as science.

Michelangelo Antonioni

said culture

The greatest danger for those working in the cinema is the extraordinary possibility it offers for lying.

Michelangelo Antonioni

possibility cinema lying