I am neither a sociologist nor a politician. All I can do is imagine for myself what the future will be like.
When you work on a character, you form in your mind an image of what he ought to look like. Then you go and find one who resembles him.
I don't know whether I am ever bored. I never look at myself.
I believe in the autobiographical concept only to the degree that I am able to put onto film all that's passing through my head at the moment of shooting.
In any case, the idea of giving "all" of reality is overly simple and absurd.
You can't go to an LSD or pot party unless you take it yourself. If I want to go, I must take drugs myself.
The women I like, no matter what nationality, all seem to have more or less the same qualities. Perhaps this is because one goes looking for them - that is, you like that type of woman and then look for her.
I'm more or less skeptical about marriage, because of family ties, relations between children and parents - it's all so depressing.
I'll go on making films until I make one that pleases me from the first to the last frame. Then I'll quit.
There are many ways of communicating. Some hold the theory that new forms of communication between people can be obtained through hallucinogenic drugs.
I've always played down the drama in my films. In my main scenes, there's never an opportunity for an actor to let go of everything he's got inside. I always try to tone down the acting, because my stories demand it, to the point where I might change a script so that an actor has no opportunity to come out well.
I may film scenes I had no intention of filming; things suggest themselves on location, and we improvise. I try not to think about it too much. Then, in the cutting room, I take the film and start to put it together, and only then do I begin to get an idea of what it is about.
In Blow-up I used my head instinctively!
I didn't like university life much at Bologna. The subjects I studied - economics and business administration - didn't interest me. I wanted to make films. I was glad when I was graduated. Yet it's odd; on graduation day, I was overcome with a terrible sadness. I realized that my youth was over and now the struggle had begun.
I'm not rich and maybe I'll never be rich. Money is useful - yes - but I don't worship it.
Normally, however, I try to avoid repetitions of any shot.
Hollywood doesn't believe in the death penalty for anyone except people who get cable TV without paying for it. Hollywood is like being nowhere and talking to nobody about nothing.
A particular type of film emerged from World War Two, with the Italian neorealist school. It was perfectly right for its time, which was as exceptional as the reality around us. Our major interest focused on that and on how we could relate to it. Later, when the situation normalized and post-war life returned to what it had been in peacetime, it became important to see the intimate, interior consequences of all that had happened.
I dislike judging myself, but I will say I would be wealthy today if I had accepted all the films that have been offered to me with large sums of money. But I've always refused, in order to do what I felt like doing.
My films always leave me unsatisfied, since I've always worked under fairly disastrous conditions economically.
My films have always had an element of immediate autobiography, in that I shoot any particular scene according to the mood I'm in that day, according to the little daily experiences I've had and am having - but I don't tell what has happened to me. I would like to do something more strictly autobiographical, but perhaps I never will, because it isn't interesting enough.
Favourite directors change, like favorite authors. I had a passion for Gide and Stein and Faulkner. But now they're no use to me anymore. I've assimilated them - so, enough, they are a closed chapter. This also applies to film directors.
I forget about the relationship between myself and any actress when working with her.
I've always dreamed of getting to know the women of other countries better. When I was a boy, I remember, I used to get angry at the thought that I did not know German or American or Swedish women.
It's only human and natural that an actor should see the film in terms of his own part, but I, as a director, have to see the film as a whole. He must therefore collaborate selflessly, totally.
