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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Bernardo Bertolucci Quotes

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

– Bernardo Bertolucci

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.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

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

I like that 3D is based on the fact that you look with two eyes, so two cameras imitate that.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

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

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.

– 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

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

– Bernardo Bertolucci

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

– Bernardo Bertolucci

I am in love with the idea of doing a movie in 3D. I think 3D would be great in a kind of realistic normal story without throwing objects to the camera, but using the 3D on the emotions in an intimate story.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

I wanted already to be a filmmaker after I saw ‘La Dolce Vita.’

– Bernardo Bertolucci

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

– Bernardo Bertolucci

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

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!

– Bernardo Bertolucci

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.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

What always made me proud – almost blushing with pride – is that Francis Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg all told me that ‘The Conformist’ is their first modern influence.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

To explore technology for me is something that I have to do. Otherwise, I feel completely left in the back… abandoned.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

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

– Bernardo Bertolucci

I wanted to have a reaction from the audience. I wanted to be able to talk to somebody, and not be talking just to myself. That’s when I did ‘The Conformist,’ ‘Last Tango in Paris,’ etc. And I found it was incredibly rewarding, something new.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

After many, many years, I fell out of love with politics. It’s not something I like but it’s the truth.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

I think that I used to love Hollywood movies. I remember great phases and moments. But, unfortunately, now is not the moment.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

You live day by day. You can’t build your life.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

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.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

I don’t see my movies. I think it’s healthier and safer to keep a bit of distance. I’m afraid to be disappointed.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

The conformist understands that the reason of his desperate look for conformism is that he realises he is different and that he never accepted his difference.

– Bernardo Bertolucci

I am still against any kind of censorship. It’s a subject in my life that has been very important.

– Bernardo Bertolucci