Quotes

The best actors in the world are those who feel the most and show the least.

[on Marcello Mastroianni] Mastroianni fascinates me; there are few people who are more intelligent than they wish to appear. That's Marcello exactly!

[on Gina Lollobrigida] The only leading lady who displeased me. It's wicked to say this now she's a retired old lady, but we had a completely different conception of things: between each shot she called for her hairdresser and make-up man. It was very painful to work under those conditions. And then, she was a little stupid: she understood nothing of what she was doing and completely embarrassed the director.

[on Costa-Gavras] Costa-Gavras is more the classic director of the American cinema of John Ford and those people. His films are a little linear, didactic for a character who is so complex and ambiguous. I love him! We all do, we all call him -- Nadine, myself -- when we're cutting. He can take any film and find ten more minutes to cut.

[on Anouk Aimée] No actress either, like Brigitte Bardot, but extraordinary -- the way Gary Cooper was extraordinary.

[on Catherine Deneuve] At the beginning, not an extraordinary actress. But she has become a formidable one, subtle, full of nuance, sensitive, intelligent. I love working with her.

[on his role in The Great Silence (1968)] I play the part of a mute. The audience won't realize it because during the first two-thirds of the film, there's no reason for him to speak. I like it because in most Westerns, they talk too much and say nothing.