Quotes

[1976 comment on Luis Bunuel] I think today there are too many directors taking themselves seriously; the only one capable of saying anything really new and interesting is Luis Bunuel. He's a very great director.

[on Marcello Mastroianni] He's very human and easily identifies with the man in the street. He's never a hero. Rather, he's an anti-hero, and that's why in turn the public adores him. That's his great merit and his appeal.

[on Burt Lancaster] The Prince in "The Leopard" was a very complex character -- at times autocratic, rude, strong -- at times romantic, good, understanding -- and sometimes even stupid, and above all, mysterious. Burt is all these things too. Sometimes I think Burt is the most perfectly mysterious man I have ever met in my life.

[on Giancarlo Giannini] An extraordinary actor.

[on Vittorio Gassmann] He's a monster. Nature has made him prodigiously gifted and that's not always a blessing. His monstrous technical ability make him neglect to go deeper into the roles he plays. All the same, what an actor!

[on Ingmar Bergman] I don't begin to share his way of seeing things any more than his obsessions. All the same I find him interesting. And his universe is much stranger yet than any Japanese filmmaker.

[on Laura Antonelli] Don't underestimate Laura Antonelli. She's burning to do well. And then she has an extraordinary face, even without make-up. It's not with her that I'd discuss literature. I speak only of the film "L'Innocente," and what she does she does well.

[on Michelangelo Antonioni] It seems that boredom is one of the great discoveries of our time. If so, there's no question but that he must be considered a pioneer.

When I'm directing an opera, I dream about a film, when I'm working on a film, I dream about an opera, and when I'm doing a play, I'm dreaming about music. Working in another field is a change, a rest. You must always work with pleasure. The work is bad if you do not do it with pleasure.

Melodrama has a bad reputation because it has been abandoned to schematic and conventional interpretation.

I like melodrama because it is situated just at the meeting point between life and theater. I wanted the melodrama onstage to reflect the melodrama in the film.

Helmut Berger is seemingly so touchy and difficult, and down deep so sweet, generous and sincere.

[on Charlotte Rampling] That one day, if she so wished it, she would be a star.