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Michelangelo Antonioni Quotes

1912–2007 Italy

Michelangelo Antonioni (29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian modernist film director whose films are widely considered among the most influential in film aesthetics.

Italy
Film directors

Random Michelangelo Antonioni quote

22 quotes

Hollywood is like being nowhere and talking to nobody about nothing.

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.

My work is like digging, it's archaeological research among the arid materials of our times. That's how I understand my first films, and that's what I'm still doing...

On Zabriskie Point (1970)

Everything depends on what you put in front of the camera, what perspectives you create, contrasts, colors.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

I began taking liberties a long time ago; now it is standard practice for most directors to ignore the rules.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

This was in part the meaning of Blow-Up.

The moment always comes when, having collected one's ideas, certain images, an intuition of a certain kind of development — whether psychological or material — one must pass on to the actual realization.

Cahiers du Cinema (1960)

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

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

When a scene is being shot, it is very difficult to know what one wants it to say, and even if one does know, there is always a difference between what one has in mind and the result on film.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

You must be painter who takes a canvas and does what he likes with it.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

I am not a theoretician of the cinema. If you ask me what directing is, the first answer that comes into my head is: I don't know.

Cahiers du Cinema (1960)

I always have motives, but I forget them.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

People are always misquoting me.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

My characters are ambiguous. Call them that. I don't mind. I am ambiguous myself. Who isn't?

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

We are saddled with a culture that hasn't advanced as far as science. Scientific man is already on the moon, and yet we are still living with the moral concepts of Homer.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

Modern life is very difficult for people who are unprepared. But this new environment will eventually facilitate more realistic relationships between people.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

I rarely feel the desire to reread a scene the day before the shooting. Sometimes I arrive at the place where the work is to be done and I do not even know what I am going to shoot.

Cahiers du Cinema (1960)

I have always imposed my wishes on the cameraman. Moreover, I have always picked them at the outset of their careers and, to a certain extent, have formed them myself.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

When we find ourselves up against practical obstacles that can't be overcome, we must go forward. You either make the film as you can or don't make it at all.

Encountering Directors interview (1969)

A director is a man, therefore he has ideas; he is also an artist, therefore he has imagination. Whether they are good or bad, it seems to me that I have an abundance of stories to tell. And the things I see, the things that happen to me, continually renew the supply.

Cahiers du Cinema (1960)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Michelangelo Antonioni (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.