“It's untrue to say the colors I use are not those of reality. They are real: The red I use is red; the green, green; blue, blue; and yellow, yellow. It's a matter of arranging them differently from the way I find them, but they are always real colors. So it's not true that when I tint a road or a wall, they become unreal. They stay real, though colored differently for my scene.” WayRealMatterUseRealityColorWallSceneRedBlueGreenYellowUnrealUntrueArrangingBlue And Yellow Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
“The script is a starting point, not a fixed highway. I must look through the camera to see if what I've written on the page is right or not. In the script, you describe imagined scenes, but it's all suspended in mid-air. Often, an actor viewed against a wall or a landscape, or seen through a window, is much more eloquent than the lines you've given him. So then you take out the lines. This happens often to me and I end up saying what I want with a movement or a gesture.” IfsWantLooksEndsHappensActorsGivenLinesWrittenAirMovementWallScenePagesWindowCamerasStartingScriptsLandscapeFixedGesturesHighwaysEloquentStarting PointSuspended Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
“I simply know what the actor's attitude should be and what he should say. He doesn't, because he can't see the relationship that begins to exist between his body and the other things in the scene.” KnowsShouldBodyActorsAttitudeScene Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
“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.” TryingWellsStoriesMightFilmActorsOpportunityActingDramaSceneDemandLetting GoScriptsTone Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
“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.” LittlesEnoughFilmInterestingHappenedParticularSceneElementsMoodAutobiographyDaily Experience Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
“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.” ThinkingTryingMayIdeasTogetherFilmRoomsToo MuchCuttingSceneIntentionLocation Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
“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. This is the system I prefer: to arrive at the moment when shooting is about to begin, absolutely unprepared, virgin. I often ask to be left alone on the spot for fifteen minutes or half an hour and I let my thoughts wander freely.” KnowsFeelsSometimesDoneMomentsDesireAsksLeftHoursHalfMinutesSceneSpotsWanderShootingFifteenVirginsMy ThoughtsLeft AloneUnprepared Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
“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.” IfsKnowsWantMindDoeFilmDifficultDifferencesResultsSceneShots Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
“Till now I have never shot a scene without taking account of what stands behind the actors because the relationship between people and their surroundings is of prime importance.” PeopleActorsBehindsSceneShotsAccountsImportancePrimeSurroundings Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
“A scene has to have a rhythm of its own, a structure of its own.” SceneStructureRhythm Author:Michelangelo Antonioni
