Marco Bellocchio

“[Translated] Pickpocket was a passion of my youth. I've always greatly admired Bresson, and this film in particular. It's a rather short film, but an absolute masterpiece.”

“[Translated] Finally, Umberto D. Is another masterpiece. Not always, but as sometimes happens with such a tragic film, it's certainly not happy, it wasn't appreciated by the public. But as always with certain masterpieces it holds up over time. I think, maybe it won't be immortal, but it will endure, maybe not centuries, but decades.”

“[Translated] Throne of Blood, because Kurosawa is one of the greats, and also because the tragedy of Macbeth has always struck me when it's performed in the theater, too. This Japanese version of Macbeth is really incredible.”

“[Translated] Of all these — these are all masterpieces — but what struck me about Othello when I was going to the Centro Sperimentale was not only the greatness and genius of Orson Welles, but also his ability to edit films. He was always a master of editing. Even more so because this film had so many problems. He had to stop down and restart. He never had enough money. I heard they changed Desdemona, too. They had two or three different Desdemonas in the film. This ability, this endurance, this desire that allowed him to complete it in spite of all of this has always fascinated me.”

“[Translated] Barry Lyndon is a film I saw in Italy... The dubbed version. I'd love to see it again in the original version.”