Marco Bellocchio's Cinema Masterclass

"I believe that a lesson on film-making is useful only if it is practical: working on the set, filming, directing the troupe and the actors, giving orders, “Do this”, “Do that”… There is no democracy or equality on the set; there has to be rigour, interest, affection and respect. I don't believe in those directors who think they have the right to slap or insult a beautiful girl to make her cry on command. (There’s a story about a late-neorealist director who struck a very young actress on the legs with a riding crop to get her to cry while he filmed her close up). But, since I can only talk here, I think that the most precious thing a director can teach anyone wanting to work in the business (which is a very complicated one, and I’m always amazed that so many young people want to try their hand at it) is how to work with actors and actresses. Because it’s not the same thing directing an actor or an actress, when it comes to convincing them to “seduce” (and the “seduction” of an actress, only artistically speaking of course, is very different from the “seduction” of an actor) or to be “seduced”, which doesn’t necessarily mean being fragile or passive. Anyone can teach technique, but the ability to get another person to interpret a character you have imagined is a gift, although it can be learned in part by a director who isn’t afraid of risking failure. You can never be certain of a good result in human relationships."

Marco Bellocchio, after studying dramatic art and cinema, directs in 1965 his first feature film remarked by the critics. His politically-engaged works attack the Italian symbols of conformism: after his cult movie Fists in the Pockets (1966), manifesto of a youth in revolt, he denounces religion with In the Name of the Father (1971) and the army with Victory March (1976). Along with Michel Piccoli and Anouk Aimée, he wins at Cannes two Best Actor awards for A Leap in the Dark (1980). He then creates literary adaptations such as Devil in the Flesh, which sparks a scandal in Cannes in 1986, or Pirandello’s The Nanny (1990). Marco Bellocchio troubles anew the Vatican with My Mother’s Smile (Competition – Festival de Cannes-2002). He is the first to speak out about the red brigades with Good Morning, Night, screened at the Mostra in 2004.
In 2009, he presented Vincere within the Cannes Competition, unanimously hailed by critics worldwide.

“When watching a film, you have to let yourself go completely,
just like you do when you’re in love.
The director shouldn’t have to explain everything.”