I don't want what I am saying to sound like a prophecy or anything like an analysis of modern society... these are only feelings I have, and I am the least speculative man on earth.
Michelangelo AntonioniRead
When I am shooting a film I never think of how I want to shoot something; I simply shoot it.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of spontaneity and instinct in the creative process.
Michelangelo Antonioni highlights the essence of artistic expression, where the act of creation should flow naturally rather than being overshadowed by preconceived notions or deliberate planning. By stating that he does not overthink how to shoot a film, he expresses a belief in the instinctive and organic nature of creativity, suggesting that true art emerges when one is fully present in the moment.
In practice
An artist explaining their approach during a workshop.
I don't want what I am saying to sound like a prophecy or anything like an analysis of modern society... these are only feelings I have, and I am the least speculative man on earth.
All the characters in my films are fighting these problems, needing freedom, trying to find a way to cut themselves loose, but failing to rid themselves of conscience, a sense of sin, the whole bag of tricks.
We live in a society that compels us to go on using these concepts, and we no longer know what they mean.
I began taking liberties a long time ago; now it is standard practice for most directors to ignore the rules.
I am neither a sociologist nor a politician. All I can do is imagine for myself what the future will be like.
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.
I can write a poem in 10 minutes. I like writing songs; I can write songs in 5 or 10 minutes. My concentration seems very short.
A method of painting is a natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.
A writer is a palmist, reading the lines of the planet.
I knew there was something special about the theater for me something beyond the regular reality, something that I could get into and transcend and become something other than myself.
Do you realize that people don't know how to read Kafka simply because they want to decipher him? Instead of letting themselves be carried away by his unequaled imagination, they look for allegories - and come up with nothing but clichΓ©s: life is absurd (or it is not absurd), God is beyond reach (or within reach), etc. You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself.
Miraculously, smoke curled out of his own mouth, his nose, his ears, his eyes, as if his soul had been extinguished within his lungs at the very moment the sweet pumpkin gave up its incensed ghost.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.