Take One (Mar-Apr 1973)

which you discover things yourself. Normally, the technique of film is underlining everything. “Look at that, look at that, now observe that.” If you want to recreate the truth, you must not underline anything. You must offer an observation of the thing. In Augustine, for example, there is a sequence taking place in a steambath where, as | recall, you start from a long shot, then you zoom in, then you pan around amongst the characters and setting. In most films, when the director zooms in, he is underlining something, saying “Look at this.” In your films, the zoom often seems to be calling attention to something else, something outside the actual frame or scene being observed. Yes, because I’ve tried to follow what normally happens in life. When we talk, our attention is on what we say. We remember more or less everything, but certain kinds of things attract us more. So, when | say a certain kind of phrase, | look you straight in the eyes. If | look around, look at the street, it’s because my thought is more vague, more complex. It’s completely. another kind of proceeding. To underline is to call attention. In order to retain a spontaneity of image, you were saying that you would not reshoot scenes. No, never. Because | don’t want to search for perfection. Filmography: Roberto Rossellini 1936 Daphne (short) 1938 Luciano Serra, pilota 1939 Fantasia sottomarina (short) Il tacchino prepotente (short) La vispa Teresa (short) Il ruscello di Ripasottile (short) La nave bianca Un pilota ritorna L’uomo dalla croce Desiderio 1945 Roma, citta aperta 1946 Paisa 1947 Germania, anno zero 1948 L’amore | (completed 1947) Una voce umana 11 Il miracolo La macchina ammazzacattivi 1949 Stromboli, terra di Dio 1950 Francesco, giullare di Dio 1952 Liinvidia (fifth episode of | sette Pecati capitali) Europa ’51 Dov’é la liberta Viaggio in Italia Ingrid Bergman (third episode of Siamo donne) 1954 Napoli ’43 (fourth episode of Amori di mezzo secolo) Giovanna d’Arco al rogo Die angst La paura 1958 L’India vista da Rossellini (documentary for RAI) India 1959 Il generale della Rovere 1960 Era notte a Roma Viva I’italia Vanina Vanini Torino nei centi-anni Anima Nera Illibatezza (episode in Rogopag) 1964 L’eta del ferro, directed by Renzo Rossellini jr; written and supervised by Rossellini 1966 La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV 1967 Idea di un’isola (documentary) La lotta dell’uomo per la sua sopravvivenza, directed by Renzo Rossellini jr, written and supervised by Rossellini 1968 Atti degli apostoli, director with Renzo Rossellini jr. 1970 Socrate 1971 Blaise Pascal 1972 Agostini di Ilppona L’eta dei Medici: Cosimo de Medici e Leon Battista Alberti Interview with Salvador Allende 1941 1942 1943 1953 1961 1962 1973 If you search for perfection, it’s yourself. You’re involved, and want “to show.” It’s you in the first person who talks. Sometimes, | want to disappear totally. And it seems that’s a way of adding a necessary sort of irrational or random element upon your rational structure. That's because everything is accidental in life. It’s rational and accidental at the same time. If you keep the balance between those two things, you approach... | don’t know. My films, they can be very bad, horrible, disgusting, anything you want. But one thing | am almost sure, they are very true. Even if | do something historical. And the truth comes out from the nonperfection. | think. In modern theoretical physics, some researchers posit a “God force,” or an essential aliveness to the basic particles. They think this adds the notion of “life” and “chance” which is so often overlooked in traditional science. | don’t like the idea of destiny. I’m not mystic at all. Mysticism doesn’t exist at all in me. What is your definition of mysticism? What is mysticism? It’s to put yourself in the hands of God. The main thing in life is to be you, to be completely active, to be completely responsible, to have the chance to be bitten, to be spat upon your face, and sometimes even to achieve something. This, | think, is more exciting. When you put yourself in the hands of God, or destiny, or anything like that, it's a sort of coward’s position. And | don’t like cowardice at all. Getting back to something else, it seems like the “essential image” is possibly something that we started with from the origin, but words then interfered. Now you’re getting back to this. You must, if you are to reach a total innocence, if you are to be really like a child. If you can reduce yourself to the level of a child, with all the enthusiasm they have, and no more than that, that is the essential thing to living. No rigid expectations. No rigid expectations, no message, no... to be continuously in search. Can the general audience... The general audience, what is it? They are like us. They are trained to certain kinds of things. Trained like the horses in a circus. If you want to train a horse, do you remain at the level of the horse? If you want to do something, you must do it. Who cares if you don’t have the success now? Now here’s the thing. Movies are a part of our lives. We personally respond to your images and are extremely moved by them. We want to be able to help others be open to this. Everybody wants that. But if you search for success, you are not innocent... there’s no doubt. If you want to be really like a child, the only thing that is important is enthusiasm, and no more than that. Otherwise, you become immediately a victim of the system. You are tied with the system. You are tied with a certain kind of mental procedure, which is conditioned. You see, | am totally convinced that our civilization is finished. We have no possibility to save our own civilization. Because any civilization, you build it on a very few ideas, with a very few ways to push things in a certain kind of direction. Until you have completely explored a large piece of land, you have the possibility to go on. When the exploration is done, it is finished. It is finished forever. And the civilization is dying, like a human being. All the tourism in the world is based on visiting the bodies of old civilizations. | have the feeling that we are absolutely at the end of our own civilization. What do you see being born? | don’t know. | don’t know. One thing is sure. We want to survive, and we will survive, but everything will change. Everything will change. It’s so ridiculous, we condition everything to success, to gaining money, to things like that. It’s a system totally absurd, which has done some good and some bad. We have a terrific instrument, our own brain. When somebody is © really intelligent, he can use 10% of his brain. Now, we must go and exploit the natural resources with our own brain. When you use your brain, you enlarge your view. You enlarge your’ excitement. You enlarge your adventure in life. It's much more exciting. 19