"He changed cinema three times. First, he and Vittorio De Sica started what was called 'neo- realism.' Then, with his wife Ingrid Bergman, he made a series of intimate, almost mystical stories like Stromboli and Europa '51. Europa '51 is about two people in a car—it's what became the New Wave of cinema in the '60s. At the end of his career, he directed a series of didactic films for Italian television— he always felt a duty to inform. He called these 'undramatic,' but The Rise of Louis XIV is an artistic masterpiece."
A version of this article appeared in the December 2011/January 2012 issue of Fast Company magazine.
