“For a long time I served as an apprentice, something that doesn’t exist anymore,” says Delli Colli. “Craftsmanship has disappeared along with it. When students graduate from film schools they might call themselves cinematographers, but what does that mean? These clever, young fellows ‘earn their spurs’ with one of us."

“Pasolini was something else,” says Delli Colli. “Our relations were perfect. He was an incredibly sweet and kind person, and he had respect for everyone on the set. I knew he was good, even if he didn’t have a technical knowledge of cinematography at the start. When we started Accattone, I had to explain to him what lenses were. But after three weeks — and I do mean three weeks — he understood it all.

“He was happy right away with the 50mm lens because the performers could be seen clearly, even though the backgrounds were closer and [looked] a little squashed. He said that was all right with him because everything was more concentrated. Ultimately, he came to the set in the morning with his apertures, which were fairly poorly specified but were the right ones, and he worked quickly. He had planned everything the night before; he knew whether he wanted a full shot or something else. He did that for the first two films. Then things took off from there.”

“Back in Rome one night, Sergio took me to see Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. He told me it was a good idea for a low-budget Western. That was true, because all the action took place in one little town, and little towns like that were still around in Spain. So I helped him find the producer, but I had no plans to make the film myself because I couldn’t work for nothing...

“Sergio was a real go-getter, a very meticulous artist who paid attention to everything he did, right down to the smallest details,” says Delli Colli. “For the images, he asked for things that were truly effective: full light for long shots because he wanted the details to be visible on screens of all sizes, and close-ups with the individual hairs of the characters’ beards visible. It was impossible in Spain — he wanted deep, long shadows, the deepest and longest we could get, and the [sun went] down late. On the set, we prepared in the morning, and then we just died waiting for the right light. I did everything I could to accommodate him within the limits of what was possible. And then there were the details! He wanted to shoot the actors’ eyes in every scene. I told him we could shoot 100 meters of eyes — looking here, looking there — and then use them whenever he wanted. But he wasn’t having any of that. And that’s how it went for the entire shoot. But his three-hour films pass quickly [when you watch them]. A three-hour film made today is a chore to sit through.”