On this day, 19 years ago, we lost two of the greatest filmmakers of all time- Ingmar Bergman & Michelangelo Antonioni. Ingmar Bergman on Michelangelo Antonioni: "Antonioni has done two masterpieces, you don't have to bother with the rest. One is 'Blow-Up' (1966), which I've seen many times, & the other is 'La Notte' (1961), also a wonderful film, although that's mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau." Michelangelo Antonioni on Ingmar Bergman: "Ingmar Bergman is a long way from me, but I admire him. He, too, concentrates a great deal on individuals; & although the individual is what interests him most, we are very far apart. His individuals are very different from mine-but he's a great director." Clips from: La Notte (1961) & Persona (1966)

Gaspar Noé explains the reason he used Cocaine while filming "Irreversible" (2002): "Most of the movie, I was doing the camera, it was a handheld camera. And I’m not proud of this but — I’m not a cokehead, I get allergic — but there were some members of the crew that were doing coke and when the camera has to go up the stairs, down the stairs and turn around, at a point, my arms were hurting and my friends on the set were giving me coke. And you feel strong and you feel like a superhero, you run up the stairs and turn the camera. I was really happy that helped me achieve the scene. But after two days of shooting up the stairs and down the stairs and turning the camera, I’m not a strong man at all but the camera was very heavy. I had done such a muscular effort that the moment this spell of cocaine was over, the pain started and I could not even raise a glass of vodka.[laughs]" ("Why Gaspar Noé Directed on Cocaine, Masturbated in His Own Film and Shot a Live Birth", Tarek Shoukri, Indiewire, 2015) P.S: On this day, 24 years ago, "Irreversible" (2002) was released in France & India.