Farewell to Bernardo Bertolucci, great master of cinema

Bernardo Bertolucci, a great master of Italian and world cinema, has died in Rome at the age of 77. Born in 1941 in Parma, he was the son of Attilio Bertolucci, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, and was the brother of Giuseppe, himself a director and screenwriter (and who died in 2012). After embarking on a literary career and beginning his studies at Rome’s “La Sapienza” University, Bernardo Bertolucci soon turned his attentions to filmmaking, first as an assistant to Pier Paolo Pasolini (he worked with him on a famous film like 1961’s Accattone ), and then as a director: as early as the mid-1950s his precocious talent allowed him to make two short films, but his feature film debut was in 1962 with the film La commare secca (subject and screenplay by Pasolini: the film was shown at the 23rd Venice Film Festival).

After gaining success with films such as 1964’s Prima della rivoluzione (shot in Parma with some scenes in the famous Rocca Sanvitale di Fontanellato, and premiered at the 17th Cannes Film Festival) and especially 1970’s Il conformista (based on Moravia’s novel, and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Stefania Sandrelli in the lead roles: the film would go on to win the David di Donatello for best film in 1971, as well as two awards at the Berlin Film Festival and an Oscar nomination for best non-original screenplay, and a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign film), Bertolucci made himself known worldwide by arousing scandal with his masterpiece Last Tango in Paris, the unforgettable story of Paul and Jeanne (played by Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider) that struck for its numerous sex scenes, and which also caused controversy years later, when Maria Schneider declared that she felt humiliated by the very famous butter scene (not foreseen in the script, and improvised by Bertolucci and Brando without notifying the actress, so as to achieve a more realistic effect), and many years later the director somewhat admitted to feeling some guilt.

After the success of 1976’s Novecento (with an outstanding cast that featured, among others, Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Burt Lancaster, Donald Sutherland, Alida Valli, and Stefania Sandrelli), a film that moreover experienced seizure for obscenity, and a few films that were more coldly received by audiences such as La luna (1979) and La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo (1981), Bertolucci signed between the late 1980s and the 1990s other great masterpieces of film history: 1987’s The Last Emperor, a colossal capable of winning no fewer than nine Oscars (including Best Director: Bertolucci also won the same award at the Golden Globe and David di Donatello), and 1990’s Tea in the Desert. Success then continued with 1996’s Io ballo da sola (starring a very young Liv Tyler) and The Dreamers, the story of three young people (Matthew, Théo and Isabelle, played respectively by Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel and Eva Green) who give life to a ménage a trois in the Paris of ’68, famous for Eva Green’s nude scenes and numerous quotations from other films. His last film as director was 2012’s Io e te, which screened among the films out of competition at the 65th Cannes Film Festival.

With Bernardo Bertolucci, world cinema loses one of its most modern masters, an auteur of films that have marked several generations.

Farewell to Bernardo Bertolucci, great master of cinema

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