The movie, in which he played the leading role of the shining star Marlon Brando, caused great obscenity discussions. It was described by Italian courts as "obscene, immoral, and appealing to man's lowest sexual impulses".
Italian film director and poet. He is one of the most competent Italian directors of his era. He was born on March 16, 1940, in Parma, Italy. His father is poet and film director Attilio Bertolucci. Bernardo Bertolucci's poems, which he started to write at the age of twelve, were published in various magazines. While he was a student at the University of Rome at the age of 20, he received one of the national poetry awards with his poetry book, Searching for Mystery. At an early age, he was interested in cinema and experimented with 16 mm short films.
Bernardo Bertolucci (16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international acclaim. He was the first Italian filmmaker to win the Academy Award for Best Director for The Last Emperor (1987), one of many accolades including two Golden Globes, two David di Donatellos, a British Academy Award, and a César Award. In recognition of his work, he was presented with the inaugural Honorary Palme d'Or Award at the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
He left the university in 1961 and served as Pasolini's assistant in the movie Accattone, and a year later he made his first movie, La Commare Secca ("The Grim Reaper"). This pessimistic film, which was a commercial failure, did not impress the critics. Bertolucci, who shot his next film Prima della Rivoluzione ("Before the Revolution") after two years of preparation, was about a turbulent youth period in this film. It was the first original Bertolucci film, with its stylistic excesses, operatic romance, and reminiscent of the 'Godard' films that so influenced Bertolucci's early period. It was lauded by the critics and received the Max Ophuls Award in France.
After shooting one of the episodes of the movie Amore e Rabbia ("Love and Anger") in 1967, the young director adapted a modern story based on Dostoyevsky's short novel The Other, as Partner, in 1968. The Partner was a fantastic story of a young man with a split personality who was indecisive about conforming to society or not. Intense Godard influences were felt in this film as well.
Bertolucci entered the 1970s with La Strategia del Ragno ("The Spider's Trap") and El Conformista ("The Conformist"), which would later be considered two of the best films of the period. The first of these was inspired by the story of the same name by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The director was describing a political showdown in the Italian countryside, using the universal themes unique to Borges. The visually impeccable film was commissioned by Italian TV and became one of the most talked about films of the 70s, garnering a growing fan base. The second one, based on Alberto Moravia's novel of the same name, was about an event that took place in Rome before World War II and the fascist hero of this event. Saying that "the real poetic language" is cinema, Bertolucci explored the political consequences of sexual inadequacies with his distinctive cinematic poetry and achieved great mastery in conveying the details of the period's decor and atmosphere.
Ultimo Tango a Parıgi (Last Tango in Paris), which he shot in 1972, was a turning point in the director's career. The movie, in which he played the leading role of the shining star Marlon Brando, caused great obscenity discussions. The film, which was banned by Italian courts as "obscene, immoral and appealing to one's lowest sexual impulses", generated a tremendous income in the international market. Bertolucci described the intense sexual and emotional adventure of the last American in Paris, a middle-aged, frustrated man with a young, irresponsible, trouble-free girl, ending in death. In this film, Bertolucci's flamboyant and poetic cinema reached its extreme.
The success of this film gave the director the opportunity to realize a project he wanted to realize for a long time, 1900. Made in 1976 with internationally acclaimed actors such as Dominique Sanda, Burt Lancaster, Roberto de Niro, and Gerard Depardieu, this super production was a political panorama of Italy that lasted for five and a half hours. The film, which is about a 70-year period, was the target of various criticisms for its political content, while its length limited the opportunities for commercial screening. The film was shortened considerably as a result of discussions between the director and producer Alberto Grimaldi.
Another film made by Bernardo Bertolucci after three years is La Luna (“The Moon”). This film, which depicts a mother-son relationship with its sexual dimensions, received mixed reactions. The general consensus was that Bertolucci had shown a marked decline.
Bernardo Bertolucci is perhaps the most important of the young generation masters who made himself accepted after middle-generation Italian cinema masters such as Visconti and Fellini.
Bernardo Bertolucci Works
La Commare Secca, 1962, (“The Grim Reaper”);
Prima della Rivoluzione, 1963, (“Before the Revolution”);
Amore e Rabbia (part), 1967, (“Love and anger“);
Partner, 1965, (“Partner”);
La Strategia del Ragno, 1970, (“The Spider's Trap”);
El Conformista, 1970, (“The Conformist”);
Ultimo Tango a Parigi, 1972, (Last Tango in Paris);
Novecento 1900, 1976, (“ 1900”);
La Tuna, 1979, (“Moon”).
1987 The Last Emperor
1990 The Sheltering Sky
1993 Little Buddha
1996 Stealing Beauty