Bernardo Bertolucci Movies
Known both for sweeping epics and for helping to bring eroticism into general release with Last Tango in Paris, Bernardo Bertolucci is one of the pre-eminent international directors of the latter half of the twentieth century. The son of poet, film critic, and anthologist Attilio Bertolucci, he was born on March 16, 1940 in Parma. Surrounded by an atmosphere of comfort and intellectualism, Bertolucci began making 16 mm films as a teenager. In addition to making two short films about children, he also gained a certain amount of respect as a writer, winning the Premio Viareggio (one of Italy's top literary awards) for his first book, In Search of Mystery. Going on to study at the University of Rome, Bertolucci started his film career as an assistant director to Pier Paolo Pasolini. After working on Pasolini's Accatone, he left the University in 1961 and embarked on his own independent film study.Bertolucci made his directing debut the following year with La Commare Secca (The Grim Reaper), a stark murder mystery filmed on location in Rome. Based on a script by Pasolini, the film went largely unseen; his next effort, Prima della Rivoluzione (Before the Revolution) (released in the U.S. in 1965) was also a commercial disappointment, but it won him recognition at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. This recognition was followed by an almost five-year period during which the director was unable to secure funding for another feature-length film; he instead made a number of documentaries and assisted director Julian Beck on various productions.
In 1970 Bertolucci was back, directing La Strategia del Ragno (The Spider's Stratagem), a thriller about a young man's attempt to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his long-deceased anti-fascist father. The film was seen as an improvement over Bertolucci's previous work, but it was not until the release of Il Conformista (The Conformist) (also 1970), that he received international acclaim for his work. A non-linear exploration of Mussolini's Fascist Italy and a character study of an individual (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who conforms to the era's ideological conventions, the film was shown in competition at the 1970 Berlin Film Festival, where it met with an ecstatic reception. Now bearing substantial credibility as a director, Bertolucci went on to explore sexual sadomasochism and societal hypocrisy with his infamous Last Tango in Paris in 1972. Starring Marlon Brando as an American widower who embarks on a torrid sadomasochistic relationship with a young Parisian (Maria Schneider), the film sparked no small degree of controversy when it was released. It was eventually recognized as an extraordinary, if polarizing, work, winning Bertolucci a Best Director Oscar nomination and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Brando.
Bertolucci then embarked on his first epic, making the 311-minute Novecento (1900) in 1976. The story of two men (Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu) born in Italy on the same day in 1901, it explored the political forces that shaped Italy through World War II and the lives affected by these forces. Its epic scope was repeated eleven years later in the director's The Last Emperor. A decades-spanning tale about the deposed last emperor of China, it went on to win nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Following a comparatively unsuccessful 1990 adaptation of Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky, Bertolucci returned to Asia to make Little Buddha in 1994. The film received relatively lackluster reviews and had a stodgy box-office performance, but the director rebounded somewhat in 1996 with Stealing Beauty. Returning to the golden hills of Tuscany to film the story of a young American (Liv Tyler) in search of her father and the boy to whom she wants to give her virginity, Bertolucci turned out a lush, measured piece of work that impressed more than a few critics and served as Tyler's breakthrough film. In 1998, Bertolucci took another look at the politics of love and desire with Besieged. Filmed in Rome, the film starred David Thewlis as a composer and Thandie Newton as the African political refugee he loves. Besieged received generally excellent reviews, further embellishing its director's epic resume. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Bernardo Bertolucci's 255-minute 1900 was a gargantuan undertaking, requiring the resources of three European countries and a trio of American movie studios. Set in the Italian town of Parma, the film's continuity backtracks from Liberation Day in 1945 to the occasion of composer/patriot Giuseppe Verdi's death in 1901. We follow the lives of two men born on that day in 1901, who grow up to be Alfredo Berlinghieti (Robert De Niro) and Olmo Dalco (Gérard Depardieu). Wealthy Alfredo sinks into dissipation, while poverty-stricken Olmo becomes a firebrand labor leader and communist. After WWI, Alfredo is allowed to peacefully retain his land holdings by playing nice with the burgeoning fascists; Olmo, on the other hand, engages in a long-standing battle against the minions of Mussolini. The two protagonists are reunited when Alfredo returns to Parma to preside over Olmo's trial for "political crimes." Co-star Burt Lancaster is cast as Alfredo's wealthy grandfather, who hates to see the old values buried beneath the social travails of the 20th century. Many American prints of 1900 were shortened to 243 minutes, rendering the story hard to follow at times. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, (more)
Accattone , Pier Paolo Pasolini's first feature, is also his first semidocumentary study of "the little homelands": the small, often squalid cultural pockets in the remotest provinces of Italy. Using nonprofessional actors for his leading characters, Pasolini concentrates on Franco Citti, a rural pimp who falls in love with virtuous Franca Pasut. Having previously led an aimless existence, Citti takes a job-and, it is implied, a bath--in hopes of impressing his new girl. It isn't long, however, before Citti gives up both job and Pasut, degenerating into a life of violent crime. As was the case with most of his subsequent films, Pasolini both directed and wrote Accattone, adapting the screenplay from his own novel ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franco Citti, Silvana Corsini, (more)
- 1976
A biographical documentary on Alberto Moravia, this video presents the viewer with an overview of Moravia's views on fascism, Italy and other social concerns through his own writing. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
This obscure film is directed by five well-known cinematographers. "Apathy" is directed by Carlo Lizzani and concerns a New York rape victim whose cries for help fall on deaf ears. Bernardo Bertolucci directs "Agony." Members of the Living Theater mime death scenes. In "The Paper Flower Sequence," directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, a man carries a paper flower through Rome. Part four is directed by Jean-Luc Godard, a tedious segment where two people watch some actors give a boring performance. The last story is directed by Marcello Bellochio. Students at a Roman university engage in dialogue with members of the Establishment. While the stories averages 20 minutes each, this gang-directed effort quickly fell into cinematic oblivion. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Castelnuovo, Ninetto Davoli, (more)
- 1987
Survey of the history of Italian cinema, featuring clips from such classics as "Open City," "8-1/2," and "Seven Beauties," and interviews with illustrious stars and filmmakers, including Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Toto, Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani, Vittorio DeSica, Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Roberto Rossellini. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
Bernardo Bertolucci directed this Italian drama co-scripted by Bertolucci and Clare Peploe from a story by British-born writer James Lasdun (co-scripter of Jonathan Nossiter's Sunday). In Rome, reclusive British composer Jason Kinsky (David Thewlis) lives in the building he inherited from his aunt, while his cleaning woman Shandurai (Thandie Newton) resides in the basement, studying medicine. One day, Kinsky tells Shandurai that he loves her and will do anything for her, so she asks him to free her husband, a political prisoner back in Africa. To acquire funds for the man's release, Kinsky begins selling his possessions, including his piano, while Shandurai hangs out with her friend Agostino (Claudio Santamaria), a man angling to get her into bed. Location filming took place in Italy and Kenya. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival and the 1998 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thandie Newton, David Thewlis, (more)
As originally screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, at the Cannes Film Festival, and on Turner Classic Movies, the mammoth, epic-length documentary Brando chronicles in encyclopedic detail (and with a consistently reverent overtone) the life and career of the man widely regarded as the most formidable American actor of the 20th century - famous for not only reshaping, but reinventing the craft of film acting and teaching audiences how to view a motion picture performance. Divided into chronological, thematically-unified segments, the film first treats Marlon Brando's dysfunctional upbringing - his alcoholic mother, his abusive father, his stint at a military academy - before charting his acting tutelage at the behest of Stella Adler and his early cinematic and theatrical roles, including work for Elia Kazan, who famously made many aggressive (and unsuccessful) attempts to discipline the headstrong actor onscreen. Throughout this segment, many Hollywood A-list actors appear - among them, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp and Robert Duvall - expostulating at length on Brando's influence over their approaches to performance, and attempting with great effort to define the elusive style known as "method acting" that Brando helped to create. The second half of the documentary moves into Brando's career during the '70s, '80s and '90s, covering the production of The Godfather, the actor's noteworthy political activism, and his tumultuous personal life. Francis Ford Coppola, who of course teamed with Brando for the first Godfather installment and for Apocalypse Now, is noticeably absent from the proceedings. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, (more)
- 1993
This documentary places the viewer at the feet of Adriaan Ditvoorst a much-lionized darling of Dutch avant-garde cinema, a largely unsuccessful adherent of the auteur school of filmmmaking who took his own life in 1987. His films (such as Flanagan and White Madness) recognized no need to please or acknowledge audience wishes or the demands of commerce, and Ditvoorst was puzzled by and disdainful of the success of those who did. He found it incredibly difficult to find financial backing in the Netherlands for even the most modest film projects, despite his prominence, innovativeness and originality. After his wife left him, he sank into a depression. The documentary explores his life via film clips and interviews with those who knew him. Some of those interviewed assert that he might have done well if he had moved to France, others felt he was always depressive and self-defeating. Whatever else he was, he was definitely a committed idealist who suffered for his principles. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernardo Bertolucci, Gérard Brach, (more)
In modern-day Paris, a cabalist known as the Maharal has created a golem, an artificial being constructed of earth and clay, infused with spirit through the recitation of a special formula. The legendary being he brings to life is known in this instance as "The Spirit of Exile," and the magician's goal in creating her was to create a protector for Jews in need of one. In this movie, the golem is motivated to assist numerous people whose lives are marked by tragedy. In the main story, she must try to help Shemesh, a woman whose many troubles cause her to resemble the Biblical character of Job. She has been evicted from her home after her husband and sons die, and she and her daughter-in-law must find some means for surviving their difficult situation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hanna Schygulla, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, (more)
- 1983
In a story about a wobbly love triangle with less emphasis on emotion than quirky behavior, a young couple find an apartment to stay in after they have been evicted from their home -- but then there is a falling out between the two and the woman goes to stay with Tina, their next-door neighbor. Eventually, the two women move the wall out into the former couple's apartment to have more space -- until the man gets interested in Tina and an affair starts up -- then the wall is moved back. The two woman fluctuate back and forth in the man's affections, and the wall fluctuates back and forth, with all three heading toward some disastrous consequences if their love life and the wall are not stabilized soon. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Cavallo, Monica Guerritore, (more)
- 1993
Filmmaker Jean Renoir (1894-1979) had an extremely long career writing, directing, producing and acting in films, beginning in the silent era, right up until the time of his death, when most of his productions were influenced by the medium of television. He was one of the sons of the famous Impressionist painter August Renoir. This two part documentary was filmed to be released on British television in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of his birth. His influence on French filmmaking in particular was so great that he was sometimes referred to as le patron (which, among other things, means "the boss"), and no further identification was needed. The majority of his more noteworthy films were produced in the 1930s, and the film most people consider to have been his masterpiece, La Règle du Jeu or The Rules of the Game was so scathing in its criticism of 1939 French society that it provoked an outcry and he withdrew it from circulation, only releasing it again after his return to France some years after the Second World War. The documentary makers have coaxed Renoir's son to be interviewed, along with as many surviving contemporaries as could be found. In addition to numerous film clips, the documentary is fleshed out with interviews with more contemporary figures who discuss his importance in the history of cinema. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernardo Bertolucci
A very young Bernardo Bertolucci already shows his talent in this bleak, 94-minute murder mystery, told in an interesting series of flashbacks. A Roman prostitute has been brutally murdered in a park near the Tiber River and in order to forward their investigation, the police corner a handful of people who were in the park at the time. As they separately tell their versions of why they were there and what they did, their narrations do not necessarily match the images on the screen that do reflect the truth. By the time all the flashbacks have been completed, a real picture of the crime emerges, revealing that one of those in custody is the killer. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabriella Giorgetti, Giancarlo de Rosa, (more)
- 1970
Originally produced for Italian television, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Spider's Stratagem (La Strategia del Ragno) can be regarded as a cinematic tone poem. Adapted from a Jorge Luis Borges short story, the film stars Giulio Brogi as a young Italian who returns to his ancestral home -- the place where his anti-fascist father was assassinated, a long-ago incident that still disturbs the populace. Cold-shouldered by everyone in town, the young man tries to find out why everyone is so hostile towards him; after all, was not his father a hero of the people? In some (but not all) ways, The Spider's Stratagem is a precursor to Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris, delineating the correlation between sex and political ideology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulio Brogi, Alida Valli, (more)
- 1981
- PG
After his son disappears, an Italian cheese manufacturer is threatened by political terrorists who will supposedly kill the son if he does not pay a large ransom. Unsure if they really have his son and if the son is still alive, he has to decide if he should or should not sell his business to afford the sum. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Anouk Aimée, (more)
- 1994
This unique Italian pseudo-documentary deftly blends fact with fiction in its portrait of stage, screen, and television actor Alessandro Haber (a.k.a. Antonio Hutter). Haber, considered one of Italy's finest comic actors, has worked with some of the greatest Italian directors of all time including, Bertolucci, Mastroianni, Michele Placido, and Nanni Loy. Film clips and interviews are interspliced throughout the film and the line between the truth and the story behind the comic actor's life is delightfully blurred. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alessandro Haber, Adriana Innocenti, (more)
In Bernardo Bertolucci's art-house classic, Marlon Brando delivers one of his characteristically idiosyncratic performances as Paul, a middle-aged American in "emotional exile" who comes to Paris when his estranged wife commits suicide. Chancing to meet young Frenchwoman Jeanne (Maria Schneider), Paul enters into a sadomasochistic, carnal relationship with her, indirectly attacking the hypocrisy all around him through his raw, outrageous sexual behavior. Paul also hopes to purge himself of his own feelings of guilt, brilliantly (and profanely) articulated in a largely ad-libbed monologue at his wife's coffin. If the sexual content in Last Tango is uncomfortably explicit (once seen, the infamous "butter scene" is never forgotten), the combination of Brando's acting, Bertolucci's direction, Vittorio Storaro's cinematography, and Gato Barbieri's music is unbeatable, creating one of the classic European art movies of the 1970s, albeit one that is not for all viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, (more)
Bernardo Bertolucci attempts to mix Buddhist spirituality with childhood fantasy in Little Buddha. When Dean Conrad (Chris Isaak), a Seattle architect, comes home from work one day, he finds two robed Buddhist monks sitting in his living room talking with his wife Lisa (Bridget Fonda). Guided by a series of disturbing dreams, the monks have traveled from Nepal to Seattle because they believe that the Conrad's ten-year-old son, Jesse (Alex Wiesendanger) may be the reincarnation of a legendary Buddhist mystic. The Conrads are initially skeptical, particularly when the monks want to take their son back to Bhutan with them. But after Dean's partner commits suicide, Dean has a religious awakening ("I've been doin' some thinkin'," he says) and permits Jesse to go away with the monks. Then the Lama Norbu (Ruocheng Ying) gives Jesse a children's book about the Buddha Siddhartha (Keanu Reeves). Siddhartha leads a sheltered life until he comes upon a couple of all-knowing beggars who introduce him to poverty and hunger. After this revelation, Siddhartha decides that it is his destiny to relieve all human beings from pain and suffering. Back in present day, Jesse is now knowledgeable about the basis of Buddhism. Much to Jesse's and his father's surprise, however, they find that there are two other children at Bhutan who show signs of being the reincarnated Buddhist mystic. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keanu Reeves, Chris Isaak, (more)
- 1979
- R
Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial drama explores the troubled life of a young man and his troubling relationship with his parents. Joe (Matthew Barry) is the son of famous opera singer Caterina Silveri (Jill Clayburgh); while Joe believes that Caterina's husband Douglas Winter (Fred Gwynne) is his biological father, the truth is that he was sired by Caterina's former lover, who is now living in Italy and working as a schoolteacher. Joe is moody and rebellious and needs a strong father figure to guide him and keep him in line. But Douglas is ineffectual and emotionally weak, and when Joe witnesses Douglas committing suicide, it sends the young man over the edge. In hopes of boosting her singing career, which has fallen into a rut, Caterina decides to move to Italy, with Joe in tow; Joe falls in with a dangerous crowd and becomes addicted to heroin, while Caterina, hoping to lure her son back to a safer and more healthy lifestyle, tries to become closer to him, which leads to a flirtation with incest. Jill Clayburgh's performance earned her a 1980 Golden Globe nomination. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, (more)
In Sergio Leone's epic Western, shot partly in Monument Valley, a revenge story becomes an epic contemplation of the Western past. To get his hands on prime railroad land in Sweetwater, crippled railroad baron Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) hires killers, led by blue-eyed sadist Frank (Henry Fonda), who wipe out property owner Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) and his family. McBain's newly arrived bride, Jill (Claudia Cardinale), however, inherits it instead. Both outlaw Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and lethally mysterious Harmonica (Charles Bronson) take it upon themselves to look after Jill and thwart Frank's plans to seize her land. As alliances and betrayals mutate, it soon becomes clear that Harmonica wants to get Frank for another reason -- it has "something to do with death." As in his "Dollars" trilogy, Leone transforms the standard Western plot through the visual impact of widescreen landscapes and the figures therein. At its full length, Once Upon a Time in the West is Leone's operatic masterwork, worthy of its legend-making title. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, (more)
Bernardo Bertolucci was obviously influenced by the films of Jean-Luc Godard and the worldwide political upheavals of 1968 while assembling his feature-film Partner. This unorthodox adaptation of Dostoevsky's The Double studiously avoids traditional linear storytelling and exposition techniques. Pierre Clementi stars as a repressed young student who concocts a radical alter ego for himself. As the student's two faces argue polemics, Bertolucci uses the opportunity to take freewheeling critical potshots at all forms of political ideology. Not all of Partner makes sense, but the film will command the viewer's interest from beginning to end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Clémenti, Stefania Sandrelli, (more)
- 1965
Future director Francesco Barilli stars in this film about a young radical torn between his rebellious political views and the easy middle-class lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. Barilli rebels in another way as well, engaging in a love affair with his pretty aunt (Adriana Asti), but soon becomes conflicted in that area as well, choosing in the end to conform to traditional expectations. This early Bernardo Bertolucci film makes a bit too much of its protagonist's philosophical underpinnings, but is filled with amusing allusions to various films and literary works in its attempt to explore themes of man's surrender to societal pressures. Bertolucci later explored the same themes on a much larger canvas in his controversial classic 1900. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, (more)
- 2005
Filmmaker John Halpern turns his lens toward central Asia to focus on the spiritual developments that have occurred in the West following the 1959 siege on Tibet with this film, which contrasts the Western gravitation toward Buddhism with the journey of Tibetan Buddhists to seek refuge in the West while also highlighting the differences between Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture. By placing interviews with such famous filmmakers as Martin Scorsese, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Oliver Stone alongside interviews with such Buddhist figures as Tibetan meditation master Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Shambhala leader Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, English Tibetan Buddhist nun Ani Tenzin Palmo, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Halpern underscores the state of Buddhism in the Western world, and looks in on those who have journeyed to the West to see how far they have come in both their spiritual and physical travels. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
