His 1987 filmThe Last Emperor, a biopic of Chinese monarchPuyi, was a critical and commercial success, earning rave reviews and sweeping the60th Academy Awards (includingBest Picture and Best Director). This was the start of what has since been described as his "Oriental Trilogy," a trio of films includingThe Sheltering Sky, an adaptation of thenovel of the same name, andLittle Buddha, a Buddhist religious epic, all three of which feature scores byRyuichi Sakamoto.[8] His 1996 film,Stealing Beauty, brought him his second of two Palme d'Or nominations. He continued directing well into the 21st century, releasing his final film,Me and You, in 2012.
Bertolucci's films often deal with themes of politics, sexuality, history,class conflict and social taboos,[9][10] and his style has influenced several filmmakers.[2][6] Several of his films have appeared on lists of thegreatest films of all time. Critics have remarked that what makes Bertolucci different than other directors is his masterful combination of "visual richness and visual freedom."[11]
Bertolucci was born in the Italian city ofParma, in the region ofEmilia-Romagna. He was the elder son of Ninetta (Giovanardi), a teacher, andAttilio Bertolucci, who was a poet, a reputed art historian, anthologist and film critic.[12] His mother was born in Australia,[13][14] to an Italian father and an Australian mother (of Irish and Scottish descent).
Having been raised in an artistic environment, Bertolucci began writing at the age of 15, and soon after received several prestigious literary prizes, including thePremio Viareggio for his first book. His father's background helped his career: the elder Bertolucci had helped the Italian filmmakerPier Paolo Pasolini publish his first novel, and Pasolini reciprocated by hiring Bertolucci as his first assistant in Rome onAccattone (1961).
Bertolucci had one brother, the theatre director and playwrightGiuseppe (27 February 1947 – 16 June 2012). His cousin was the film producer Giovanni Bertolucci (24 June 1940 – 17 February 2005), with whom he worked on a number of films.
Bertolucci initially wished to become a poet like his father. With this goal in mind, he attended the Faculty of Modern Literature of theUniversity of Rome from 1958 to 1961, where his film career as an assistant director to Pasolini began.[15] Shortly after, Bertolucci left the university without graduating. In 1962, at the age of 22, he directed his first feature film, produced byTonino Cervi with a screenplay by Pasolini, calledLa commare secca (1962). The film is a murder mystery, following a prostitute's homicide. Bertolucci uses flashbacks to piece together the crime and the person who committed it. The film which shortly followed was his acclaimedBefore the Revolution (Prima della rivoluzione, 1964).
The boom ofItalian cinema, which gave Bertolucci his start, slowed in the 1970s as directors were forced to co-produce their films with several of the American, Swedish, French, and German companies and actors due to the effects of the global economic recession on the Italian film industry. Bertolucci entered film making already working at a big scale.[11]
In 1971, film critic forThe New Yorker, Pauline Kael called Bertolucci a prodigy.[11]
Bertolucci caused controversy in 1972 with the filmLast Tango in Paris, starringMarlon Brando,Maria Schneider,Jean-Pierre Léaud andMassimo Girotti. The film presents Brando's character, Paul, as he copes with his wife's suicide by emotionally and physically dominating a young woman, Jeanne (Schneider). The depictions of Schneider, then 19 years old, have been criticized as exploitive. In one scene, Paul anally rapes Jeanne using butter as a lubricant. Bertolucci said use of butter was not in the script; Bertolucci and Brando had discussed it, but they did not tell Schneider. According to Schneider, the rape scene was not in the script at all.[16] She said in 2007 that she had cried "real tears" during the scene and had felt humiliated and "a little raped".[17][18][19] In 2013 Bertolucci said that he had withheld the information from Schneider to generate a real "reaction of frustration and rage".[18] Brando alleged that Bertolucci had wanted the characters to have real sex, but Brando and Schneider both said it was simulated.[17] In 2016 Bertolucci released a statement where he clarified that Schneider had known of the violence to be depicted in the scene, but had not been told about the use of butter.[20]
Following the “media glare” and her fame after the film's release, Schneider became a drug addict and suicidal.[21] Criminal proceedings were brought against Bertolucci in Italy for obscenity; the film was sequestered by the censorship commission and all copies were ordered destroyed. An Italian court revoked Bertolucci'scivil rights for five years and gave him a four-monthsuspended prison sentence.[22] In 1978, the Appeals Court ofBologna ordered three copies of the film to be preserved in the national film library with the stipulation that they could not be viewed, until Bertolucci was later able to re-submit it for general distribution with no cuts.[23][24][25][26]
In 1987, Bertolucci directed the epicThe Last Emperor, a biographical film telling the life story ofAisin-GioroPuyi, the last emperor of China. The film was independently produced by British producerJeremy Thomas, with whom Bertolucci worked almost exclusively from then on. The film was independently financed and three years in the making. Bertolucci, who co-wrote the film withMark Peploe, won theAcademy Award for Best Director. The film uses Puyi's life as a mirror that reflects China's passage fromfeudalism through revolution to its current state.
The Last Emperor was the first feature film ever authorized by the government of the People's Republic of China to film in theForbidden City.[30] Bertolucci had proposed the film to the Chinese government as one of two possible projects. The other film wasLa Condition Humaine byAndré Malraux. The Chinese government preferredThe Last Emperor.[31]
AfterThe Last Emperor,The Sheltering Sky andLittle Buddha, Bertolucci returned to Italy to film, and to revisit his old themes but with varying results from both critics and the public. He filmedStealing Beauty in 1996,[32] thenThe Dreamers in 2003, which describes the political passions and sexual revolutions of two siblings in Paris in 1968.[33]
In 2012, his final film,Me and You, was screened out of competition at the2012 Cannes Film Festival[35][36] and was released early in 2013 in the UK. The film is an adaptation ofNiccolò Ammaniti'syoung adult bookMe and You. The screenplay for the movie was written by Bertolucci, Umberto Contarello and Niccolò Ammaniti.[37] Bertolucci originally intended to shoot the film in3D but was forced to abandon this plan due to cost.[38]
In the spring of 2018, in an interview with the Italian edition ofVanity Fair, Bertolucci announced that he was preparing a new film. He stated, "The theme will be love, let's call it that. In reality, the theme is communication and therefore also incommunicability. The favorite subject ofMichelangelo Antonioni and the condition I found myself facing when I moved on from my films for the few, those of the sixties, to a broader cinema ready to meet a large audience."[41]
Bertolucci's films are often very political. He was a professedMarxist and, likeLuchino Visconti, who similarly employed many foreign artists during the late 1960s, Bertolucci used his films to express his political views. His political films were preceded by others re-evaluating history.The Conformist (1970) criticisedfascism, touched upon the relationship between nationhood and nationalism, as well as issues of popular taste and collective memory, all amid an international plot byBenito Mussolini to assassinate a politically active leftist professor of philosophy in Paris.1900 also analyses the struggle of Left and Right.
On 27 September 2009, Bertolucci was one of the signatories of the appeal to the Swiss government to releaseRoman Polanski, who was being held awaiting extradition to the United States.[45]
On Twitter on 24 April 2015, Bertolucci participated in #whomademyclothes, Fashion Revolution's anti-sweatshop campaign commemorating the2013 Savar building collapse, the deadliest accident in the history of the garment industry.[46]
Bertolucci advocated the practice ofTranscendental Meditation: "We want to evoke the present and it is difficult to do it all together, we can only meditate, as in transcendental meditation. One of the most powerful experiences. Either you meditate or watch a good movie, then the two things start to touch ... ".[47]
Gold Medal of theItalian Medal of Merit for Culture and Art of Italy (Rome, 21 February 2001). For having been able to combine poetry and great cinema as in the history ofItalian cinema. For having known how to make different cultures and worlds dialogue, remaining strongly rooted in the culture of your country. For having been able to represent with passion and courage the political, social and cultural history of the last hundred years.[2]
Master's Degree Honoris Causa in History and Criticism of Arts and Performance of theUniversity of Parma (Laurea Magistrale Honoris Causa in Storia e critica delle arti e dello spettacolo). Bernardo Bertolucci is one of the greatest and recognized filmmakers in the world. His cinema is a reference point for entire generations of directors, has thrilled millions of viewers, also arousing extensive cultural debates that have gone well beyond the film industry, and is the subject of significant historical and theoretical studies published in all of the major world languages.[3]
^Devipriya (January 1999)."30th IFFI Stars"(PDF).30th International Film Festival of India '99. Directorate of Film Festivals. p. 150. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 30 January 2013. Retrieved23 March 2018.
