Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci is a brilliant Italian filmmaker and a powerful force in worldwide cinema today. He is considered a major international filmmaker through a combination of provoking content and visual expressiveness. He has a kinetic visual style often distinguished by elaborate camera movements, detailed lighting, symbolic use of color, and his creative use of editing. His films share a connection with the director’s own private life, exploring the boundaries between sexuality and ideology.

Bertolucci’s interest in film began at an early age due to the influence and support of his father, a poet, anthologist, film critic, and art history professor who frequently took him to film screenings. Bertolucci made two short films at age 15. His film career started when Bertolucci worked as an assistant with Pier Paolo Pasolini, another powerful Italian filmmaker. Following his work with Pasolini, Bertolucci left the University of Rome to set out on his journey as a filmmaker.

The Trenton Film Festival is honoring this gifted filmmaker by screening two of his films, The Last Tango in Paris (1972) and The Last Emperor (1987), very different but together revealing the range of his talent.

Bertolucci brings eroticism to the screen in The Last Tango in Paris. He explores sexual sadomasochism and societal hypocrisy. The film stars Marlon Brando as an American widower who engages in a sexual relationship with young Parisian (Maria Schneider). This film was considered obscene by many viewers. For others it was considered groundbreaking in the portrayal of sexual politics shown in a passionate affair between an older man and younger woman. But most everyone agrees that it is one of the most controversial films of its era. It was originally banned from Italy and, after finally being released, it was banned again for 11 years. Bertolucci received a suspended prison sentence and lost the right to vote for five years.

This film not only was groundbreaking, but it also started a new trend. For Italian films to make more money filmmakers would employ foreign actors to star in their roles. Today, the film’s explicitness seem dated, but it impacted later films in today’s cinema. Bertolucci received an Academy Award nomination as best director for The Last Tango in Paris.
In the year 1968, Bertolucci joined the Italian Communist Party. He went through a period of soul-searching that included psychoanalysis, which impacted his films greatly. He is actively political and a professed Marxist. He uses his films to express his political views.

The Last Emperor is a film that shows his politics through his characters and through the art of making film itself. It is an epic tale of the overthrow of the last emperor of China, Pu Yi. Bertolucci was given permission from the government of the People’s Republic of China to film in the Forbidden City of Beijing. It became the first western film made in China, produced with full government cooperation, since 1949. The film won nine Academy Awards-- including best film and best director.

Bertolucci continues to provoke viewers by challenging their expectations. This year The Trenton Film Festival will show The Last Tango in Paris and The Last Emperor in admiration of this art film director who proved to be a trailblazer in 20th century cinema.

For information, email info@TrentonFilmFestival.org