Line #10 Creator/BernardoBertolucci


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bernardo_bertolucci.jpg]]
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3	Bernardo Bertolucci (16 March 1940 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian director and screenwriter.
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5	He initially wished to become a poet like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attilio_Bertolucci his father]], and he worked as an assistant to the famous cultural figure Creator/PierPaoloPasolini when the latter made his first films. (One of his first credits is as assistant director on Pasolini's directing debut, ''Film/{{Accattone}}''.) Bertolucci's second feature, ''Before the Revolution'' was his BreakthroughHit and made him seem like the next big thing in European cinema and was a major influence globally on the likes of Creator/MartinScorsese who was the same age as the young director. It would prove influential on ''Film/MeanStreets'' in particular.
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7	Bertolucci was remarkable for an Italian film-maker for the level and reach of cultural and commercial influence he had, ''despite'' the nature of his subjects. He was a committed Marxist, a member of Italy's Communist Party, but he directed the likes of Creator/JeanLouisTrintignant, Creator/MarlonBrando, Creator/GerardDepardieu, and Creator/RobertDeNiro and several other big stars. He noted that it was a utopian dream of reconciling the Cold War through his films by explaining Marxism or his friendly version of it to the consumerist, capitalist West. He achieved this by marrying Freud with Marx, showing that capitalist society and a middle-class family inevitably created sexual neurosis and a true sexual revolution and independence depended on a commitment to revolutionary change. This was the arc of many of his characters, who are middle-class bohemians who are tempted by revolution but whose class angst and FreudianExcuse held them back from committing full time.
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9	But if the content or the message went over the audience's heads, they were seduced by Bertolucci's style, his command of camera movement, his visual expressiveness, the coolness of his cast, the over-the-top set design and the costumes and use of music. This made his movies unforgettable and they became hits across the world. His film, ''The Conformist'' was a major influence on the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood, inspiring films like ''Film/TheGodfather'', ''The Parallax View'' and several others. After seeing the film, Marlon Brando was interested to work with the young director and this led to ''Film/LastTangoInParis'' a global hit and phenomenon which made the director, briefly, a household name.
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11	Bertolucci's follow-up ''Film/{{Novecento}}'' was even more ambitious and it had an AllStarCast but it didn't have the same reach mostly because the Communism was no longer subtext but a part of the story and became an AudienceAlienatingPremise for the west even if it later influenced Creator/OliverStone. He made a comeback in the 80s with ''Film/TheLastEmperor'' which won him Oscars for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
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13	At his peak, he was considered one of the best directors in the world.
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15	!! Filmography
16	* ''La Commare secca''
17	* ''Prima della Rivoluzione'' (''Before the Revolution'')
18	* ''Partner''
19	* ''The Spider's Stratagem''
20	* ''Film/TheConformist''
21	* ''Film/LastTangoInParis''
22	* ''Film/{{Novecento}}''
23	* ''La Luna''
24	* ''Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man''
25	* ''Film/TheLastEmperor''
26	* ''The Sheltering Sky''
27	* ''Little Buddha''
28	* ''Stealing Beauty''
29	* ''Besieged''
30	* ''Film/TheDreamers''
31	* ''Me and You''
32	----
33	!!Tropes associated with his work:
34	* AssociatedComposer: Three of his films (''Film/TheLastEmperor'', ''The Sheltering Sky'', and ''Little Buddha'') were scored by Music/RyuichiSakamoto.
35	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
36	** For a long time, Bertolucci planned to make a film adaptation of Creator/DashiellHammett's ''Literature/RedHarvest'' starring Creator/JackNicholson. He initially planned to do it in TheSeventies but the failure of ''Film/HeavensGate'' put an end to any interest in the deconstructionist EpicMovie that he had planned.
37	** His initial proposal to the Chinese Government was two projects. One was ''Film/TheLastEmperor'', the second option was an adaptation of André Malraux's ''La condition humaine'' (which Creator/SergeiEisenstein had tried to film before him). The Chinese settled on the first one, as they felt that the revolutionary nature of Malraux's book was not favorable in the wake of the crackdown on Tiananmen Square.
38	** Since TheNineties, he has spent several years trying to make a film on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Gesualdo Carlo Gesualdo]], the madrigal singer.
39	** He also planned for ''Film/{{Novecento}}'' to be a trilogy but the turn towards neoliberalism in TheEighties had altered the context to the extent that Bertolucci felt it would be DatedHistory. Instead, he reworked some of the ideas into his obscure comedy ''Tragedy of the Ridiculous Man''.

Context Creator / BernardoBertolucci