The Cinema of Bernardo Bertolucci



Bernardo Bertolucci is recognized internationally for his films such including: 1900, The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty, Besieged and The Dreamers.

Even in his youth, Bertolucci had been a leading figure in Italian cinema during the 1960s and 1970s, and a protagonist in the movement against the old cultural traditions of film in Italy.

The course will focus on Bertolucci’s activity and film production from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. This is the period from his experience as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone, to one of his most intriguing and politically intense films, La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo (1981).

The goal of the course is to understand, through the films of Bertolucci’s “Italian period”, the complexity of his cultural and political training by focusing on the relevance of poetry and literature in his education; on the sense of history he came to realize in postwar Italy, and eventually on the need of a new approach- both political and artistic.

To this end the student will analyze the following films: La commare secca, Prima della rivoluzione, Il conformista, Strategia del ragno, Ultimo tango a Parigi, 1900, La Luna, and La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo.