Mini
Biography
Bernardo
Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films are known
for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy,
in 1940. He attended Rome University and became famous as
a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film
Accattone
(1961) and directed La
commare secca (1962). His second film, Prima
della rivoluzione (1964), which was released in 1971,
received an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay.
Bertolucci also received an Academy Award nomination as best director
for Ultimo
tango a Parigi (1972), and the best director and best
screenplay for the film The Last Emperor (1987), which
walked away with nine Academy Awards.
IMDb
Mini Biography By: Matt Dicker
Spouse
Trade
Mark
Frequently
references classic movies.
Frequently
has nude scenes in his films.
Trivia
Brother
of Giuseppe
Bertolucci, cousin of Giovanni
Bertolucci.
Son
of poet Attilio
Bertolucci and Ninetta Giovanardi.
Born
at 7:25pm-CET
Homage
at the 48th Donostia-San Sebastián Film Festival. [2000]
Was
voted the 44th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment
Weekly.
Biography
in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume
Two, 1945-1985". Pages 121-127. New York: The H.W. Wilson
Company, 1988.
The
young Bertolucci took after his father, a Roman poet and
film critic, and became a celebrated published poet by the
age of 20. He gave up poetry for the cinema after working
as an assistant to Pier Paolo Pasolini on the movie
Accattone
(1961).
President
of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990
In July
of 1990, along with Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra and Marcello Mastroianni, he wrote:
"With the death of Sergei
Parajanov cinema lost one of its wizards.".
Supported
the Italian Communist Party (PCI).
Was
a close friend of Pier
Paolo Pasolini.
He was
made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition
of his outstanding contribution to film culture.
When
the Italian Bertolucci was Oscar-nominated as Best Director
for The Last Emperor (1987) (and won),
his Best Director fellow nominees were all non-Americans:
Adrian Lyne and John Boorman (UK), Lasse Hallstr鰉 (Sweden) and Norman Jewison (Canada) making
that particular instance unique in Oscar history. [11 April
1988]
Personal
Quotes
[On
Los Angeles] The Big Nipple.
[His
answer on 2 October 1979 to a woman who had just seen a
special screening of La
luna (1979) at the Film Center of the School of the
Art Institute, Chicago] I left the ending ambiguous, because
that is the way life is.
I don't
film messages. I let the post office take care of those.
I am
still against any kind of censorship. It's a subject in
my life that has been very important.
A monoculture
is not only Hollywood, but Americans trying to export democracy.
I don't think you can in any way export culture with guns
or tanks. I think that I used to love Hollywood movies.
I remember great phases and moments. But, unfortunately,
now is not the moment.
[On
making The
Dreamers (2003)] It gave me the chance of visiting a
moment that I really loved a lot, the late 1960s. It was
a kind of magic moment in many senses. There was a fantastic
projection of the future, of utopias, which were very noble
in some ways. I remember being young in the 1960s. We had
a great sense of the future, a great big hope. This is what
is missing in the youth today. This being able to dream
and to change the world.
[In
response to Ingmar
Bergman's contention that Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) (US
title: "Last Tango in Paris") was really about homosexuals,
and only in those terms did the film make sense and become
interesting] I accept all interpretations of my films. The
only reality is before the camera. Each film I make is kind
of a return to poetry for me, or at least an attempt to
create a poem.
You
know for American filmmakers, the Oscars is like a mystic
thing. For me it was being in a mirror of my dreams when
I was dreaming of Hollywood when I was an adolescent.
[on
the untimely death of Pier Paolo Pasolini] A remarkable
director -- a great loss to Italian culture. It was as if
he was discovering cinema from scratch.
[on
Gerard Depardieu] Fills the space like a young Marlon Brando.
He has an extraordinary intensity.
[on
Marlon Brando] An angel as a man, a monster as an actor.
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