Bernardo Bertolucci Retrospective Season at BFI April/May

BFI Southbank leaps into spring with a programme of seasons and events to excite and entertain, with some of the finest film and television previews. The career, to date, of the legendary Italian maestro Bernardo Bertolucci, is presented in the first part of an overview of his work, including a national release of his brilliant and second film Before the Revolution Prima della rivoluzione (1964).

Bertolucci will also take to the BFI stage for an exclusive interview on 9th April.

At the age of 13 Bernardo Bertolucci decided that he would become a filmmaker, and by 21 he had made his first feature, The Grim Reaper (La commare secca, 1962), set in the world of the Roman proletariat and adapted from a story by his mentor Pier Paolo Pasolini. His follow-up, Before the Revolution (screening in an Extended Run), centres on the political conflicts within a young man as he contemplates joining the Communist party.  The young Bertoclucci was passionate about politics and his work was informed by the changing tides of European politics in the early 60s and by directors such as Truffaut and Goddard; the uprisings of May ’68 influenced the narrative of Partner (1968), which occurred during the shoot. After the critical success of The Conformist (1970), with cinematography by Vittorio Storaro, followed the infamous Last Tango in Paris (1972), which brought Bertolucci international recognition and enabled the development for his next project 1900 (Novecento, 1976). 1900 was a political epic about Italy in the first half of the 20th century, with an international cast that included Robert de Niro, Burt Lancaster, Gérard Depardieu, and Donald Sutherland, and took a year to film. The process was documented in The Cinema According to Bertolucci (Bertolucci secondo il cinema, 1976) and is probably the most probing and intimate record of Bertolucci at work. The retrospective continues in May.

For more information and  to book tickets head over to BFI website.Check Out these trailer these trailers of some of the movies in the season.