The National Literary Prize-winning poet and Oscar-winning filmmaker is Bernardo Bertolucci.
The famous director, apparently, lives by the principle of "a talented person is talented in everything."
Celebrity childhood
Born Bernardo in 1940, in the family of a professor of art history, since childhood he has often been on the set of films. Probably, he already had this kind of art, as they say, “in his blood”, because many members of his family are associated with cinema.
From the age of six, he began to imitate his father - to write poetry, because he respected his father Attilio very much.
Already at the age of 17, Bernardo shoots the amateur film "Cable Car", and a year later - the tape "Death of a Pig".
However, Bertolucci went to study at the Faculty of Philology, and here his talent manifests itself in poetry: he publishes the collection "In Search of Mystery", for which he receives the National Literary Prize.
So from school, from directorial tests, Bernardo reached significant heights in literature. And he did not give up poetry, although the film sets attracted him irresistibly.
Serious movie work
When Bernardo was 21 years old, he met the director Pasolini and helps him with filming. After that, his path was finally determined: he dropped out of university and started making films. His first work was the painting "Bony Godfather" about the murder of a prostitute and its investigation.
And since in his life poetry intertwines and echoes with cinema, critics saw in this film the director's desire to show "the victory of the image over the word" - there were so many panoramas, camera movements, alternating different cinematic techniques.
It is not clear how, but Bertolucci still has time to write poetry, and a year later he released the collection "In Search of the Mystery", for which he also received the Viareggio Prize.
Bernardo Bertolucci received worldwide fame as a director for the film "The Conformist" (1970), in which he tried to explore the psychological origins of fascism. After that, he released many more world famous films - such as the romantic story "The Last Tango in Paris", the epic "The Twentieth Century" about the intertwining of the destinies of different people and their class enmity.
Bertolucci in England
In the 1980s, in years of stifling backlash, Bertolucci cannot remain in Italy. By convictions, he is a communist, but not completely determined, as was the case with his other views on life - he is looking all the time for some one truth, passing from one idea to another.
The famous director had a period when he was no longer interested in Italian themes, and he moved to England. After that, he devotes films to a variety of topics, takes on different genres, but he succeeds brilliantly.
As proof - the Oscar for the film "The Last Emperor" (1987) as the best film of the year. This is a story about a Chinese emperor - a boy of three years old, who can do everything, except for one little: he cannot leave the palace, and he is in it as if in captivity.
Next comes the topic of Buddhism, which the director touched upon - he himself calls himself a “Buddhist amateur”. In 1993, the premiere of his film "Little Buddha" in Paris was watched by the only viewer - the Dalai Lama, and only after that other viewers saw him. Here the director tried to adapt the tenets of Buddhism for an audience not very familiar with them.
Return to Italy
At the age of 45, Bertolucci returned to Italy, where he made films of new themes - the film "Elusive Beauty" and the film "Besieged".
Since the beginning of the new century, he continues to work - the films "Dreamers" (2003) and "Me and You" (2012) are released. Critics wrote that his latest film is the most honest and sincere, the easiest. He filmed it while sitting in a wheelchair - he underwent several complex operations on the spine. A cross-cutting theme of many of Bertolucci's films is visible here: the existence of a hero in a confined space, where his transformation takes place.
And if he became a poet, as they say, "by birthright," because his father was a poet, then he became a director at the behest of his heart. The director himself sometimes joked that he tried to hide behind the camera in order to poeticize and embellish life.
And in 2011, Bertolucci received the Cannes Film Festival's Contribution to Art award - this is his second Palme d'Or.
Bertolucci's films
Critics divide Bertolucci's filmography into several periods:
· The first poetic period is the one when he wanted to conquer the word in an image, to show the poetry of paintings, colors, landscapes, panoramas and human faces, including dialogues, that is, words, as one of the components of the same images.
· The so-called soil-based, or down-to-earth, which was started by the film "The Strategy of the Spider" and ended with the tape "The Twentieth Century".
· And, finally, the so-called overseas period with Chinese and Buddhist motives - films with the participation of international movie stars: in the frame here are Africa, China, Tibet, the USA.
Personal life
As already mentioned, almost the entire Bertolucci family is somehow connected with cinema. The producer is his older brother Giovanni, the younger Giuseppe is a screenwriter and director.
Even Bernardo's first wife was an actress: in his younger years, he married the actress Adriana Asti. Joint activities and similar interests did not help save the marriage, and it fell apart pretty quickly.
Bertolucci's second marriage turned out to be much stronger than the first: for many years Bernardo has been happy with Claire Piplow, who works as a screenwriter and director.
