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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 27 November 2018
Oscar-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci dies at 77

By NICOLE WINFIELD without warning.
Associated Press "I should have called my
ROME (AP) — Italian film- agent or had my lawyer
maker Bernardo Bertolucci, come to the set because
who won Oscars with "The you can't force someone
Last Emperor" and whose to do something that isn't in
erotic drama "Last Tango the script, but at the time, I
in Paris" enthralled and didn't know that," she said.
shocked the world, died "Marlon said to me: 'Maria,
Monday. He was 77. don't worry, it's just a mov-
Bertolucci's press office, ie,' but during the scene,
Punto e Virgola, confirmed even though what Marlon
the death in an email to was doing wasn't real, I was
The Associated Press. Italy's crying real tears. I felt hu-
state-run RAI said Bertolucci miliated and to be honest,
died at his home in Rome, I felt a little raped, both by
surrounded by family. Marlon and by Bertolucci.
"He will be remembered After the scene, Marlon
among the greatest in Ital- didn't console me or apolo-
ian and world film," the gize. Thankfully, there was
Venice Film Festival, which just one take," she said.
awarded Bertolucci a life- Bertolucci then embarked
time achievement award on his most ambitious proj-
in 2007, said in a statement. In this file photo taken on Oct. 18, 2012, Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci poses for ect, a four-hour epic tale
Bertolucci's movies often photographers during a photo call in Rome. Bertolucci, who won Oscars with "The Last Emperor" on the lives of two boys
explored the sexual rela- and whose erotic drama "Last Tango in Paris" enthralled and shocked the world, has died at the — Gerard Depardieu and
tions among characters age of 77. Associated Press Robert De Niro — through
stuck in a psychological cri- the political upheavals of
sis, as in "Last Tango," which dream the dream togeth- Bertolucci was born in the dom, and notoriety. the past century in Italy.
was banned in his own Italy er," he said upon receiving northern city of Parma on The film, starring Marlon The movie — "1900" — won
for over a decade. The self- an award from the Direc- March 16, 1941, the son of Brando and Maria Sch- some critical praise, but
professed Marxist also did tor's Guild of America for his poet Attilio Bertolucci and neider as a middle-aged ended up a spectacular
not shy away from politics 1987 film "The Last Emperor." his wife Ninetta. The family man and younger woman commercial flop.
and ideology, as in "The That movie handed Berto- moved to Rome when Ber- who engage in a brutal Bertolucci's later movies in-
Conformist," which some lucci his greatest success. tolucci was 13. sexual relationship in a bare cluded "The Sheltering Sky,"
critics consider Bertolucci's In 1988 it won all the nine He had originally wanted Paris apartment, shocked featuring Debra Winger
masterpiece. Academy Awards that it to be a poet like his father, the world and incurred and John Malkovich as an
Despite working with A-list had been nominated for — but later turned to movies. censorship in his native American couple trying to
American and international including best movie and He began his career while country. inject new life into their re-
stars, Bertolucci always de- best director. still a student at the Uni- But its raw and improvi- lationship during a trip to
fended his own film-making The movie — the first West- versity of Rome as an assis- sational style also earned Africa. The 1990 work won
style against what he said ern feature film to win per- tant director on Pier Paolo Brando and Bertolucci Os- Bertolucci a nomination at
was the pressure of the U.S. mission to shoot in Beijing's Pasolini's film "Accattone." car nominations and was the Golden Globes.
film industry. He maintained Forbidden City — follows A year later, in 1962, he likened by New Yorker film He also directed "Little Bud-
critical success for most the life of China's last em- made his first film "The Grim critic Pauline Kael to Stravin- dha" in 1993 with Keanu
of his career, weathering peror, from child-king at the Reaper," about the murder sky's "The Rite of Spring" as a Reeves as Siddharta; "Steal-
the controversies that his end of the Qing Dynasty to of a prostitute. revolutionary work of art. ing Beauty" in 1996 starring
sexually provocative work war criminal and finally to Soon he established him- The movie was banned in Liv Tyler as a teenager dis-
would stir and some com- an ordinary citizen in the self as one of the brightest Italy just after its release in covering sex during a trip to
mercial flops. People's Republic. young stars of international 1972, and was not released Italy; "The Dreamers," again
"When it comes to com- It was filmed in the lush and cinema. By his early 30s, he again until 1987. The case an erotic drama set against
mercial cinema, I have the vivid style that was one of had already directed high- went back and forth in the a political backdrop — in
strange pleasure of feeling Bertolucci's trademarks. It ly acclaimed movies: "Be- courts until the high crimi- this case the 1968 student
that I'm from another tribe, featured grandiose scenes fore the Revolution" in 1964, nal court banned the film in riots in Paris — starring Eva
an infiltrator," he told Italian and intimate moments, a reflection on politics and 1976 and ordered all cop- Green and Louis Garrel as
daily Corriere della Sera in and a flashback structure the middle-class set in the ies confiscated and de- cinema-loving siblings who
1990. that is typical of biopics. director's hometown; "The stroyed. Bertolucci, Brando strike up a friendship with
He was honored for life- Cinematographer Vittorio Spider's Strategem" in 1970, and Schneider, as well visiting American student
time achievement at the Storaro, who often worked the story of a man who re- as the producer Alberto Michael Pitt. The film fea-
Cannes film festival in 2011. with Bertolucci and won turns to the scene of the Grimaldi, were sentenced tured full-frontal male nu-
Bertolucci's movies also one of his three Oscars with killing of his father, an anti- to two months in jail and dity but was released uncut
bore the imprint of the di- "Last Emperor," compared Fascist hero, to discover a a fine of $40 each — al- in the United States.
rector's own experiences in the director to William web of lies; and "The Con- though the jail terms were Bertolucci was married to
psychoanalysis. He always Faulkner. formist," which is based on suspended. the English writer and direc-
said that making films was "His style is not unlike that an Alberto Moravia novel Schneider herself would tor Clare Peploe. They had
his way of communicating of Faulkner who'll go on for and depicts the struggle of say she was traumatized no children.
with the audience. It was 30 pages without a period. a man, Jean-Louis Trintig- by the movie. The actress, Peploe is the sister of Mark
his personal language. Bernardo doesn't just use nant, to conform to society who died in 2011, was just Peploe, a screenwriter and
"Maybe I'm an idealist, but the camera to convey just and expectations in Fascist 19 during filming and told close friend of Bertolucci's
I still think of the movie the- one sentence. Everything Italy. the Daily Mail in 2007 that who worked with the di-
ater as a cathedral where flows into everything else," But it was with "Last Tango" a rape scene involving a rector on a number of
we all go together to said Storaro. that Bertolucci shot to star- stick of butter was included projects.q