Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucciis an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky and The Dreamers. In recognition of his work, he was presented with the inaugural Honorary Palme d'Or Award at the opening ceremony of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Since 1979 he has been married to screenwriter Clare Peploe...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth16 March 1941
CityParma, Italy
CountryItaly
I started very, very young to make movies - I was 21. And at the age of 27, 28, I'd done already three movies.
I saw 'Avatar' and liked it very much. It was a great achievement.
I make movies in order to make things understood, not to be shocking.
I lived in a kind of dream of communism.
English dialogue is the best in the world. So dry and direct. The Italian language is beautiful, but it is too literary.
I like to be in a huis clos, as the French say - in one place. It's something that in general can create a bit of claustrophobia. But for me, claustrophobia becomes almost immediately claustrophilia. I love it!
'Dreamers' was because I really wanted to go back after I heard so much nonsense about '68. I wanted to go back to what for me was '68, when young people thought that they could change the world.
I wanted to have a reaction from the audience. I wanted to be able to talk to somebody, and not be talking just to myself. That's when I did 'The Conformist,' 'Last Tango in Paris,' etc. And I found it was incredibly rewarding, something new.
I wanted already to be a filmmaker after I saw 'La Dolce Vita.'
Although some people call me anti-feminist, I know I wasn't because Germaine Greer supported me.
The conformist understands that the reason of his desperate look for conformism is that he realises he is different and that he never accepted his difference.
My father basically had two ways of judging anything. Either something was poetic or it wasn't.
What always made me proud - almost blushing with pride - is that Francis Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg all told me that 'The Conformist' is their first modern influence.
The problem in Hollywood is that they try to become the only kind of cinema in the world, okay? The imposition everywhere of a unique culture, which is Hollywood culture, and a unique way of life, which is the American way of life.