Bernardo Bertolucci died
Italian director and two-time Oscar winner Bernardo Bertolucci has died today at the age of 78 in Rome. According to La Repubblica, the director's death was caused by a prolonged illness. Bertolucci is deservedly considered one of the pillars of world cinema, those who defined its appearance and set the tone for the entire second half of the turbulent XX century. Starting his way as a follower of Jean-Luc Godard and Pier Paolo Pasolini, the great maestro went from provincialism to international greatness, from experimentation to monumentalism, from modest auteur cinema budgets to megaprojects with such stars as Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando in the lead roles. ... Being a true cosmopolitan, very often Bertolucci took the material of Eastern and African, and not only European culture, as the basis of his paintings, which made him a great creator.
Bertolucci was born on March 16, 1941 in the Italian town of Parma. His interest in cinema was instilled in him by his father, a film critic and professor of art history. Already in 1961, a very young director assisted Pier Paolo Pasolini, and a year later he shot his first film - "Bony Godfather". Bertolucci gained worldwide fame in the early 70s, after the release of the paintings "The Conformist" and "The Last Tango in Paris". The first explored the origins of fascism, and the second even earned scandalous fame thanks to stories from the set. The genius of cinema did not stop there, and in 1976 he released the colossal epic "The Twentieth Century", managing to organically interweave the themes of simple human values and class struggle in it.  Later, Bertolucci moved to England and there he created two more milestone paintings based on Chinese history - "The Last Emperor", which won the "Oscar" award as the film of the year, and "Little Buddha", the preliminary demonstration of which took place in the presence of a single spectator - Dalai Lama. Considering himself a skeptical Buddhist, Bernardo has often successfully studied Eastern religion and culture in his writings. At the same time, all of his tapes turned out to be deep, full of wisdom and visual beauty thanks to the collaboration with the permanent operator, the lord of chiaroscuro - Vittorio Storaro. But the younger audience knows and appreciates the great master, of course, for his later works - "Elusive Beauty" with Liv Tyler and "Dreamers", who opened the film community to the bright and characteristic actress Eva Green. Filled with movie references, The Dreamers immediately became a very important cultural phenomenon and a favorite film of all young filmmakers. Travelers from different parts of the Earth still consider it necessary to run through the Louvre's galleries, as the trio of the main characters did, as a sign of worship to the wonderful film about the power and beauty of youth.  In 2011, Bernardo Bertolucci was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his undeniable contribution to world art. Of course, with the passing of the next master, cinema will become empty, and yet it cannot be denied that it is thanks to him that independent, bright and powerful cinema has become what we see it now. The Topic of Article: Bernardo Bertolucci died. |
