Bernardo Bertolucci--Love Him or Hate Him?

Here’s Bertolucci’s opinion on that matter:

“A perversion, is anything that is unnatural. "

Jason, bringing nature into a conversation like this is beyond sterile—it’s completely off the mark. Making movies ain’t natural either, for all we know. Why would it bother anyone if a director loves to treat the subject of sex on his movies, especially if it is problematized and not objectified (and involves consenting adult actors), like the average chauvinistic Hollywood product tends to do? Usually, when someone minds that, the problem lies in the complainer, not the art.

lol

Bertolucci is a 50/50 director in my books. some of his movies were great and others seemed to miss the mark. The conformist and La Commare Secca were great and The Last Emperor was by far his greatest achievement. But he also made some not so good movies. Some of his late stuff like The Sheltering Sky was ok but it seemed like it could have been a lot better, but he did do a pretty good job with Stealing Beauty.

He Also made one of the most famous and groundbreaking films in history “Last Tango In Paris”. The movie itself is ok,but its Brando’s performance that is usually in the spotlight.

I finally got a copy of the unedited and uncut version of 1900 and was pretty excited to watch it! I had no idea i would be let down so much! It has to be one of the most boring movies i have ever seen. Its all over the place in its story, and even the acting is crap. Its almost like DeNiro was trying to do a bad job. It also had one of the worst endings i have ever seen. I’m not sure how he could screw that movie up but do such an amazing job on The Last Emperor when really they are very similar films.

In the end i do like him though, he reminds me of Coppola, they both have created some of the most famous and influential films in history, but they also have an equal number of crap movies.

I’m not progressive enough for the party. I am a non-conformist in this matter.

“He’s just a perverted old socialist.”
“A perversion, is anything that is unnatural”
“I mean, if it is to be in English, fine, whatever, but broken Engrish? LAME.”

Are you real?

“strange ways to have sex”

What would be an example of a not-strange way to have sex?

Moderated

mom and dad way…

but why is the sex strange? young and wild would be strange for you? didn’t you have fun in college?

-mom and dad way…-

So, not?

So, not what?

not having sex? I mean.

I’m neither a mom nor a dad..so it’s still strange and wild. So not not… My statement wasn’t born from being frustrated or missing it.

Sure, I was joking. At any rate, “strange sex” is redundant.

Overall, I don’t love him, but I certainly don’t hate him. If nothing else, he always strikes me as a pleasant and intelligent in interviews and such.

He made THE CONFORMIST, after all, one of the most stylish and visually stimulating films of all time (admittedly maybe a bit too stylish for its own good, it kind of covers up for not being particularly compelling in its characters and themes, but you can’t have it all). I really, really want to see SPIDER"S STRATEGEM and BEFORE THE REVOLUTION as well (release them, Criterion!), they sound like they are along similar lines as The Conformist, and the best of his 60s work. LAST TANGO IN PARIS is ok, but I think very overrated. Brando’s acting is kind of ovebearing and arrogant, and the whole thing just boils down to a sex romp that just happens to be beautifully shot by Vittorio Storarao. THE LAST EMPEROR features gorgeous cinematography as well, but I find it kind of hollow and boring in the long run. The few I have seen of his more recent films have been pretty laughable, so I think its safe to say he’s lost whatever magic he once had.

But, I will always love him for The Conformist, and I’m pretty sure his other 60s films would be up my alley as well, whenever I get around to checking them out.

He’s a GREAT filmmaker…and ballsy to boot…5plus hours of 1900 and it never lets up.

He’s stumbled with Little Buddah and I don’t care for The Last Emperor, but there’s…
The Conformist
Last Tango in Paris
Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (wildly undervalued)
Luna (maybe deservedly undervalued)
The Sheltering Sky (I don’t think he nailed the book, but he still made an exceptional film)
Stealing Beauty

-Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (wildly undervalued)-

Yes, I’ve mentioned that film elsewhere and should have here too.

I’m a big fan of his.

Does anyone know where I can see Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man or The Spider’s Stratagem?

You could pay 45 bucks for a crappy VHS tape of The Spider’s Strategem on Amazon. I think you’ve said before that you have issues with ordering stuff so this might not work. Plus, it’s 45 dollars for a crappy tape!!!

I saw Tragedy through a film society I belonged to a few years ago, Drew, and I have a VHS-dubbed-to-DVD copy of The Spider’s Strategem I made a while back.

Bummer.

What’s really annoying is that both films are on this random Japanese website, but they are unable to watch in my region. :P

If you’re desperate enough to be willing to watch degraded copies, I’d be happy to see if I can find my “from VHS” DVDs and make copies for you.

(sigh) For the same reason I can’t buy stuff on Amazon, I can’t make a deal with you for your copy. I appreciate the offer though. Maybe in two years. :)

Come on Criterion… Bertolucci Eclipse Set please!

Bertolucci came a surprising cropper in the auteurs world cup. Like many, i’ve had mixed reactions. Thumbs up Conformist, Spider’s Stratagem, and to a lesser extent Besieged. Thumbs down Dreamers, Little Buddha, Last Tango in Paris

But i’d like to see more respect for The Sheltering Sky. I admire Storaro’s cinematography, not just for capturing the beauty of the desert, but his colour schemes, the blue, lunar and female taking over from the orange, solar and masculine. Debra Winger gives a tremendous performance, with real anguish, the second half is her film, female strength and power to survive, albeit with help. There’s a sense of exposure, the merciless space and heat, a need for protection. I think using the author himself in the film- seeing them off on the journey of his own devising, bringing them into existence, then at the end there’s a sense (maybe fleetingly felt by Winger) of paternal shelter and safety. The film achieves an eroticism i felt lacking in The Dreamers and Last Tango in Paris. The film has been lumped with Last Emperor, Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty as either overblown or prettified travelogue/ exotic adventure for bourgeois dilettantes, lacking depth. But it deals effectively i think with colonialism (the Lyles may seem caricatured monsters but such people have existed), notions of cultural superiority, relationship breakdown and death. Like Paris Texas, the film goes from wide open spaces to cramped intimate space where male and female meet, and Sakamoto’s score brings together Western and African music, appropriately for a film where such different cultures come into contact. not just a sop to Western viewers.

Mrs Lyle is a travel writer, here exposed for racism- a criticism of the sort of shallow pandering travelogue attitudes Bertolucci got flak for. Travel may broaden some minds but it also reinforces closed ones, i think.

The film captures too not only the incredible beauty but the heady atmosphere of Morocco and North Africa, its mysterious otherworldliness for Europeans and Americans.

Blue K said this: The Sheltering Sky is pretty good, but that probably has more to do with the source material than anything else. The Paul Bowles novel is one of the best 20th century American novels I’ve read.

All the things you say about The Sheltering Sky are true Kenji, but it was the lack of integration of those great parts that made the film less than great.

I think that might be what Blue K is referencing vs. the novel.

Kenji, great review. In my opinion, The Sheltering Sky is one of the great films of the 90s.

It’s hard to make a great film- or certainly satisfy expectations- from a great novel. I also find it hard to read a book, however good, once i’ve seen the film, the visuals can never be fresh from one’s own imgaination

Thumbs up on The Conformist, The Spider’s Strategem, and The Dreamers (which I did struggle with in that its pretense caused me to watch it in 15 min increments over a period of 2 years – but I finally liked it by the end). The Last Emperor was very good but overly lauded. 1900 has some breathtaking cinematography and some good moments, but by the end (6 or 7 hours later, I don’t recall) I felt as much as a buffoon as Depardieu and DeNiro were portraying in the last shot. I still wonder if they didn’t feel like buffoons for having acted in the film in the first place.

Now, for the piece de la resistance (Note: severe sarcasm) … the most overly praised film of all time … Last Tango …. I have watched this excremental farce twice totally in dismay as to how critics could even sit through it without becoming severely sick at the awful performances. Pasolini, Bertolucci’s mentor, dismissed the film. I can still picture Brando holding a dead rat and speaking of mayonnaise (or something) in a deadpan-awful delivery. Such a scene being what I find most memorable about Last Tango in Paris. A crass film about crass characters acted in a crass manner. If this were to have been Bertolucci’s only film I would dismiss him without hesitation.

From Dr T’s interview with Antonioni:
FT: Your work is filled with scenes of exquisite visual beauty, moments of pure form. As a modernist, are there other artists who have influenced you: writers, architects, painters, other filmmakers?
M A: I’m not really conscious of any artistic influences at work on me. I’m now much more intuitive. I ask to be alone on the set or the location for fifteen minutes. Then I shoot the first idea that comes into my head. Pasolini, I know, wants to redo paintings in the cinema. You speak of the beauty of my images, but the best shots are cut from the films.

I think that last sentence is an acknowledgement that the cohesiveness of the film takes precedence over best shots.

Although there are great passages in The Sheltering Sky they just don’t come together as a cohesive whole.