The Conformist / Il conformista (1970)
Drama
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio, Fosco Giachetti, José Quaglio
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
The Dreamers (2003)
Drama | Romance
A young American studying in Paris in 1968 strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister. Set against the background of the '68 Paris student riots.
Starring: Eva Green, Louis Garrel, Michael Pitt, Anna Chancellor
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
L'assedio / Besieged (1998)
Drama | Romance
When an African dictator jails her husband, Shandurai goes into exile in Italy, studying medicine and keeping house for Mr. Kinsky, an eccentric English pianist and composer. She lives in one room of his Roman palazzo. He besieges her with flowers, gifts, and music, declaring passionately that he loves her, would go to Africa with her, would do anything for her. "What do you know of Africa?," she asks, then, in anguish, shouts, "Get my husband out of jail!" The rest of the film plays out the implications of this scene and leaves Shandurai with a choice.
Starring: Thandie Newton, David Thewlis, Claudio Santamaria, John C. Ojwang, Massimo De Rossi, Cyril Nri
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Little Buddha (1993)
Drama
Bernado Bertolucci's modern day re-telling of Siddhartha's story and the founding of Buddhism, with Keanu Reeves in the title role as the Prince who undergoes the Five Ascetic principles to achieve Nirvana.
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Bridget Fonda, Chris Isaak
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Stealing Beauty (1996)
Drama | Romance
When 19-year old Lucy arrives in Italy to spend the summer with her late mother's bohemian friends, she's determined to fulfill two dreams. The first, to consumate her romance with the Italian boy she fell in love with four years earlier, and the second, to discover the identity of her father through clues in her mother's diary.
Starring: Liv Tyler, Sinéad Cusack, Jeremy Irons, Jean Marais, Donal McCann, Joseph Fiennes
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Prima della rivoluzione / Before the Revolution (1964)
Drama | Romance
The study of a youth on the edge of adulthood and his aunt, ten years older. Fabrizio is passionate, idealistic, influenced by Cesare, a teacher and Marxist, engaged to the lovely but bourgeois Clelia, and stung by the drowning of his mercurial friend Agostino, a possible suicide. Gina is herself a bundle of nervous energy, alternately sweet, seductive, poetic, distracted, and unhinged. They begin a love affair after Agostino's funeral, then Gina confuses Fabrizio by sleeping with a stranger. Their visits to Cesare and then to Puck, one of Gina's older friends, a landowner losing his land, dramatize contrasting images of Italy's future. Their own futures are bleak.
Starring: Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Me and You / Io e te (2012)
Drama | Family
Italian adolescent drama directed by legendary Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci. Introverted oddball Lorenzo (Jacopo Olmo Antinori) enjoys nothing more than his own company and using the excuse of a week-long skiing trip to hide out in his basement seems like the perfect opportunity to spend some time alone. But when his heroin-addicted half-sister Olivia (Tea Falco) arrives at his sacred refuge, his dreams of isolation are quickly shattered.
Starring: Tea Falco, Jacopo Olmo Antinori, Sonia Bergamasco, Veronica Lazar, Tommaso Ragno, Pippo Delbono
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
The Last Emperor (1987)
Biography | Drama | History
Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor won nine Academy Awards, unexpectedly sweeping every category in which it was nominated. The power and scope of the film was, and remains, undeniable-the life of Emperor Pu Yi, who took the throne at age three, in 1908, before witnessing decades of cultural and political upheaval, within and without the walls of the Forbidden City. Recreating Ching dynasty China with astonishing detail and unparalleled craftsmanship by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti, The Last Emperor is also an intimate character study of one man reconciling personal responsibility and political legacy.
Starring: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ying Ruocheng, Victor Wong, Dennis Dun
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
The Sheltering Sky / Il tè nel deserto (1990)
Adventure | Drama | Romance
The American artist couple Port and Kit Moresby travel aimlessly through Africa, searching for new experiences that could give sense to their relationship. But the flight to distant regions only leads both deeper into despair.
Starring: Debra Winger, John Malkovich, Campbell Scott, Jill Bennett, Timothy Spall
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Novecento / 1900 (1976)
Drama | History
Set in Italy, the film follows the lives and interactions of two boys/men, one born a bastard of peasant stock, the other born to a land owner. The drama spans from 1900 to about 1945, and focuses mainly on the rise of Fascism and the peasants' eventual reaction by supporting Communism, and how these events shape the destinies of the two main characters.
Starring: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Francesca Bertini, Laura Betti, Werner Bruhns
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Ultimo tango a Parigi / Last Tango in Paris (1972)
Drama | Romance
A middle-aged American, whose wife has just committed suicide, meets a young French girl when they both view an apartment in Paris at the same time. They begin a strange, anonymous sexual relationship in the empty apartment, agreeing not to divulge any personal information to each other.
Starring: Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Maria Michi, Giovanna Galletti, Catherine Allegret, Catherine Breillat
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
