Bertolucci’s dazzling second feature, made at the age of 22, is being released nationwide to coincide with a major Bertolucci season at BFI Southbank.
Before the Revolution won the Young Critics’ Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (1964) and was, according to the New York Times, the ‘revelation’ of the New York Film Festival the same year. The Italians hated it, but post-Cannes the French critics hailed it as a homage to the school of Cahiers, whereupon the Italian poet-turned-filmmaker Bertolucci found himself adopted by the French New Wave. Loosely based on Stendhal’s ‘The Charterhouse of Parma’, Before the Revolution is also partly autobiographical, and indeed Bertolucci spent much of his youth living in Parma where the film is based. The title derives from a remark made by the 18th century French diplomat Talleyrand: “He who did not live in the years before the revolution cannot understand what the sweetness of living is.”
Before The Revolution centres on the emotional and political conflicts within a young man, Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli), who is contemplating joining the Communist Party. But his personal life is even more unresolved as he breaks away from his planned marriage to Clelia (Cristina Pariset), a perfect bourgeoise, and begins an affair with Gina (Adriana Asti), his neurotic aunt who is visiting from Milan. Bertolucci’s obsession with politics and cinema is openly expressed through this alter-ego and in the extraordinary freedom of his camerawork and editing.
In making Before The Revolution, Bertolucci assembled a remarkable wealth of young Italian talent: cinematographer Aldo Scarvarda, who had shot Antonioni’s L’Avventura in 1960, actress Adriana Asti, who had appeared in Pasolini’s first feature Accattone (on which Bertolucci was production assistant), and composers Ennio Morricone and Gino Paoli.
Film: Before The Revolution
Release date: 8th April 2011
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 112 mins
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Domenico Aldi, Allen Midgette, Morando Morandini
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: BFI
Format: Cinema
Country: Italy
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