Before the Revolution (1962)

Synopsis: Bernardo Bertolucci somewhat coyly claimed to have based BEFORE THE REVOLUTION on Stendhal's THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA. The connnection is a tenuous one, but the hero, Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli),... Bernardo Bertolucci somewhat coyly claimed to have based BEFORE THE REVOLUTION on Stendhal's THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA. The connnection is a tenuous one, but the hero, Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli), does reflect his literary counterpart in that he possesses a naïveté he cannot recognize. Fabrizio is trapped in a bourgeois world, betrothed to a pious simp named Clelia. A friend's suicide causes him to question his life, however, and he falls under the influence of a leftist professor (like Clerici in THE COMFORMIST) who encourages Fabrizio's political awakening. He also begins an affair with his beautiful, emotional aunt Gina (Adriana Asti). But Gina can be cruel and impulsive, and should their love fail, Fabrizio's fragile new self might not survive. The story is told in the nonnarrative style Bertolucci later employed in PARTNER and to some extent in THE CONFORMIST; the director trusts bold imagery (in black and white) and terse, loaded dialogue to bring the characters from start to finish. The feel is self-consciously early-1960s, and Bertolucci addresses this zeitgeist in a set piece in which Fabrizio discusses cinema with a café patron. [More]

Starring: Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette, Morando Morandini

Starring: Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette, Morando Morandini, Christina Pariset

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Screenwriter: Bernardo Bertolucci, Gianni Amico
Composer: Gino Paoli, Ennio Morricone, Giuseppe Verdi, Gato Barbieri

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