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Moving ever further away from his controversial films of the 1970s, Bertolucci was fully embraced by the Motion Picture Academy for 1987's THE LAST EMPEROR, which they showered with nine Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Bertolucci. The film, which starred John Lone, Joan Chen, and Peter O'Toole, told the story of the final Emperor of China. Bertolucci proposed the film to the Chinese government as one of two possible projects - the other was "La Condition Humaine" by André Malraux. The Chinese preferred this project, and made no restrictions on the content.
It was the first film made in and about the country to be produced with full Chinese government cooperation since 1949. In fact, during filming of the immense coronation scene in the Forbidden City, Queen Elizabeth II was in Beijing on a state visit. The production was given priority over her by the Chinese authorities and she was therefore unable to visit the Forbidden City.
Over 1,000 schoolchildren were brought in to play Red Guards in the 1967 Cultural Revolution march. Bertolucci had problems instilling the right amount of anger in them, as none of them knew of the attitudes of the Cultural Revolution.
The film's score, by Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne, was released by Virgin Records.
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You weren't even born . Were your folks in showbiz?
Until you refute the content of my previous post with a cogent argument, you should probably keep away from grown-up subjects.
I just feel that you should limit your comments to events you have personally lived through.
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Moving ever further away from his controversial films of the 1970s, Bertolucci was fully embraced by the Motion Picture Academy for 1987's THE LAST EMPEROR, which they showered with nine Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Bertolucci. The film, which starred John Lone, Joan Chen, and Peter O'Toole, told the story of the final Emperor of China. Bertolucci proposed the film to the Chinese government as one of two possible projects - the other was "La Condition Humaine" by André Malraux. The Chinese preferred this project, and made no restrictions on the content.
It was the first film made in and about the country to be produced with full Chinese government cooperation since 1949. In fact, during filming of the immense coronation scene in the Forbidden City, Queen Elizabeth II was in Beijing on a state visit. The production was given priority over her by the Chinese authorities and she was therefore unable to visit the Forbidden City.
Over 1,000 schoolchildren were brought in to play Red Guards in the 1967 Cultural Revolution march. Bertolucci had problems instilling the right amount of anger in them, as none of them knew of the attitudes of the Cultural Revolution.
The film's score, by Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne, was released by Virgin Records.
Cong Su was also co-composer.
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Cong Su was also co-composer [of THE LAST EMPEROR].
True. Fifty-four seconds of his music ended up on the soundtrack release.
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In STEALING BEAUTY, 19-year-old Liv Tyler, in her first leading role, plays "Lucy Harmon," an American visiting family friends in Italy after the death of her poet mother. In the olive groves of Tuscany, where she was conceived, Lucy intends to lose her virginity to the boy she kissed on her last trip, four years before. She also means to follow up on the hints in her mother’s diary about the identity of her biological father. Jeremy Irons costars as an invalid playwright who has come to Tuscany to die.
This was the first film that Oscar-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci filmed in his homeland in 15 years. Bertolucci was nominated for a David di Donatello Award (Italian "Oscar") as best director, but lost to Giuseppe Tornatore for THE STAR MAKER. The film played in fewer than 200 theaters in the U.S. and grossed $4.7 million.
Richard Hartley scored the 1996 film, but none of his music appeared on the song-track CD issued by Capitol. Even so, a couple of songs heard in the film, including "Say it Ain't So" by Roland Gift, the song during the end credits, were not on the soundtrack CD.
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Posted: |
Dec 4, 2018 - 11:54 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Thandie Newton and David Thewlis starred in BESIEGED, in which an African woman in exile in Italy finds herself trying to get back home and free her imprisoned husband. But the only man that can help her do so is in love with her.
It was Bernardo Bertolucci's wife Clare Peploe who suggested to him that he try adapting James Lasdun's short story. Bertolucci and Peploe's script changed the locale from London to Rome and the woman's ethnicity from Latin American to African. The film was originally meant to be a 60-minute television play until Bertolucci decided to expand it. Even so, after many years making big sweeping epics like THE LAST EMPEROR and LITTLE BUDDHA, this was a deliberate effort on the part of Bertolucci to make a "piece of chamber music for the cinema". Being such a small-scale effort, the director was able to cover roughly 20-25 scenes every day, four times more than he would be able to cover on a bigger budget film
Italian sequences were shot in an abandoned villa in Rome near the Spanish Steps. The African sequences were shot over a four-day period in Kenya. Shortly after completing this film, Bertolucci had to undergo surgery for a herniated disc. He had been in considerable pain during the filming.
Alessio Vlad's score was released by Milan in the U.S. At the Italian Golden Globe Awards, BESIEGED won as Best Picture and Vlad won for Best Score. Bertolucci also took home the Best Director prize at the Italian Golden Goblets Awards. In the U.S., the film grossed $2 million, showing in 150 theaters.
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THE DREAMERS was set against the background of the 1968 Paris student riots, where a young American studying in Paris (Michael Pitt) strikes up a friendship with a French brother and sister (Louis Garrel and Eva Green). Leonardo DiCaprio was offered the role of "Matthew," but turned it down because he was in pre-production on THE AVIATOR (2004). Michael Pitt, who bears considerable resemblance to DiCaprio, was cast in his place. Jake Gyllenhaal was also considered for the role of Matthew but turned it down because of the explicit nature of the nude scenes.
The three leads allowed Bertolucci to explore a number of sexual situations. To make the actors feel comfortable and natural in the film's nude scenes, Bertolucci encouraged them to be nude long before the actual shot. There were scenes in the script depicting much more blatant sexual relations between the characters of "Matthew" and "Theo," but they were not filmed. Bertolucci said, "The gay sex was in the first script, but I had a feeling that it was just too much stuff. It became redundant." Michael Pitt said in an interview, "It was in the script and it's what I'd signed to do. But they said we weren't going to do that." Bertolucci was so impressed with how the actors so naturally acted naked, he penned a lengthy extra scene in the script where all three main actors are overtly nude. It ended up on the cutting room floor.
The 2003 film did not have an original score. A song-track CD was released by Nettwerk Records in the U.S.
When Fox Searchlight Pictures released the film in America in 2004, THE DREAMERS became the first film since ORGAZMO (1997) that was released theatrically in the US with a NC-17 rating. Even with its NC-17 rating, major theater circuits like Regal and AMC agreed to show the film. An R-rated cut, about 3 minutes shorter than the theatrical version, was created for home video release. The NC-17 version was also separately released on video.
The film grossed $2.5 million in its U.S. theatrical release and $12.6 million from foreign venues.
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Oh no. Another great gone.
1900 was my fave but then i was biased coz of ennios music.
Novocento was indeed great, and although watching it is a mammoth task, I’ll try to do so again soon. I recently saw and admired The Conformist, and I watched Last Tango ages ago. He was also a young AD on Pasolini’s first film Accattone, so I’m counting that too.
One thing that stands out is his excellent taste in music. Morricone, Sakamoto, Delerue, all produced great scores for his films. RIP.
Chris, as I may have mentioned earlier in some other thread, I went to see '1900' the day it opened for a one week run in L.A. to qualify for Oscar consideration. I drove all the way from Western and Melrose into Westwood and I believe it was Thr Bruin theater or one of smaller auditoriums inside. In any event, up until the lights went down and the film was to begin...I was the ONLY person for that first screening. Some people came in shortly after, but still, I was expecting a full house!
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Following a fall in which he injured his back, an injury that a course of surgery failed to correct, Bertolucci was confined to a wheelchair, and it was widely believed – not least by the director himself – that he would never film again. “A few years ago, I couldn’t move any more. I couldn’t walk. That, maybe, was the moment when I thought I couldn’t do any more movies. I thought, OK, it is finished. I’ll do something else… [but] everything changed the moment I accepted this situation.”
That situation was the opportunity to direct 2012's ME AND YOU. The story – in which a teenage boy and his older half-sister spend a week together in a cramped basement – was adapted from a novel by Niccolò Ammaniti, who also co-scripted along with Bertolucci and two others.
The film received various Italian and film festival awards, but its commercial life in the U.S. was limited to a 2014 New York opening and little more. It would be Bertolucci's final feature film.
Bernardo Bertolucci in 2012
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It's really good music.
Especially Sakamoto.
Check it out!
Brm
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