Biography
Bernardo Bertolucci was an Academy Award-winning Italian filmmaker whose list of films include "The Conformist" (1970), "Last Tango in Paris" (1972), and "The Last Emperor" (1987), the last of which earned him two Oscars. Born and raised in the Italian city of Parma, Bertolucci grew up in an artistic household. His father was an art historian, film critic and poet, and pursued his young son to purse a similar path in the arts. With his father's encouragement, Bertolucci began writing at the age of 15, and entered the University of Rome to study poetry. After a couple of years, however, Bertolucci dropped out to pursue a career in filmmaking. He directed his first film at the age of 22, the murder mystery "La Commare Secca" (1962). The film was a success, with a number of films in the 1960s, including "The Partner" (1968), to follow. Bertolucci nabbed his first Oscar nomination in 1970 for Best Screenplay for his film "The Conformist" (1970). Two years later he made the controversial film "Last Tango in Paris," which starred Marlon Brando as a widower who enters a perversely sexual relationship with a young woman after his wife's suicide. The film remained Bertolucci's most controversial work, but still went on to earn him a second Oscar nomination for Best Director. Bertolucci would go on to make several more films throughout the 70s and 80s, including "The Last Emperor," which earned him two Oscars, one for directing and the other for co-writing the screenplay. Bertolucci's directing output diminished by the early 2000s. In 2012 directed the drama "Me and You," which premiered at that year's Cannes Film Festival. "Me and You" would be Bertolucci's last film. Bernardo Bertolucci died from lung cancer on November 26, 2018. He was 77.
