Focus Features

Bernardo Bertolucci, the Oscar-winning director born on this day in 1940 in the Italian city of Parma, never wanted to be a filmmaker. He grew up idolizing his father, Attilio Bertolucci, a renaissance man who had distinguished himself as an anthologist, art historian and film critic but was primarily known as an extremely gifted poet. Bernardo started writing poetry already at the age of seven, and looked set to follow in his father’s footsteps when he studied Literature at the University of Rome. In 1962, a year after he dropped out of school, a collection of his adolescent poetry, In Search of Mystery (In Cerca del Mistero), was published and went on to win the prestigious Premio Viareggio award. However, at the time he received the award, cinema – a passion which had always been bubbling below the surface – had overtaken poetry as his primary interest. As the film reviewer for the Gazetta di Parma newspaper, Attilio Bertolucci had taken his son to the movies from a very young age. “My father taught me to see, grasp, and love the cinema,” Bertolucci recalled. “To a great extent, my passion for cinema derives from his passion for it.” And when Bertolucci looked for a way into film, it was his father who connected him with Pier Paolo Pasolini, who Bertolucci Sr. had helped find a publisher for his first novel. Bertolucci’s film career began as a first assistant director on Pasolini’s Accattone (1961) and he wrote and directed his first feature, La commare secca, the following year. However, as Bertolucci explained once, film for him was merely an extension of poetic expression: “Each film I make is kind of a return to poetry for me, or at least an attempt to create a poem.”

Bernardo Bertolucci, the Oscar-winning director born on this day in 1940 in the Italian city of Parma, never wanted to be a filmmaker. He grew up idolizing his father, Attilio Bertolucci, a renaissance man who had distinguished himself as an anthologist, art historian and film critic but was primarily known as an extremely gifted poet. Bernardo started writing poetry already at the age of seven, and looked set to follow in his father’s footsteps when he studied Literature at the University of Rome. In 1962, a year after he dropped out of school, a collection of his adolescent poetry, In Search of Mystery (In Cerca del Mistero), was published and went on to win the prestigious Premio Viareggio award. However, at the time he received the award, cinema – a passion which had always been bubbling below the surface – had overtaken poetry as his primary interest. As the film reviewer for the Gazetta di Parma newspaper, Attilio Bertolucci had taken his son to the movies from a very young age. “My father taught me to see, grasp, and love the cinema,” Bertolucci recalled. “To a great extent, my passion for cinema derives from his passion for it.” And when Bertolucci looked for a way into film, it was his father who connected him with Pier Paolo Pasolini, who Bertolucci Sr. had helped find a publisher for his first novel. Bertolucci’s film career began as a first assistant director on Pasolini’s Accattone (1961) and he wrote and directed his first feature, La commare secca, the following year. However, as Bertolucci explained once, film for him was merely an extension of poetic expression: “Each film I make is kind of a return to poetry for me, or at least an attempt to create a poem.”