Partner ** (1968, Pierre Clémenti, Stefania Sandrelli, Tina Aumont, Sergio Tofano) – Classic Movie Review 10,423

Director Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1968 Italian drama Partner stars Pierre Clémenti as introverted Giacobbe, who invents a doppelganger to win in life – and especially to win the hand of the lovely Clara (Stefania Sandrelli).

Alas, Partner is an unresolved mess from the colourful Parma-born intellectual Bertolucci, and one of his failures, with an irritating central performance from Pierre Clémenti. The script by Bertolucci and Gianni Amico, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Double, gives the impression of being a rush job, and Bertolucci seems to be giving in to trendy film-making of the time, with unimpressive results. That said, with all this talent and the revered names involved, and Bertolucci reflecting on the events of ’68 in the year itself, it must be worth a look.

The script moves the setting of Dostoevsky’s 1846 novella The Double: A Petersburg Poem to Italy and updates it to the 1968 pro-Vietcong student-protest present. Its setting and shooting in the crucial year of 1968 give it considerable interest and relevance, and provide a fascinating link to Bertolucci’s 1968-set The Dreamers.

Also in the cast are Tina Aumont, Sergio Tofano, Guilio Cesare Castello, Romano Costa, Jed Curtis, Ninetto Davoli, Rosemary Dexter, Antonio Maestri, Giancarlo Nanni, John Ohettplace, Stefano Oppedisano and Mario Venturini.

Partner is directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, runs 105 minutes, is made by Red Film and Ministero del Turismo e dello Spettacolo, is released by New Yorker Films (1974) (US), is written by Bernardo Bertolucci (story and screenplay) and Gianni Amico (story and screenplay), based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novella The Double: A Petersburg Poem, is shot in Technicolor by Ugo Piccone, is produced by Giovanni Bertolucci, is scored by Ennio Morricone, and is designed by Francesco Tullio Altan.

RIP Bernardo Bertolucci, who died on 26 November 2018, aged 77.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,423

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