Before the Revolution [Prima della Rivoluzione] **** (1964, Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette) – Classic Movie Review 10,790

The 1964 black and white romantic and political drama film Before the Revolution [Prima della Rivoluzione] is an early tour-de-force by the young writer-director Bernardo Bertolucci. It demonstrates his cinematic brilliance, mixing the political with the personal and the psychological to create a multi-textured depiction of Italian society.

Francesco Barilli plays the 20-year-old student Fabrizio, a lustful young man from Parma, who finds himself caught between his desire for change and his desire to fit in when an affair with his refined but troubled Milanese Aunt Gina (Adriana Asti) awakens his political conscience. Allen Midgette plays Fabrizio’s friend Agostino and Cristina Pariset plays Fabrizio’s statuesque, affluent apolitical girlfriend Clelia.

Bertolucci’s screenplay uses 19th-century French writer Stendahl’s  La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839) as its basis.

Also in the cast are Morando Morandini, Cecrope Barilli, Evelina Alpi, Domenico Alpi and Amelia Bordi.

Bertolucci was only 22 when he made the film. It is his second film following La Commare Secca [The Grim Reaper] (1962). He won two Oscars for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (shared) for The Last Emperor (1987), and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Conformist [Il Conformista] (1970) and for Best Director for Last Tango in Paris [Ultimo Tango a Parigi] (1972).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,790

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