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 Bertolucci, 77, died at his home in Rome after a long illness,
his publicist said. He had been in bad health for years and
confined to a wheelchair since the early 2000s following a back
operation.
"Last Tango", which starred Marlon Brando, was banned in several
countries, including Italy, where it was not released for
viewing until early 1987.
It won Bertolucci an Oscar nomination and burnished his
international reputation, but his follow-up "1900", a five-hour
historical epic starring Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu,
Donald Sutherland and Burt Lancaster, marked the start of a
lengthy period of commercial flops.
He burst back with "“The Last Emperor" in 1987, beautifully shot
by his long-time cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, which took
all nine Oscars for which it was nominated, reasserting
Bertolucci's position as a filmmaker with a distinct vision.
Born in Parma in central Italy, Bertolucci was the son of poet
and film critic Attilio Bertolucci.
He began writing poetry as a child and had his work published in
magazines before his teens, winning a national poetry prize as a
student in Rome.
GOLDEN CHILDHOOD
“"It was a golden childhood. A big comfortable house, servants,
understanding parents and a pursuit of intellectualism," he
said.
“"When I was 10 I would spend Saturdays and holidays at the
movies, seeing one at two o'clock, another at four and maybe a
third at six."
At 15 he borrowed a camera to make his first films - 16 mm
silent shorts - and in 1961 he dropped out of college to become
assistant director to the young Pier Paolo Pasolini on "“Accattone".
“"From the day I began work with Pasolini, I stopped writing
poetry," he said. “"Poetry was only a means of expressing myself
until I could find the real way -- making movies."
His first feature, a thriller called “"The Grim Reaper" (1962)
that he made at the age of 22 about the murder of a prostitute,
was a commercial flop.
He spent two years preparing his second, “"Before the
Revolution". The romantic exploration of turbulent youth after
World War Two was hailed by critics.
But the turning point in his career came in 1970 when he turned
out two outstanding films, “"The Spider's Stratagem" and the
intricate, ambivalent adaptation of Alberto Moravia's novel
“"The Conformist".
Bertolucci's early works were certainly far from sensationalist,
however, notable for their passionate depictions of the effects
of social evils, reflecting the director's strong left-wing
views.
"Last Tango" aroused controversy because of its explicit sex -
in particular an anal rape scene - and was condemned in the
Italian courts as “"obscene, indecent and catering to the lowest
instincts of the libido".
The rape scene, infamously remembered for Brando's use of butter
to penetrate his co-star, also traumatised its lead actress
Maria Schneider, an unknown 19-year-old at the time.
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"I felt humiliated and, to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by
Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn’t console me
or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take," she told
Britain's Daily Mail before her death in 2011.
The controversy resurfaced in 2016 when a video emerged of
Bertolucci telling a master class in Paris: "I had been, in a way,
horrible to Maria because I didn't tell her what was going on."
Responding to a wave of outrage, the director said Schneider had
known everything about the scene in advance, except the use of
butter, which was an idea he had discussed with Marlon just before
shooting.
"Somebody thought, and thinks, that Maria had not been informed
about the violence on her. That is false," he said.
LOOKING EAST
The period of subsequent flops weighed on the director, who looked
east for the theme of "“The Last Emperor" which chronicled the life
of Pu Yi, China's last imperial ruler.
“"I was so frustrated I wanted to go far away," he said.
The project took four years to film, using 19,000 extras and 9,000
costumes. It was the first Western feature on China, made in China
since the 1949 Communist revolution. It was also the first film shot
in Beijing's Forbidden City, the ancient home of China's rulers.
Bertolucci continued making films as recently as 2012, but never
reached such critical and commercial highs again. He was honored
with lifetime awards from the Cannes and Venice film festivals.
In an interview with Reuters in 2013, Bertolucci said he was
disappointed with the Hollywood that once inspired him and preferred
television series such as “Mad Men”, saying they were better casted
and better directed than big screen productions.
"My generation had an affair with American culture, there’s no doubt
about it. A street lamp and a fire hydrant made me sing in the
rain," he said.
"I saw 'Stagecoach' and for me (director) John Ford became Homer,"
he said of the classic American Western film made in 1939. "I was in
front of a full-length mirror and what I was seeing at 12 wasn’t me,
it was John Wayne."
"But the American films I like now do not come from Hollywood
studios but from television series, like 'Mad Men', 'Breaking Bad',
'The Americans'," he said.
In 2012, Bertolucci made his first feature film in nearly a decade
with "Me and You," about an introverted 14-year-old teenager who
tells his mother he is going on a ski trip but spends a week in the
family basement with his drug addicted half-sister.
Like "Last Tango in Paris," it was shot mostly indoors.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella. Editing by Patrick Johnston)
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