Movie Description
Atmospheric and intense, BEFORE THE REVOLUTION finds a young man named Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli) feeling trapped by his bourgeois birthright. A way out appears in the person of his mysterious aunt Gina (Adriana Asti), but their love affair frightens Fabrizio as much as the Marxist politics he dabbles in. Director/co-screenwriter Bernardo Bertolucci eschews plot; instead he uses avant-garde techniques to allow the story to progress in visual and emotional terms.
Credits
Cast: Adriana Asti, Amelia Bordi, Antonio Maghenzani, Cecrope Barilli, Evelina Alpi
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Synopsis
Bernardo Bertolucci somewhat coyly claimed to have based BEFORE THE REVOLUTION on Stendhal's THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA. The connnection is a tenuous one, but the hero, Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli), does reflect his literary counterpart in that he possesses a naïveté he cannot recognize. Fabrizio is trapped in a bourgeois world, betrothed to a pious simp named Clelia. A friend's suicide causes him to question his life, however, and he falls under the influence of a leftist professor (like Clerici in THE COMFORMIST) who encourages Fabrizio's political awakening. He also begins an affair with his beautiful, emotional aunt Gina (Adriana Asti). But Gina can be cruel and impulsive, and should their love fail, Fabrizio's fragile new self might not survive. The story is told in the nonnarrative style Bertolucci later employed in PARTNER and to some extent in THE CONFORMIST; the director trusts bold imagery (in black and white) and terse, loaded dialogue to bring the characters from start to finish. The feel is self-consciously early-1960s, and Bertolucci addresses this zeitgeist in a set piece in which Fabrizio discusses cinema with a café patron.
Film Notes
The film was shot on location in Parma.
The title comes from the Talleyrand quote used as the film's epigram, which translates as: "Those who haven't known life before the revolution cannot know how sweet it is."
The scene in which Allen Midgette falls off his bicycle was not planned; Midgette actually fell, but Bertolucci decided to use the footage.
Industry Reviews
"[A]s bold and emphatic an announcement that a major director has arrived as has ever been made..."
Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas (07/15/2004)
Format: DVD, Import,
Region: 0 - NTSC
Language: Italian
Subtitles: Portuguese
Studio: Columbia
Run Time: 130 minutes
Atmospheric and intense, BEFORE THE REVOLUTION finds a young man named Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli) feeling trapped by his bourgeois birthright. A way out appears in the person of his mysterious aunt Gina (Adriana Asti), but their love affair frightens Fabrizio as much as the Marxist politics he dabbles in. Director/co-screenwriter Bernardo Bertolucci eschews plot; instead he uses avant-garde techniques to allow the story to progress in visual and emotional terms.
Credits
Cast: Adriana Asti, Amelia Bordi, Antonio Maghenzani, Cecrope Barilli, Evelina Alpi
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Synopsis
Bernardo Bertolucci somewhat coyly claimed to have based BEFORE THE REVOLUTION on Stendhal's THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA. The connnection is a tenuous one, but the hero, Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli), does reflect his literary counterpart in that he possesses a naïveté he cannot recognize. Fabrizio is trapped in a bourgeois world, betrothed to a pious simp named Clelia. A friend's suicide causes him to question his life, however, and he falls under the influence of a leftist professor (like Clerici in THE COMFORMIST) who encourages Fabrizio's political awakening. He also begins an affair with his beautiful, emotional aunt Gina (Adriana Asti). But Gina can be cruel and impulsive, and should their love fail, Fabrizio's fragile new self might not survive. The story is told in the nonnarrative style Bertolucci later employed in PARTNER and to some extent in THE CONFORMIST; the director trusts bold imagery (in black and white) and terse, loaded dialogue to bring the characters from start to finish. The feel is self-consciously early-1960s, and Bertolucci addresses this zeitgeist in a set piece in which Fabrizio discusses cinema with a café patron.
Film Notes
The film was shot on location in Parma.
The title comes from the Talleyrand quote used as the film's epigram, which translates as: "Those who haven't known life before the revolution cannot know how sweet it is."
The scene in which Allen Midgette falls off his bicycle was not planned; Midgette actually fell, but Bertolucci decided to use the footage.
Industry Reviews
"[A]s bold and emphatic an announcement that a major director has arrived as has ever been made..."
Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas (07/15/2004)
Format: DVD, Import,
Region: 0 - NTSC
Language: Italian
Subtitles: Portuguese
Studio: Columbia
Run Time: 130 minutes
00765
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