Bernardo Bertolucci, a pioneer in ‘new wave’ film-making in the 1960s, passed away after battling cancer, his publicist confirmed to The Guardian newspaper.
Born in Parma, Italy, in 1941, Bertolucci was raised in an artistic atmosphere as the son of a poet and teacher.
“Bertolucci became a key figure of the extraordinary Italian new wave (alongside, and the equal of, Antonioni, Fellini, and Pasolini) but – uniquely – made a successful transition to large-scale Hollywood film-making with 1987’s The Last Emperor, which won nine Oscars, including best picture and best director for Bertolucci,” The Guardian report said. The film was about the last Chinese emperor.
Bertolucci’s made films that were often political in content, with many of them dealing with workers' struggles, as in 1900, or the fate of Left-wingers in fascist Italy in The Conformist.
His Hollywood venture, Last Tango in Paris, starring Marlon Brando, created quite a flutter and was banned in several countries, including in Italy. The film, a 1972 drama, brought the director fame as well as notoriety, sparking a lengthy censorship battle in Italy over the film’s sexual content.
