Berlinguer, I Love You | |
---|---|
Directed by | Giuseppe Bertolucci |
Written by | Giuseppe Bertolucci Roberto Benigni |
Produced by | Gianni Minervini Antonio Avati |
Starring | Roberto Benigni Alida Valli Carlo Monni |
Cinematography | Renato Tafuri |
Edited by | Gabriella Cristiani |
Music by | Pier Luigi Farri |
Distributed by | Euro International Film |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | Italy |
Language | Italian |
Berlinguer ti voglio bene (internationally released as Berlinguer, I Love You) is a 1977 Italian comedy film written and directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci. It is the debut film for both Bertolucci and Roberto Benigni.
It is based on the stage play Cioni Mario di Gaspare fu Giulia, which Bertolucci wrote and directed in 1975 and in which Benigni played the character of Mario Cioni, a character he later resumed in the television mini-series Onda libera. [1] [2] The title quotes Cioni's declaration of love for Enrico Berlinguer, then leader of the Italian Communist Party.
Mario is a man of the underclass of Tuscany, who works as a construction worker. His friends make jokes of him, but Mario is indifferent, living in the myth of Enrico Berlinguer. Mario has an Oedipus complex and is very attached to his mother. When he loses a game of poker with a friend, he tells Mario that the penalty is that he must have sex with his own mother. Mario is disgusted, but gradually he falls in love with his mother. However, she rejects him and prefers to go to bed with the friend who made the cruel bet with Mario. Mario finds his friend is now his stepfather.
Roberto Remigio Benigni is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He gained international recognition for writing, directing and starring in the Holocaust comedy-drama film Life Is Beautiful (1997), for which he received the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best International Feature Film. Benigni was the first actor to win the Best Actor Academy Award for a non–English language performance.
Enrico Berlinguer was an Italian politician. Considered the most popular leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), he led the PCI as the national secretary from 1972 until his death during a tense period in Italy's history, which was marked by the Years of Lead and social conflicts, such as the Hot Autumn of 1969–1970. Berlinguer was born into a middle-class family; his father was a socialist who became a deputy and later senator. After leading the party's youth wing in his hometown, he led the PCI's youth wing, the Italian Communist Youth Federation (FGCI), at the national level from 1949 to 1956. In 1968, he was elected to the country's Chamber of Deputies, and he became the leader of the PCI in 1972; he remained a deputy until his death in 1984. Under his leadership, the number of votes for the PCI peaked. The PCI's results in 1976 remain the highest for any Italian left-wing or centre-left party both in terms of votes and vote share, and the party's results in 1984, just after his death, remain the best result for an Italian left-wing party in European elections, and were toppled, in terms of vote share in a lower-turnout election, in the 2014 European Parliament election in Italy.
Massimo Troisi was an Italian actor, cabaret performer, screenwriter, and film director. He is best known for his works in the films I'm Starting from Three (1981) and Il Postino: The Postman (1994), for which he was posthumously nominated for two Oscars. Nicknamed "the comedian of feelings", he is considered one of the most important actors of Italian theater and cinema.
Laura Betti was an Italian actress known particularly for her work with directors Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci. She had a long friendship with Pasolini and made a documentary about him in 2001.
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Gabriella Cristiani is an Italian film editor with about twenty feature film credits. She has had a notable collaboration with director Bernardo Bertolucci. Early in her career she assisted editor Franco Arcalli on two of Bertolucci's films, Last Tango in Paris (1972) and 1900 (1976). Arcalli was the "supervising editor" on a 1977 film, Berlinguer, I Love You, that was one of Cristiani's first feature editing credits; the film was directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci - Bernardo's brother. Arcalli was to have edited Bernardo Bertolucci's next film, La Luna (1979), but he died during production; Cristiani, who was assisting, then took over as editor.
Giuseppe Bertolucci was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 26 films between 1972 and 2012. He was the younger brother of Bernardo Bertolucci.
Carlo Monni was an Italian film, television and stage actor.
"Il cielo in una stanza" is a song written by Gino Paoli and originally recorded by Italian singer Mina for the album of the same name. The song was released as a single in June 1960 by Italdisc. It became a commercial success in Italy, topping the charts for eleven consecutive weeks and later returning to number one for three additional weeks. It is also Mina's best-selling single in Italy, with estimated sales of 400.000 copies.
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