Screen, Screen on the Wall: The Cinephile Experiences of Attilio, Bernardo, and Giuseppe Bertolucci

Abstract

The paper analyses the experience of an ‘illustrious’ family of movie-goers: the Bertoluccis, composed by the father and poet Attilio and his sons Bernardo and Giuseppe, both film directors. The rite of moviegoing is crucial to explore a thematic triangulation, pivotal for the artistic and literary productions of these leading figures within the Italian cultural and film industry of the 20th century: the relationship between family members, the city, and Cinema. The analysis of this relational network originates precisely from their frequentation of film theatres in Parma (in the postwar years also in Rome and Paris), evolving into the cinephilia that characterises all of them (even if with strong differences). This essay focuses on how the experience of the cinema is narrated by Attilio, Bernardo and Giuseppe in their films and writings (monographs,
interviews, and Attilio’s journalistic work) but also in the unpublished materials collected in the Bertolucci Archive. A linguistic and narrative analysis of the strategies of self-representation allows to enucleate the relationship between the urban space in which the film theatres are located, the Bertoluccis as regular costumers of these cinemas, but also to understand how these experiences shaped their artistic practices and their family ties.