Editing Bernardo Bertolucci (section)

=== Directorial breakthrough ===
Bertolucci initially wished to become a poet like his father. With this goal in mind, he attended the Faculty of Modern Literature of the [[University of Rome La Sapienza|University of Rome]] from 1958 to 1961, where his film career as an assistant director to Pasolini began.<ref>{{cite web|title=A YOUNG BERTOLUCCI TALKS ABOUT PASOLINI (from "Pasolini l'Enragé")|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0D8nuI1iE| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305132329/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0D8nuI1iE&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=2012-03-05 | url-status=dead|work=YouTube|publisher=Google, Inc|access-date=25 August 2012|author=theblackpaul|date=3 June 2010}}</ref> Shortly after, Bertolucci left the university without graduating. In 1962, at the age of 22, he directed his first feature film, produced by [[Tonino Cervi]] with a screenplay by Pasolini, called ''[[La commare secca]]'' (1962). The film is a murder mystery, following a prostitute's homicide. Bertolucci uses flashbacks to piece together the crime and the person who committed it. The film which shortly followed was his acclaimed ''[[Before the Revolution]]'' (''Prima della rivoluzione'', 1964).

The boom of [[Cinema of Italy|Italian cinema]], which gave Bertolucci his start, slowed in the 1970s as directors were forced to co-produce their films with several of the American, Swedish, French, and German companies and actors due to the effects of the global economic recession on the Italian film industry.

Bertolucci caused controversy in 1972 with the film ''[[Last Tango in Paris]]'', starring [[Marlon Brando]], [[Maria Schneider (actress)|Maria Schneider]], [[Jean-Pierre Léaud]] and [[Massimo Girotti]]. The film presents Brando's character, Paul, as he copes with his wife's suicide by emotionally and physically dominating a young woman, Jeanne (Schneider). The depictions of Schneider, then 19 years old, have been criticized as exploitive. In one scene, Paul anally rapes Jeanne using butter as a lubricant. Bertolucci said use of butter was not in the script; Bertolucci and Brando had discussed it, but they did not tell Schneider. According to Schneider, the rape scene was not in the script at all.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/downhill-ride-for-maria-after-her-tango-with-brando-20060622-gdnt2a.html|title=Downhill ride for Maria after her tango with Brando|date=2006-06-22}}</ref> She said in 2007 that she had cried "real tears" during the scene and had felt humiliated and "a little raped".<ref name=Izadi5Dec2016>Izadi, Elahe (5 December 2016). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/12/05/why-the-last-tango-in-paris-rape-scene-is-generating-such-an-outcry-now/ "Why the 'Last Tango in Paris' rape scene is generating such an outcry now"], ''The Washington Post''.</ref><ref name="Macnab"/><ref name=Summers4Dec2016>Summers, Hannah (4 December 2016). [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/04/actors-disgust-last-tango-paris-rape-scene-confession-bertolucci "Actors voice disgust over Last Tango in Paris rape scene confession"], ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref> In 2013 Bertolucci said that he had withheld the information from Schneider to generate a real "reaction of frustration and rage".<ref name="Macnab">{{cite news|author=Geoffrey Macnab|newspaper= The Guardian|date=1 February 2013|title=Bernardo Bertolucci: 'I thought I couldn't make any more movies'|access-date=16 February 2013|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/feb/01/bernardo-bertolucci-berlusconi-last-tango}}</ref> Brando alleged that Bertolucci had wanted the characters to have real sex, but Brando and Schneider both said it was simulated.<ref name=Izadi5Dec2016/> In 2016 Bertolucci released a statement where he clarified that Schneider had known of the violence to be depicted in the scene, but had not been told about the use of butter.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/05/bernardo-bertolucci-last-tango-in-paris-response-maria-schneider|title=Bernardo Bertolucci: Last Tango controversy is 'ridiculous'|last=Lee|first=Benjamin|date=5 December 2016|work=The Guardian|access-date=2 June 2017|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Following the “media glare” and her fame after the film's release, Schneider became a drug addict and suicidal.<ref>{{cite news|last1=McLellan|first1=Dennis|title=Maria Schneider dies at 58; actress in 'Last Tango in Paris'|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-feb-04-la-me-maria-schneider-20110204-story.html|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=24 March 2015|date=4 February 2011}}</ref> Criminal proceedings were brought against Bertolucci in Italy for obscenity; the film was sequestered by the censorship commission and all copies were ordered destroyed. An Italian court revoked Bertolucci's [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] for five years and gave him a four-month [[Suspended sentence|suspended]] prison sentence.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bernardo Bertolucci |url=http://www.rannakino.ee/en/programm/july-2012.html?id=348 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130213033410/http://www.rannakino.ee/en/programm/july-2012.html?id=348 |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 February 2013 |work=Rannakino |access-date=26 August 2012 |author=Rannakino |year=2012 }}</ref> In 1978 the Appeals Court of [[Bologna, Italy|Bologna]] ordered three copies of the film to be preserved in the national film library with the stipulation that they could not be viewed, until Bertolucci was later able to re-submit it for general distribution with no cuts.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rashkin|first1=Esther|title=Unspeakable Secrets and the Psychoanalysis of Culture|date=2008|publisher=SUNY Press|location=Albany, New York|isbn=978-0791475348|page=224|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EuQmXl2j9cgC&pg=PA223|access-date=24 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/04/last-tango-in-paris-director-says-maria-schneider-butter-scene-not-consensual|title=Last Tango in Paris director suggests Maria Schneider 'butter rape' scene not consensual|first1=Bonnie|last1=Malkin|date=3 December 2016|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-reacts-disgust-outrage-last-tango-paris-directors-resurfaced-rape-scene-confession-95|title=Hollywood Reacts With Disgust, Outrage Over 'Last Tango in Paris' Director's Resurfaced Rape Scene Confession|website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date=3 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2016/film/news/last-tango-in-paris-rape-scene-consensual-bernardo-bertolucci-1201933117/|title='Last Tango in Paris' Rape Scene Was Not Consensual, Director Bernardo Bertolucci Admits|first=Seth|last=Kelley|date=3 December 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Bernardo Bertolucci Hollywood Walk of Fame.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Bertolucci's star on [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]]]]
Bertolucci increased his fame with his next few films, from ''[[1900 (film)|1900]]'' (1976), an epic depiction of the struggles of farmers in [[Emilia-Romagna]] from the beginning of the 20th century up to [[World War II]] with an international cast ([[Robert De Niro]], [[Gérard Depardieu]], [[Donald Sutherland]], [[Sterling Hayden]], [[Burt Lancaster]], [[Dominique Sanda]]) to ''[[La Luna (1979 film)|La Luna]]'', set in [[Rome]] and in [[Emilia-Romagna]], in which Bertolucci deals with the thorny issue of drugs and [[incest]], and finally ''[[Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man|La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo]]'' (1981), with [[Ugo Tognazzi]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man: A Kidnaping as Seen by Bertolucci |last=Canby |first=Vincent |date=12 February 1982 |work=The New York Times |url=http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9505E5DA103BF931A25751C0A964948260}}</ref>

He then wrote two screenplays based on [[Dashiell Hammett]]'s [[Red Harvest]]. He hoped this would be his first film set in America, but nothing came of it.<ref name=guardobit>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/26/bernardo-bertolucci-obituary|title=Bernardo Bertolucci obituary |work=The Guardian|date=26 November 2018|access-date=29 November 2018}}</ref>