Editing Bernardo Bertolucci (section)

== Politics and personal beliefs ==
Bertolucci was an [[atheist]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mymovies.it/critica/persone/critica.asp?id=37880&r=3121 |title=Interview to Mymovies |publisher=Mymovies.it |access-date=2 August 2011 |archive-date=20 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220050452/http://www.mymovies.it/critica/persone/critica.asp?id=37880&r=3121 |url-status=dead }}</ref> though he was fascinated by [[Buddhism]].<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Swapnil Dhruv |last=Bose |date=27 March 2024|url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/buddhism-shaped-bernardo-bertolucci/ |title='I need a utopia': how Buddhism shaped Bernardo Bertolucci |magazine=[[Far Out Magazine]] |access-date=25 August 2024}}</ref>

Bertolucci's films are often very political. He was a professed [[Marxist]] and, like [[Luchino Visconti]], who similarly employed many foreign artists during the late 1960s, Bertolucci used his films to express his political views. His political films were preceded by others re-evaluating history. ''[[The Conformist (1970 film)|The Conformist]]'' (1970) criticised [[fascism]], touched upon the relationship between nationhood and nationalism, as well as issues of popular taste and collective memory, all amid an international plot by [[Benito Mussolini]] to assassinate a politically active leftist professor of philosophy in Paris. ''[[1900 (film)|1900]]'' also analyses the struggle of Left and Right.

On 27 September 2009, Bertolucci was one of the signatories of the appeal to the Swiss government to release [[Roman Polanski]], who was being held awaiting extradition to the United States.<ref name="Alt">{{cite web|first=Andre|last=Soares|date=30 September 2009|title=Penelope Cruz, Bernardo Bertolucci, Gael Garcia Bernal Sign Polanski Petition|work=Alt Film Guide|access-date=31 August 2013|url=http://www.altfg.com/blog/politics/penelope-cruz-bertolucci-bernal-polanski-petition}}</ref>

On Twitter on 24 April 2015, Bertolucci participated in #whomademyclothes, Fashion Revolution's anti-[[sweatshop]] campaign commemorating the [[2013 Savar building collapse]], the deadliest accident in the history of the garment industry.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fashion Revolution: who made your clothes?|url=http://www.mindfood.com/article/fashion-revolution-who-made-your-clothes/}}</ref>

Bertolucci advocated the practice of [[Transcendental Meditation]]: "We want to evoke the present and it is difficult to do it all together, we can only meditate, as in transcendental meditation. One of the most powerful experiences. Either you meditate or watch a good movie, then the two things start to touch ... ".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sguardidiconfine.com/bertolucci-addio-sguardo-eclettico-sulla-realta/|title=Bertolucci, addio a uno sguardo eclettico sulla realtà –|date=26 November 2018}}</ref>