Before the Revolution
- Director Bernardo Bertolucci
- Product Code: NA-P89-8059-DRA-LT
- Reward Points: 1
- Availability: In Stock
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Tags: Before the Revolution, Prima della rivoluzione, Bernardo Bertolucci, Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette, Morando Morandini, Cristina Pariset, Cecrope Barilli, Evelina Alpi, Gianni Amico, Goliardo Padova, Guido Fanti, Enrico Salvatore, Amelia Bordi, Domenico Alpi, Iole Lunardi, Antonio Maghenzani, Ida Pellegri, Ennio Morricone, Aldo Scavarda, Roberto Perpignani, Italy, Parma, Emilia-Romagna, 1964 film, Italian drama, romance, romantic drama, political film, Marxism, communism, socialism, revolution, bourgeoisie, social class, class conflict, class consciousness, conformity, youth rebellion, political idealism, ideological conflict, existential crisis, sentimental education, political education, coming of age, forbidden love, forbidden relationship, aunt and nephew, desire, sexuality, family, marriage, death, possible suicide, friendship, guilt, identity, moral conflict, Italian society, modern Italian cinema, European modernist cinema, art cinema, auteur cinema, experimental cinema, Nouvelle Vague influence, French New Wave, post-neorealism, cinematic modernism, Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma, literature and cinema, opera in cinema, cinema and politics, reflective films, philosophical films, melancholic films, sensual films, Italian classics, European classics, Bernardo Bertolucci films
In early-1960s Parma, Fabrizio is a young man born into a prosperous bourgeois family yet increasingly alienated from the class into which he is expected to settle. Drawn to Marxist thought and guided by his teacher and political mentor Cesare, he attempts to reject the values of his upbringing and distances himself from Clelia, the respectable young woman associated with his predetermined future. The death of his troubled friend Agostino, possibly by suicide, turns Fabrizio's ideological dissatisfaction into a more intimate crisis of grief, guilt and uncertainty.
His emotional instability deepens with the arrival of Gina, his sophisticated young aunt from Milan, who has herself been struggling with depression. Their immediate intimacy develops into a secret and forbidden affair. Gina's volatility and Fabrizio's idealism make the relationship both passionate and fragile, exposing the contradiction at the centre of his rebellion: he wants to escape bourgeois convention, yet remains psychologically and socially bound to the very world he condemns. Political conviction, sexual desire and family identity become inseparable parts of the same struggle.
After the relationship with Gina collapses, Fabrizio returns to political discussion with Cesare and confronts the widening distance between revolutionary aspiration and everyday reality. Rather than emerging as a triumphant rebel, he gradually recognises the limits of his own commitment. Before the Revolution follows this political and sentimental education towards a painful accommodation with class, family and convention, transforming one young man's crisis into a portrait of a generation caught between the desire for historical change and the gravitational pull of inherited life.
| Work Record | |
| Original Title | Prima della rivoluzione |
| Title | Before the Revolution |
| Year | 1964 |
| Direction | Bernardo Bertolucci |
| Countries of origin | Italy |
| Gender | Drama, Romance |
| Colors | Black and white and colour |
| Cast | Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette, Morando Morandini, Cristina Pariset, Cecrope Barilli, Evelina Alpi, Gianni Amico, Goliardo Padova, Guido Fanti, Enrico Salvatore, Amelia Bordi, Domenico Alpi, Iole Lunardi, Antonio Maghenzani, Ida Pellegri |
| Producer | Bernardo Bertolucci |
| Duration | 112 Min. |
| Original Language | Italian |
| Color Format | Black and white with colour sequences |
| Composer | Ennio Morricone |
| Cinematography | Aldo Scavarda |
| Editing | Roberto Perpignani |
| Based on | Inspired by The Charterhouse of Parma, by Stendhal |
| Tagline | Italy... is the place where they've made an art of everything – especially love! |
| Screenplay | Bernardo Bertolucci, Gianni Amico |
| Edition Record | |
| Subtitle | Chinese, English, French, Greek, Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian |
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