Marco Bellocchio
Marco Bellocchio | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 9 November 1939 |
| Occupation(s) | Film director Screenwriter Actor |
| Years active | 1962-present |
Marco Bellocchio (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko belˈlɔkkjo]; born 9 November 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor.
Life and films
Born in Bobbio, near Piacenza, Marco Bellochio had a strict Catholic upbringing - his father was a lawyer, his mother a schoolteacher.[1] He began studying philosophy in Milan but then decided to enter film school, making his first film, Fists in the Pocket, (Pugni in tasca), funded by family members and shot on family property, in 1965. He made a big impact on radical Italian cinema in the mid-sixties, and was a friend of Pasolini. In 1968 he joined the Communist Union, and began to make politically militant cinema. More recently however, in a 2002 interview, he remarked : "I can talk about my personal ideas but Marxism has little to do with it now. Today politics means administration. No party is now proposing a radical change of anything, and radical change is no longer very interesting to me as an artist."[2] He is an atheist.[3]
His films include China is Near (1967), Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina (Slap the Monster on Page One) (1972), Nel Nome del Padre (In the name of the Father - a satire on a Catholic boarding school that shares affinities with Lindsay Anderson's If....) (1972), Victory March (1976), Salto nel Vuoto (1980), Henry IV (1984), Il diavolo in corpo (Devil in the Flesh 1986) and, L'ora di religione (My Mother's Smile, 2002), which told the story of a wealthy Italian artist, a 'default-Marxist and atheist', who suddenly discovers that the Vatican is proposing to make his detested mother a saint.
In 1991, he won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival for his film The Conviction.[4]
In 1995, he directed a documentary about the Red Brigades and the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, entitled Sogni infranti (Broken Dreams). In 2003, he directed a feature film on the same theme, Buongiorno, notte (Good Morning, Night). In 2006 his film The Wedding Director was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.[5] In 2009, he directed Vincere, which was in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He recently finished Sorelle Mai an experimental film that was shot over ten years with the students of six separate workshops playing themselves. He was awarded with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 68th Venice International Film Festival in September 2011.[6]
His upcoming film Dormant Beauty has been selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival.[7]
Activity
At Bobbio, each year, Bellocchio directs the Laboratory "Farecinema" and "Bobbio Film Festival", with performances throughout the summer in the courtyard of Abbey of Saint Columban.
Laboratory "Farecinema – meet the authors" is the brainchild of Maestro Marco Bellocchio who wanted to create in his hometown, Bobbio, a laboratory for teaching the art of film direction. Already the first edition was held, parallel to the laboratory, an evening film festival open to the public with a film club at the end of screenings where people participated representing the film projected. In 2005 becomes the exhibition Festival, taking the name of "Bobbio Film Festival" and Marco Bellocchio establishing the award "The Hunchback of Gold" in reference to symbols of Bobbio, the medieval Ponte Gobbo, which will reward the film judged the best among those proposed. To review films that work as he moved in the cloister of Saint Columban, where traditionally takes the event. In parallel, the laboratory continues Farecinema that will become a film school and acting, and the town of Bobbio and its also become a movie set with the possibility of participation of extras also taken from the street.
Filmography
- Abbasso il zio (1961)
- La colpa e la pena (1961)
- Ginepro fatto uomo (1962)
- I pugni in tasca (1965)
- La Cina è vicina (1967)
- Il popolo calabrese ha rialzato la testa (1969) - co-regia
- Viva il 1º maggio rosso proletario (1969) - co-regia
- Discutiamo, discutiamo, episodio di Amore e rabbia (1969)
- Nel nome del padre (1972)
- Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina (1972)
- Matti da slegare (1975), co-regia con Silvano Agosti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli
- Marcia trionfale (1976)
- Il gabbiano (1977) - Film TV
- La macchina cinema (1979), co-regia con Silvano Agosti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli
- Salto nel vuoto (1980)
- Vacanze in Val Trebbia (1980)
- Gli occhi, la bocca (1982)
- Enrico IV (1984)
- Diavolo in corpo (1986)
- La visione del Sabba (1988)
- La condanna (1991)
- Il sogno della farfalla (1994)
- Sogni infranti (1995) - Film TV
- Il principe di Homburg (1996)
- La religione della storia (1998) - Film TV
- La balia (1999)
- L'affresco (2000)
- Elena (2002)
- Appunti per un film su Zio Vanja (2002)
- Addio del passato (2002)
- L'ora di religione (2002)
- Buongiorno, notte (2003)
- Il regista di matrimoni (2006)
- Sorelle (2006)
- Vincere (2009)
- Sorelle Mai (2010)
- Bella addormentata (2012)
References
- ^ The Independent Review, p.14, 15 November 2002
- ^ Bellocchio, speaking to the journalist Roger Clarke, The Independent Review, 15 November 2002
- ^ Interview to Studiocinema
- ^ "Berlinale: 1991 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Wedding Director". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "Cannes Film Festival to honour jailed Iranian directors". BBC News. 11 May 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
- ^ "Venezia 69". labiennale. Retrieved 26 July 2012.