Before the Revolution (1964)

Following the death of his friend, an Italian youth grows increasingly closer to his young aunt.

Director:

Bernardo Bertolucci

Writers:

Bernardo Bertolucci (story and screenplay), Gianni Amico (screenplay collaborator)

Stars:

Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Adriana Asti	...	Gina
Francesco Barilli	...	Fabrizio
Allen Midgette	...	Agostino
Morando Morandini	...	Cesare
Cristina Pariset	...	Clelia
Cecrope Barilli	...	Puck
Evelina Alpi	...	The little girl
Gianni Amico	...	A friend
Goliardo Padova	...	The painter
Guido Fanti	...	Enore
Enrico Salvatore	...	The priest
Amelia Bordi	...	The mother
Domenico Alpi	...	The father
Iole Lunardi	...	The grandmother
Antonio Maghenzani	...	The brother

Storyline

The study of a youth on the edge of adulthood and his aunt, ten years older. Fabrizio is passionate, idealistic, influenced by Cesare, a teacher and Marxist, engaged to the lovely but bourgeois Clelia, and stung by the drowning of his mercurial friend Agostino, a possible suicide. Gina is herself a bundle of nervous energy, alternately sweet, seductive, poetic, distracted, and unhinged. They begin a love affair after Agostino's funeral, then Gina confuses Fabrizio by sleeping with a stranger. Their visits to Cesare and then to Puck, one of Gina's older friends, a landowner losing his land, dramatize contrasting images of Italy's future. Their own futures are bleak.

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Plot Keywords:

suicide | italy | wedding | nonlinear timeline | cult director | 

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Taglines:

Italy...is the place where they've made an art of everything - especially love!

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

10 September 1965 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Before the Revolution

Filming Locations:

Palazzo della Pilotta, Parma, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cineriz,Iride Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

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Quotes

A friend: Remember, Fabrizio: one can't live without Rossellini.

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Connections

Featured in Great Directors (2009)

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Soundtracks

Gina
Written and Performed by Gato Barbieri (as Leandro Gato Barbieri)
e registrati su dischi RCA.

User Reviews

I think this is the kind of movie you either love or hate

I was somewhat reluctant about this film. I felt that I would be disappointed cause The Sheltering Sky (by Bertolucci) is one of my favorite movies. I though that I could never like another film by him. I was wrong. Above all, they are very different films, so let's forget one of them.

I remember when I first saw Fellini's 8 ½, and realizing that one of the reasons I loved it so much was the camera work and especially what you could call as the "relative motion between objects": the way the moon always stays in the same place as the trees pass by when you drive at night. Prima della Revoluzione is rich of beautiful camera work. Bertolucci tried it all, being so young. There are smooth movements like a ballet and stressful agitated shots. I felt humbled and privileged as I saw this film. Apart from more technical aspects, the movie interested me because of the abstract, strange and poetic love story between Gina and young idealist, Fabrizio. It's hard to say if it is love, why it is or not love… Here and there you will find beautiful monologues… I think this will touch everyone who has ever wanted to change the world… even if you have already forgotten those feelings.