Marco Bellocchio was born on the 9th November 1939 in Bobbio. He is a movie director, screenwriter, movie-producer and a teacher of Italian language.
Childhood and school
Since he was a kid, when he was studying at the Salesian school, he was showing a vivid interest to the Cinema and an irreverence to the clerical canons; for these attitudes he was considered a rebel.
In 1959 he attended the “Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia di Roma” and he won a scholarship for the School of Fine Arts in London.
His first cinematography attemps were the documentary Abbasso il zio (1961) and the short movies La colpa e la pena (1961) and the Ginepro fatto uomo (1962).
The debut
He got his debut when he was twenty-seven years old with I pugni in tasca, shot in Bobbio. This is the movie which brought him to the success, winning the Vela d’Argento Award in 1965.
It burst onto the Italian movie scene with its complexity and its powerful presentation way. Whereas, his second movie La Cina è vicina ( 1967) was more focused on a politician view of the society.
Discutiamo discutiamo, an episode of the group movie Amore e rabbia (1969, signed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Carlo Lizzani, Jean-Luc Godard and Bernardo Bertolucci too) and Paola (1969) about the taking-over of houses by some activists of a city in Calabria region, during the ’68.
Always in 1969, he debuted for the first time in theater production with Timone d’Atene by w. Shakespeare for the Piccolo Teatro in Milan.
The Career
In Nel nome del padre movie (1972), focused mainly on his child memory when he was attending the boarding school, it represents an important step in his career for the analysis of the authority in the society. In 1975 Bellocchio created, with Silvano Agosti, Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli, a documentary of a strong intensity about the experience into the Psichiatric Hospital of Colorno in Parma. The documentary was shot in 16mm and titled Nessuno o tutti. It was transformed to 35mm, the normal version for the cinematography circuit with another title Matti da slegare, which received the award FIPRESCI award and the OCIC award by the Berlin Festival.
Marcia Trionfale (1976) was exploring the world of the army bases, showing the real military life, its routine and repetition, its emptyness through the authority presence.
Through Diavolo in corpo (1986), movie inspired to the romance R. Radiguet, Bellocchio talks about his personal life change, through the help of the psychoanalyst Massimo Fagioli. This movie opened a trilogy about the female figure, which was followed by La Visione del sabba (1988) and later by La condanna, which won a special Award of Berlinale in 1991, the movie was inspired by a new item, the case of Popi Saracino.
Through the movie Il sogno della farfalla (1994), he managed to talk about complex topics. For example he deals with the human language- the main character of the movie doesn’t want to speak, as a voluntary choice. He decides to communicate only through the words and the theatrical texts on the stage, he conceived the communication as a real need of the human being.
Even in his following movie Il principe di Homburg (1997) from the tragedy of H. von Kleist, Bellocchio shows the double dimensions reality/dream, rules/rule-breaking through an interesting and complex movies-making between the zoom on images and a forced cross fading using.
In 1999 Bellocchio managed to fit in Luigi Pirandello to the big screen with La balia.
In 2002 he was the director of L’ora di religione with Sergio Castellitto, with whom he won the Nastro d’Argento Award.
The year after (2003) Bellocchio worked on the prison time of Aldo Moro in Buongiorno, notte, movie with Maya Sansa and Roberto Herlitzka as main characters. In 2006, Bellocchio directed Il regista di matrimoni with Castellitto. 2009 is the year of Vincere. The movie is telling about the trouble life of Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), lover of Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi) and mother of his son Benito Albino (still Filippo Timi); she was considered mad for her continuous attempts to make his son acknowledged by his father. The movie won Efebo d’Oro Award and the David of Donatello as the best director.
On the 4th and the 5th 2010 Bellocchio led live television the Opera Rigoletto in Mantova, interpreted by Plácido Domingo, RAI production and it was broadcast worldview in 148 countries.
At the 68th edition of the Venice international Film Festival, Bellocchio received the Award Leono d’oro per la carriera by Bernardo Bertolucci in person.
The movie Sorelle mai, which was created during the summer cinema workshops in Bobbio, was shown to the Venice international Film Festival in 2010. It represents, actually, the development of Sorelle, a feature film, which was presented at the Rome Festival in 2006. The main characters of the story are the real sisters of Bellocchio, Maria Luisa and Letizia and their sons Elena and Pier Giorgio.
Bellocchio was deeply affected by the news story of Eluana Englaro, he actually started to shot during Juanary 2012.
The movie was presented in preview at the Venice Festival in 2012. titled Bella addormentata, Bellocchio received the Award Premio Mario Monicelli for the best director of the best movie in 2013 at the BIf&st.
Between 2013 and 2014, Bellocchio started to work on a movie shot in Bobbio.
This movie was titled Sangue del mio sangue, starring Roberto Herlitzka, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Filippo Timi, Alba Rohrwacher.
Successively Fai bei Sogni , movie starring Valerio Mastrandrea, Bérénice Bejo and Miriam Leone, was based on the book written by Massimo Gramellini, it was presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs of Cannes Festival in 2016. In 2019 Il traditore was presented, the movie focus on Tommaso Buscetta, his story as a mafioso and pentito, played by the actor Pierfrancesco Favino.
The movie was awarded with 7 Nastri d’ Argento awards and 6 David di Donatello awards ( with a special mention as the best movie director and the best movie).
The training offered to young people
In 1995 Bellocchio decided to create a educational project titled “fare cinema- incontro con gli autori”. Actually it was mainly a workshop focus on teaching the movie directing to young people. The workshop was combined with a movie festival in the evenings, open to the public, enriched by conversations with directors, actors and authors.
Bobbio became a cinematographic set. The movie festival grew during the years, becoming well known and in 2015 titled “Bobbio Film Festival“.
In 2010 Marco Bellocchio with his son Pier Giorgio and Paola Pedrazzini make up the Marco Bellocchio Association, with the aim to offer new ideas and new inspiration to Fare Cinema project. Through the association the project became more complete and powerful; in this way the entire project was joined by a movie directing course and a residential workshop about cinematographic critics.
In 2017 the Fondazione Fare Cinema was officially established in Rome. It’s a real advanced cinematographic training center, which is able to offer every year a wide program of courses (direction, production and screenwriting…). These special courses are able to involve not only professors but even directors, screenwriters, authors and high professional figures.
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)
Discutiamo, discutiamo, episodio di Amore e rabbia (1969)
Paola (1969)
Nel nome del padre (1972)
Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina (1972)
Marcia trionfale (1976)
Il gabbiano (1977)
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)
Il principe di Homburg (1997)
La balia (1999)
L’ora di religione (2002)
Buongiorno, notte (2003)
Il regista di matrimoni (2006)
Sorelle (2006)
Vincere (2009)
Sorelle Mai (2010)
Bella addormentata (2012)
Sangue del mio sangue (2015)
Fai bei sogni (2016)
Il traditore (2019)
Esterno notte (2022)
Documentaries
Il popolo calabrese ha rialzato la testa (1969) – co-direction
Viva il 1º maggio rosso proletario (1969) – co-direction
Matti da slegare (1975), co-direction with Silvano Agosti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli
La macchina cinema (1979), co-direction with Silvano Agosti, Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli
Addio del passato (2002)
La primavera del 2002 – L’Italia protesta, l’Italia si ferma collective documentary (2002)
Appunti per un film su Zio Vania (2002)
Marx può aspettare (2021)
Broadcasting
Il gabbiano (1977) – Film TV
Sogni infranti (1995) – Film TV
La religione della storia (1998)
Rigoletto a Mantova (2010) – Opera TV
Francesco d’Assisi di Liliana Cavani (1966)
Theater
Il timone d’Atene (1969)
Macbeth (2000)
Andrea Chénier (2017)
