Finally, Bertolucci
September 29, 2006

Fans of Bernardo Bertolucci must have gone through the ceiling this week when Paramount announced that it will issue special edition DVDs of the Italian master’s The Conformist (1970) and 1900 (1976) on Dec. 5. Leading the supplements on the discs—both of which reportedly contain the full, unexpurgated versions of the controversial films--are extended featurettes containing new interviews with Bertolucci and legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.

Now, call us vain, but we’d like to think we may have at least sparked some of the interest that lit the fire leading to the digital release of at least one of these two acknowledged cinematic Holy Grails. Check out this excerpt from an interview we did with Bertolucci a couple of years back when he was promoting his film The Dreamers.:

VB: There are a number of your films not on DVD in the States. The Conformist is probably the one that’s most in demand.
Bertolucci: I think it’s outrageous that The Conformist has never been released properly. It belongs, I think, to Paramount, but there are all kinds of legal problems. Every single person I meet when I go to the States asks me ‘Why can’t we buy The Conformist?” Someone in a studio England contacted me to participate on the DVD of a movie by another director and he told me that he hopes to finally get The Conformist out on DVD. We will see.

Posted by on September 29, 2006 | Comments (1)