The entire history of cinema revolves around the invention of the camera and the continuous exploration of the potential that this simple and miraculous machine hides. Bernardo Bertolucci has made great strides in this research – and fascinates to discover how his encounter with the seventh art occurred.

“As a child I wanted to be a poet” – says the director– “and soon I began writing poetry. Of course I did it out of a spirit of pure emulation; most likely, if my father had been a carpenter, I would have started planing wood.”

Attilio Bertolucci, Bernardo’s father, was a prominent figure in the twentieth-century poetic scene, but also a respected film critic. Perhaps it is to this second activity of his father that Bernardo owes his youthful passion for cinema. In 1962, a few days after winning the Viareggio Prize for poetry with “In Search of Mystery”, he made his directorial debut in Venice with “La commare secca”, based on a story by Pier Paolo Pasolini – the family friend who the year before had wanted him as an assistant on the set of “Accattone”.

From that moment, a metamorphosis: the poet becomes a filmmaker. “Before the Revolution” (1964), “The Conformist” (1970), “Last Tango in Paris” (1972), “Twentieth Century” (1976), “The Last Emperor” (1987) – nine Oscars and worldwide recognition. The only Italian director to win an Oscar for Best Director, Bertolucci has successfully combined poetry and great cinema, psychological introspection and historical fresco, intimacy and epic grandeur.

In this documentary, featuring testimonies from Vittorio Storaro –the cinematographer who “wrote almost all his masterpieces with light”–, Adriana Asti, Laura Betti, Sergio Citti, Massimo Girotti, his brother Giuseppe, and his father Attilio, Donatella Baglivo recounts the metamorphosis of a poet who transformed cinema into visual poetry.

Trailer