Known as one of the giants of Italian cinema, Bertolucci's films won numerous international film prizes over the years, with "The Last Emperor" picking up nine Oscars.
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Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci has died after a long illness, Italian media reported on Monday.
His publicist, Flavia Schiavi, told Variety magazine that the director passed away at his home in Rome at 7 a.m. local time (600 UTC) from cancer.
Famous for films like "Last Tango in Paris" and "The Sky over the Desert," Bertolucci had won numerous prizes at film festivals around the world, including the Venice Film Festival and Cannes.
His 1987 film "The Last Emperor" was awarded nine Oscars, including for best director and best adapted screenplay.
Bertolucci was considered one of the last living giants of Italian cinema.
Marlon Brando starred in 'Last Tango in Paris'Image: picture-alliance/Keystone
Born in 1941 in Parma, central Italy, he was a close friend of Italy's most renowned intellectuals of the 20th century, like writer and director Pier Paolo Pasolini and writer Dacia Maraini.
For his controversial 1972 movie "Last Tango in Paris," starring Maria Schneider and Marlon Brando, he was sentenced to four months in jail for obscenity, but was also awarded an Italian Silver Ribbon award and was nominated for an Oscar.
The debate surrounding "Last Tango in Paris," continued for Bertolucci well after the fact. Years later, Schneider said that he and Brando had lied to her about the inclusion and production of a violent rape scene, surprising her with it to get a more genuine reaction. She confessed to being traumatized by the event. After she died in 2011, Bertolucci confirmed Schneider's story. He also courted controversy with his professed support for Roman Polanski.
Bertolucci: Doyen of film history
While he couldn't be called overly prolific, Bernardo Bertolucci has very much gone down in film history. His works are sensual and overwhelming - some even show "delusions of grandeur." The celebrated director turns 75.
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Royal themes
He loves complicated tales and spares no taboo - and his films are, as such, both poetic and monumental. Amongst his greatest successes was "The Last Emperor," a film about the life of China's Pu Yi - who was called to take the imperial throne when he was just three years of age. The impressive drama won nine Oscars, two of which were awarded to Bertolucci.
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Father figures and role models
His love of film and literature is largely down to three men: his father, a respected literary and film critic, his neighbor, the famous filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, and the director Jean-Luc Godard. Each would have a profound influence over the young Bertolucci. This picture shows the three men (left to right) in 1969, at a meeting for the movie "Amore e rabbia."
Image: Reporters Associati – Roma
World fame with erotic drama
A grieving old man has lustful, but emotionless sex with a young casual acquaintance - 1972's "Last Tango in Paris," starring Marlon Brando, would bring the director great acclaim and fame. In the US, the scandalous film was a box office hit. In Italy, however, Bertolucci and Brando were convicted of "obscenity" and sentenced to two months imprisonment on probation.
Grand vision
A half-century Italian history in five hours - on the release of "1900", critics berated the director as having "delusions of grandeur." Starring Robert de Niro, Burt Lancaster und Gerárd Depardieu, Bertolucci's 1974 cinema epic tells of the struggle between landowners and peasants in the Emila-Romagna. The film was a "monument to communism", the director later said somewhat mischievously.
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From cult to popular
In the 1980s and '90s, Bertolucci transformed from an elitist filmmaker into a certified successful international director. His disillusionment with the political situation in Italy led the avowed Marxist - also fascinated with Buddhism - in search of other cultures. The result was "The Last Emperor" (1987) - the first western film production ever filmed in the Forbidden City.
Fascination with foreign cultures
The film "The Sheltering Sky" (1990) led Bertolucci to Morocco and the Sahara. Hollywood stars Debra Winger und John Malkovich play a couple wanting to 'find' one another again - but the story quickly spirals into tragedy. The film adaptation of the novel by Paul Bowles is held up by critics today as a "sensual and overwhelming" masterwork.
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Big man, little audience
One of his most exotic productions is the 1993 film "Little Buddha." His first film which moves away from his usual themes of political conflict, psychology or sexuality, Bertolucci wanted to endear this work to people of all ages. After "Little Buddha," Bertolucci would only make four more films, none of which proved a significant global success.
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Oscars, stars and palm trees
Throughout his career, Bertolucci received numerous awards, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, the Golden Lion in Venice, the Palme d'Or in Cannes and the European Film Award. Hollywood also paid its dues, issuing him a star on its notorious "Walk of Fame." Although he remains active, following a fall in 2003 the director has been confined to a wheelchair.
