As if things weren’t exciting enough, last night I was privileged to have been in the audience to see director Marco Bellocchio receive il Leone d’Oro, the Lifetime Achievement Award, from Bernardo Bertolucci. Bertolucci, in a wheelchair and looking a little frail, won the award in 2007.
Bellocchio, 72, made his directorial debut in 1965 with I Pugni in Tasca (Fists in the Pocket, a film that he made partially with his own money and that he staged earlier this year in Rome – I was there to see that, too, if you remember.
A new version of Bellocchio’s classic film Nel Nome del Padre (In the Name of the Father, 1971) was screened following the awards ceremony, and I sat farther back in the theater than I prefer, but right in front of Bellocchio and his family and friends. In the middle of the ceremony a group in the audience held up t-shirts that said, “Sorelle Mai, Amici per Sempre” (Sisters Never, Friends forever). “Sorelle Mai” is one of Bellocchio’s films.
I Love Italian Everything 