Prima Della Rivoluzione (aka Before The Revolution) (1964)

Set in 1962 Parma, a young student (Francesco Barilli) struggles with his commitment to Socialist political ideals and the comfortable bourgeois life he detests but enjoys the privileges of. When his Aunt (Adriana Asti) comes to visit, they begin an affair. Directed by a 22 year old Bernardo Bertolucci (THE CONFORMIST), this was only his second film. It's more a film I can admire from a distance than fully embrace. If Bertolucci's young protagonist can't be decisive then it's understandable that I can be ambivalent too. Curiously, Bertolucci doesn't make anything of the incest in the affair between the aunt and nephew and the casual acceptance of it is off putting (to this bourgeois anyway). I don't mean to denigrate the film because it's an astonishing piece of work on the whole. Aldo Scavarda's masterful B&W imagery is the equal to his stunning cinematography to L'AVVENTURA and there's an impressive sequence at the opera that's a tour de force! I have a feeling that this is a movie that will grow on me over time. With Allen Midgette and Morando Morandini.