Berlinguer, I Love You

Berlinguer ti voglio bene (internationally released as Berlinguer, I Love You) is a 1977 Italian comedy film written and directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci. It is the debut film for both Bertolucci and Roberto Benigni.

Berlinguer, I Love You
Directed byGiuseppe Bertolucci
Written byGiuseppe Bertolucci
Roberto Benigni
Produced byGianni Minervini
Antonio Avati
StarringRoberto Benigni
Alida Valli
Carlo Monni
CinematographyRenato Tafuri
Edited byGabriella Cristiani
Music byPier Luigi Farri
Distributed byEuro International Film
Release date
  • 6 October 1977 (1977-10-06)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian

It is based on the stage play Cioni Mario di Gaspare fu Giulia, which Bertolucci wrote and directed in 1975 and in which Benigni played the character of Mario Cioni, a character he later resumed in the television mini-series Onda libera.[1][2] The title quotes Cioni's declaration of love for Enrico Berlinguer, then leader of the Italian Communist Party.

Plot

Mario is a man of the underclass of Tuscany, who works as a construction worker. His friends make jokes of him, but Mario is indifferent, living in the myth of Enrico Berlinguer. Mario has an Oedipus complex and is very attached to his mother. When he loses a game of poker with a friend, he tells Mario that the penalty is that he must have sex with his own mother. Mario is disgusted, but gradually he falls in love with his mother. However, she rejects him and prefers to go to bed with the friend who made the cruel bet with Mario. Mario finds his friend is now his stepfather.

Cast

References
  1. Eva Marinai; Sara Poeta; Igor Vazzaz. Comicità negli anni Settanta. ETS, 2005.
  2. Franco Montini. Una Generazione in cinema: esordi ed esordienti italiani, 1975–1988. Marsilio, 1988.


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