In this mysterious and magnificent small documentary – hardly ever seen or distributed – we enter the creative workshop of one of the greatest 20th-century directors. It is April 1968 and Bernardo Bertolucci is shooting Partner. We see him doing takes, retakes, discussing and giving directions. With him are the director of photography Ugo Piccone, as well as actors Pierre Clémenti, Tina Aumont, Ninetto Davoli… We can see that cinema for Bertolucci is constant exploration and self-exploration. He answers the questions of an interviewer who uses cue cards. In short, he doesn’t know what this film is and mostly helps it come to life on the spot. He’s filming it as if it were his last. The sequence shot is very important, the editing seems to trivialise it. As for the moral of the story: one plus one does not equal two. And the poets? Individualists, and individualists until the very end. Conclusion: we need a Molotov cocktail.

Andrea Meneghelli