At Home With Bernardo Bertolucci

Directors Carlo Lavagna and Roberto de Paolis traveled to Bernardo Bertolucci's home in Rome's bohemian Trastevere district to discuss the meaning of cinema and the irrepressible film legend's Avatar ambitions. The auteur was awarded an honorary Palme d’Or by jury head Robert De Niro at the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival this year, in recognition of the director's illustrious five-decade career, marked by such classics as Last Tango in Paris and the Academy Award–winning The Last Emperor. “Bertolucci has been in competition several times at Cannes and never won,” says Lavagna. “This makes up for that lack.” After an eight-year hiatus due to health difficulties, the 70-year-old is casting a new 3D film based on Italian author Niccolò Ammaniti’s coming-of-age tale Io e Te, with a set rumored to be in construction at Rome’s Cinecittà. The story follows a teenager who pretends to leave home on a ski trip, but instead hides out in his family’s basement. “Bertolucci is still so passionate about film, at the beginning of a project he's like a little kid entering a playground,” says De Paolis. “He’s proud to be back on the scene.”