Esterno notte: Marco Bellochio’s series screened at Cannes 2022

© FDC / Philippe Savoir

Marco Bellochio had already drawn a fiction from the Moro affair, emblematic of the years of lead, with Buongiorno, note (2004), interpreted by Maya Sansa, Luigi Lo Cascio and Roberto Herlintzka.

Trained at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Milan and at the Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome, Marco Bellocchio made short films from 1961. He became known with the feature film Fists in the pockets (1965). The work, rooted in a pre-68 vision, reveals a filmmaker who is committed and critical of Italian society. The film is rewarded in particular in Venice and Locarno. China is near (1967), FIPRESCI Prize in Venice, is part of a more radical thematic and stylistic approach, in the movement of authors such as Bertolucci or the Taviani brothers. The 1970s were less significant for the filmmaker, who nevertheless received a positive reception with four feature films including In the name of the Father (1972) and The triumphal march (1976). With The leap into the void (1980), Bellocchio deepens the theme of the family which is dear to him. The work won a double interpretation prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Michel Piccoli and Anouk Aimée, and the Donatello for best director. The filmmaker then went through a low period with films that did not inspire critics and did not find their audience, and some of which were selected at Cannes. We can cite Henry IV, the Mad King (1984), The witch (1988), The Prince of Homburg (1997) or Nanny (1999). As for the new version of Devil in body (1986), she deserves better than her sulphurous reputation due to an oral sex scene. The director finds a real creative inspiration with My mother’s smile (2002), Ecumenical Prize with special mention at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. Buongiorno, note (2003) puts it back in the saddle definitively. The film is showered with prizes, notably for its interpreter, Roberto Herlitzka. The wedding director (Un Certain Regard 2006) takes up the theme of the political and religious doubts of an Italy in the midst of a reflective phase, while aiming to be an artistic introspection. As for vincere (2009), it goes beyond the framework of a simple political and historical film to reach the universal. Alternating historical films and societal films, Bellocchio examines euthanasia in The sleeping beauty (2012), before tackling a case of witchcraft in Sango del mio sangue (FIPRESCI Prize in Venice 2015). Marco Bellocchio always keeps hand with Sweet Dreams (Directors’ Fortnight 2016), a story of a childhood trauma that is strikingly subtle and intense. He returns to official Cannes competition with The traitor (2019), an astonishing biopic at the crossroads of the effectiveness of crime fiction on the mafia and a reflection in the tradition of the best Italian political cinema. Marco Bellocchio has won many accolades, in addition to those already mentioned. Among them are a Golden Lion for career (Venice 2011) and an honorary Palme d’or awarded at Cannes in 2021. On this last occasion, Marco Bellocchio presents the documentary Marx can wait.

The television series Esterno note which he is the creator brings together Fabrizio Gifuni (in the role of Aldo Moro), Margherita Buy (his wife Eleonora) and Toni Servillo (Pope Paul VI).