Before the Revolution

Bernardo Bertolucci’s beautifully operatic film celebrates the passion and ideology of the 1960s, winner of the Cannes Critics’s Week prize in 1964.

Young, middle-class and idealistic, Fabrizio struggles to break away from his bourgeois background. Bertolucci’s beautifully operatic film, winner of the Cannes Critics’ Week prize in 1964, celebrates the passion and ideology of the 1960s, and is presented here newly restored with a selection of revealing extra features.

Special features

  • Presented in standard definition and high definition (DVD and Blu-ray).
  • Original theatrical trailer.
  • On-set footage (1963, 4 minutes, DVD only): extract from Italian TV series ‘Cinema doggi’ featuring an interview with the young Bertolucci.
  • Interview with Bernardo Bertolucci (Giuseppe Bertolucci, 2003, 46 minutes, DVD only): the director discusses Before the Revolution.
  • Interviews with Roberto Perpignani, Vittorio Storaro and Ennio Morricone (Giuseppe Bertolucci, 2003, 26 minutes, DVD only). 
  • Working Copy (Giuseppe Bertolucci, 2003, 31 minutes, DVD only): comparisons between the working and final versions of the film. 
  • Bernardo Bertolucci in conversation with David Thompson (2011, 12 minutes, DVD only): Q&A recorded at BFI Southbank.

Product information

    • Certificate

      15

    • Colour

      Colour and Black/white

    • Sound

      Sound

    • Languages

      Italian

    • Subtitles

      English (optional)

    • Original aspect ratio

      1.85:1

    • DVD region

      • 2 Europe (except Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus), Middle East, Egypt, Japan, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Greenland, French Overseas departments and territories

    • Blu-ray region

      • B - Includes most European and Middle-Eastern countries, all of Africa, Australia and New Zealand

    • Catalogue number

      BFIB1099

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