Before the Revolution

Made when he was twenty-two, this early effort from director Bernardo Bertolucci (1900, Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor) is a somewhat strained (and sometimes beautifully soaring) political love story. Loosely based on Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma, the film focuses on Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli), an intelligent, middle-class youth who skirts the edges of rebellion by espousing Communist ideology and carrying on an illicit affair with his sensuous aunt Gina (Adriana Asti). The scenes between the two romantic leads are fresh and compelling, but many viewers are liable to bog down under the political speculations by Fabrizio (who, at one point, admits that he talks like a book--although, it's actually more like a political tract). Which is not to say that the film is merely an airy debate on the relative merits of socialism vs. democracy; Before the Revolution has bigger fish to fry than simple ideologies. Ultimately, as viewers discover by the turnaround ending, Bertolucci is more interested in the human heart and soul. As an adjunct to some of Bertolucci more accessible (and better) films, libraries with large foreign collections may want to consider this flawed, but interesting, early effort. (R. Pitman)