While every acorn is a potential tree, certain conditions are required for its destiny to be fulfilled: finding the right soil, getting sufficient water, assimilating enough light and nourishment.
We think of BernardoBertolucci.org as an acorn, and we like to envision it as the seed of a majestic elm tree. As members of the editorial team, we are the gardeners tending to its magical evolution, and you, users both present and future, are the light and nourishment that will make it grow and reach its full potential. Bernardo’s cinema is similar to a great elm. The branches are his visions, ranging from politics to history, from music to literature, from painting to the contemplation of nature, and the leaves are his films’ individual scenes, as well as all the off-screens and backstage events – a window looking onto the movie set, awaiting for life to be transformed into cinema.
The trunk of this elm tree, source and foundation of Bernardo’s work, is the poetry that supports the entire plant. Today we wish to come together and celebrate the seed, the tree, and everything already within us that lives and breathes in the world of cinema, beyond time.
We would like to end this short note with the transcription of a dialogue between BB and an extra on the set of 1900 (published in its entirety in one of this website’s pages).
What’s a panning shot?
A panning shot is when your eye starts at one point and moves to another. So you start from those horses way out there, panning over the poplars, moving to the river, the house and then these women. With the sound of these women’s voices underneath, singing. And you get to these women, whom you heard singing but didn’t know they were there. The panning shot means providing substance, and always creating a sense of unpredictability about what you’ll see at the end of the shot. You go from one point to another, and you don’t know what will be at the end of this gaze, this long look you’re taking.
So, best wishes and, of course, happy viewing to all. [G.M.]