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comprehensible why a nation that developed one of the most significant modes of film-
making - Neorealism - and which was still anchored to mimetic forms of representation, had
difficulty embracing the Nouvelle Vague''s innovations. During that period of his career, the
disillusionment caused by this rejection affected Bertolucci's artistic self-confidence. Talking
about the failure of Partner, he asserted: "This film caused me a tremendous psychological
trauma, because nobody, almost nobody, accepted it' (Bachmann, 1973: 96).
The second factor prompting him to re-evaluate his work was that both films also
received a negative response for their thematic content. This reaction was caused by the
sensitivity of intellectuals connected to the PCI (Italian Communist Party) regarding internal
dissent, since the two films exposed a lack of, and a need for, collective action. The
combination of these factors, resulting in the excruciating experience of getting no funding
for his projects, drove Bertolucci to distance himself from avant-garde cinema and to develop
a disapproval of the PCI's hypocritical attitude towards dissent. While the political content
within Bertolucci's films only constitutes a tangential element within this study, occasionally
illuminating choices of themes and style in the film-maker's work, his search for an artistic
identity will be traced in his growing interest for certain genres and styles, and their adroit
incorporation in his personal cinematic discourse will be closely examined.
Although aware of the problematic connotations that the issue of authorial 'control* of
films has assumed in recent times, particularly in an age in which projects are shaped by
transnational funding arrangements and by the input of high profile technicians, designers
and composers, this study is centred on an auteurist discourse. This approach is based
primarily on the empirical evidence contained throughout Bertolucci's output but also on his
assessments of his predominant position in every phase of a film's development. Talking
about the creative limits that he imposes on his collaborators, even those of the calibre of
Vittorio Storaro as director of photography, Bertolucci has affirmed: 'I am very jealous of my
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