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had much to teach him, and his resolution not to accept the offer if Bertolucci showed signs
of the same arrogance that he had previously displayed on set. Instead, Storaro found that
Bertolucci had matured greatly, 'having passed through a tunnel, [...] and was ready to start
again, with great courage and humility, with a modest film for television' (Storaro, 2005).
This study has outlined that the second phase of Bertolucci's career continued to
feature several characteristics of art cinema, notably his idiosyncratic use of the camera and
his frequent adoption of elaborate schemes of narration, which includes a self-conscious use
of different genres such as detective movies - with particular reference to noir - and
melodrama. It is as if Bertolucci creates a sort of a dialogue with these genres, revisiting them
and engaging with them but manipulating their established conventions. It has been
illustrated how this strategy generates a notable effect on the viewers' cognitive activity
during the viewing experience. Drawing on Torben Grodal's description of the viewer's
mode of perception, it can be argued that Bertolucci's films create a mode of perception
whose 'source is ambiguous' by creating perspectives belonging 'to intermediary positions'
between 'an exterior hypothetical or real world and an interior mental world" (Grodal, 1997:
158). The perspectives cued by the films sometimes draw negative evaluations from viewers
which, Grodal suggests, form as a result of viewers perceiving the fictive agent as
'unfamiliar' and 'distant' (Grodal, 1997: 158). Another element from the second phase of
Bertolucci's work that positions his films between art cinema and mainstream films that are
centred on cinematic 'spectacle', can be found in the director's increased emphasis on
privileging visually and sensually evocative viewing experiences. This approach is
constructed around a richer visual approach to landscapes, settings and mise-en-scene, on
which the films' affective resonance is centred, rather than on direct, strong viewer
identification with the films' protagonists. In this sense, none of Bertolucci's later films
feature cathartic experiences based on viewers sharing the vicissitudes of characters, and so
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