With everyone and their Mom rushing to 3D including old school dudes like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, for a moment there, it seemed like legendary director Bernardo Bertolucci was going to follow his colleagues over the proverbial cliff. Earlier this spring it was announced the filmmaker was going to be helming his new movie “Io e Te” in the format, marking his first time playing around in three dimensions. But with cameras set to roll soon, Bertolucci has not only made a 180 on that decision, he’s got something to say about 3D as well.
The helmer recently told students at Rome’s CSC film school that 3D is prohibitively “expensive and vulgarly commercial” and that’s not gonna bother with it for this next movie. Fair enough (and that last part is kinda true in a lot of cases), and really, we didn’t see how the application would’ve worked in the story anyway. Based on the book by Niccolo Ammaniti and co-written with the author and Umberto Contarello (”This Must Be The Place”) the story centers on Lorenzo, a 14-year-old boy who tells his parents that he went on a ski trip, only to hide out in the basement to try and help his much older half-sister, Olivia, shak off her addiction to heroin. So yeah, you can see why we were puzzled when 3D was discussed in the first place.
”In a few days we will descend in the basement, and we will re-emerge only around Christmas,” Bertolucci said in a statement as cameras start roll soon on the flick. Unknowns Jacopo Olmo Antinori and Tea Falco will star in the film that marks Bertolucci’s first effort since 2003’s “The Dreamers” and his first Italian language movie in three decades. Could a return to Cannes where he received a lifetime achievement award this spring be in the works? We’re sure Thierry Fremaux has already made a few calls. [Variety]
