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🇪🇸 Spain /Culture & Society

Susan Sarandon plays Bertolucci’s final mad love

From El País · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Andrea Pallaoro’s “The Echo Chamber,” written from Bernardo Bertolucci’s final screenplay, stars Susan Sarandon, Luca Marinelli and Alicia Vikander in a dark love triangle.
  • The film unfolds inside a London apartment and explores pain, love and dependence through a music producer, a veteran rocker and a nurse.
  • Sarandon recalled her friendship with Bertolucci and said his films, particularly “The Conformist,” influenced her thinking while making the project.

Susan Sarandon’s character in “The Echo Chamber” carries the film’s bruised, creative spirit. In the background, Marianne Faithfull’s rough, late-career voice sings “Crazy Love,” a distant but important detail in Andrea Pallaoro’s Venice entry, built around Bernardo Bertolucci’s final screenplay.

The film takes place entirely in a beautiful London apartment. Luca Marinelli plays an addicted, tormented music producer whose encounters with two women form a mysterious and shadowy triangle. Sarandon plays a seasoned rock musician, while Alicia Vikander plays a nurse whose care opens the way to an obsessive, ghostly love.

Extremely personal

· Bernardo BertolucciThe screenplay was described as a highly personal, final project.

Bertolucci began writing the screenplay in 2017 with Ilaria Bernardini and Ludovica Rampoldi. He described the project as “extremely personal,” a final work from the director of “Novecento.” Its starting point was a couple living in the same house but never meeting. Bertolucci completed the first draft, but his death in November 2018 left the film without a director.

I discovered Bertolucci with The Conformist, and it left me completely stunned because at that time I had no political awareness and such films were not made in the United States.

· Susan SarandonSarandon recalled her first encounter with Bertolucci’s work.

Pallaoro eventually took over. After demonstrating his command of ellipsis and off-screen space in “Hannah,” starring Charlotte Rampling, he brought the dialogue with Bertolucci’s cinema into his own style. The apartment becomes more than a setting. Through doors, mirrors and glass, it moves with the characters through time and loneliness.

Sarandon said she first discovered Bertolucci through “The Conformist,” which left her stunned because she had not yet developed a political consciousness and such films were not made in the United States. She later became close friends with the Italian director after meeting him through Louis Malle. “When we made this film, all of us inside that apartment, trusting so much in the audience’s ability to understand what is not explained, I thought a lot about Bernardo’s films,” she said. “For some reason, I thought again about ‘The Conformist.’”

When we made this film, all of us inside that apartment, trusting so much in the audience’s ability to understand what is not explained, I thought a lot about Bernardo’s films and for some reason I thought again about The Conformist.

· Susan SarandonShe described Bertolucci’s influence during the production of the film.
About this summary

Originally published by El País in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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