Saint Bernardo

Bertolucci's epic of an epoch

Bernardo Bertolucci has an operatic sensibility and a psychopolitical bent. When those instincts merge, as in his famous Last Tango in Paris or his classic The Conformist, the results are thrilling. When they separate out like oil and water, the end product may be 1900 or Luna. Always personal, always beautiful, Bertolucci's movies risk going over the top—which may be why they're exciting. His first movie in six years, The Last Emperor, sounds risky indeed. It is based on the life of Pu Yi (John Lone), who was raised to be the emperor of China but whose career path was interrupted first by the 1912 revolution, which toppled die dynasty in favor of a republic, and then by the 1949 revolution, which installed a Communist regime. Pu Yi, who died in 1967, spent his last years as a gardener. With its epic themes and backdrops, the story could have been written for a contemporary Puccini—which is to say, it seems designed for Bertolucci.

ARTHUR LUBOW