An exhibition in Parma celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bernardo Bertolucci's film Novecento

The exhibition Bernardo Bertolucci. The Twentieth Century, running from March 27 to July 26, 2026 at the Palazzo del Governatore in Parma, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bernardo Bertolucci’s film Novecento. First presented on May 21, 1976 at the 29th Cannes Film Festival and released in theaters starting in September of that year, the film was recognized as a contemporary classic. It is one of the most discussed and celebrated works of the 1970s, both in Italy and internationally: in fact, it aroused controversy, debate and conflicting interpretations from the very beginning.

The exhibition itinerary unfolds through twenty-five rooms organized into four major thematic sections. The first section, dedicated to context, reconstructs the cultural climate of the 1970s and the link between Emilia and the Bertolucci family. Original posters, first editions of books and historical records, photographs, newspapers and posters dialogue with more personal and private materials related to the family and their homeland. The second section is devoted to the filming of the film and features never-before-seen videos, props and maps illustrating the life of the crew during the year the film was made. Prominent among the episodes re-enacted is the famous “900 vs. Salò” soccer match. The third section delves into the film itself, through an original comparison between the language of film and important works of art. Paintings and installations dialogue with the narrative of the film to highlight one of the most significant aspects of Bertolucci’s poetics: the “spiral” interweaving of cyclical time and linear time that structures the story. Finally, the reception section recounts the film’s great cultural impact. It opens with a kind of pictorial triumph marked by the symbolic presence of red flags and continues with a reconstruction of the lively international critical debate that, over the years, accompanied the release and fortune of the work.

The exhibition accompanies the public in discovering the genesis of the film and its artistic legacy through numerous never-before-seen materials. In fact, for the first time, the archives are opened, from which come hundreds of never-before-exhibited photographs, working materials and period accounts. Also presented are pictorial masterpieces by Lucio Fontana, Mario Schifano, Franco Mulas, Renato Guttuso, Salvo, Franco Angeli, Giulio Turcato and Alighiero Boetti, symbolically brought together in a single room to evoke the red flag of the film’s final scene.

The exhibition is promoted by the City of Parma and the Bernardo Bertolucci Foundation, curated by Gabriele Pedullà and the Electa publishing house, with the collaboration of the Emilia-Romagna Region and the support of Iren, Smeg and Barilla.

The program of initiatives that will accompany the exhibition, conceived and organized by Fondamenta, the publishing house’s Foundation for Arts and Culture, is supported by Fondazione Cariparma. In addition, on the occasion of the exhibition, Fondazione Cariparma is supporting the Bernardo Bertolucci Foundation on a three-year development path through the Sostegno Resistente call. The exhibition is also a tribute to the territory of Parma and its genius loci, linked to the Bertolucci family: Attilio, the poet father, and his sons Giuseppe and Bernardo. At the same time, it aims to offer an opportunity to reflect on the 20th century as a historical and cultural century, marked by the confrontation between socialism, fascism and the Resistance, as well as by the dream of a different future that animated Bertolucci’s generation and the long Sixty-eight. It is also the era in which peasant civilization, rooted for millennia, comes to an end in the West between the 1960s and 1970s.

The exhibition catalog, published by Electa and edited by Gabriele Pedullà, brings together contributions from historians, writers, poets, philosophers and filmmakers to recount the film and its first fifty years.

Novecento, one of the longest films in the history of cinema with its 317 minutes in the original version, tells half a century of Italian history through the parallel stories of Olmo Dalcò and Alfredo Berlinghieri. The two protagonists are both born in 1900 in the same court in the Bassa Padana, one the son of sharecroppers and the other the heir of landowners, and their lives intertwine until April 25, 1945, Liberation Day. The international cast that takes part in the film is extraordinary: performers include Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Alida Valli, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Burt Lancaster, Donald Sutherland, Laura Betti, Stefania Casini and Sterling Hayden.

To mark the opening of the exhibition, on March 27 at 5 p.m., the Teatro Regio in Parma will host the fully restored screening of Novecento, in the presence of actress Dominique Sanda. The event, organized by the Bernardo Bertolucci Foundation and the City of Parma in collaboration with Electa, will be free admission subject to availability. Partner in the initiative is the Cineteca di Bologna.

An exhibition in Parma celebrates the 50th anniversary of Bernardo Bertolucci's film Novecento

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