AgonyMade by a long-term assistant to the director, this peripatetic documentary accompanies Bertolucci as he retraces his steps from the Po Valley countryside where he was raised to the apartment on Rue Jules Verne used in Last Tango in Paris. The director encounters familiar actors along the way - among them, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Gérard Depardieu - before embarking on travels to China in the early pre-production phase for The Last Emperor.
Screens with Agony (Agonia) (28 mins, France, 1969, Italian with English subtitles), Bertolucci's contribution to the omnibus film, Love and Anger (Amore e rabbia) that also included episodes directed by Pasolini, Godard and Marco Bellocchio.
Agony is an intriguing collaboration with theatre director Julian Beck and his avant-garde Living Theatre. A dying man's memories and regrets are externalised in the form of a theatrical happening enacted by Beck's troupe of actors.
