Attilio Bertolucci (18 November 1911 – 14 June 2000)[1] was an Italian poet and writer. He was the father of film directors
Bernardo and
Giuseppe Bertolucci.
He began to write poems very early. In 1928 he collaborated with the Gazzetta di Parma, where his friend
Cesare Zavattini was editor-in-chief. The following year Bertolucci published his first poetical collection, Sirio.
In 1931 he started studying law at the
University of Parma, which however he left soon afterwards in favour of artistic and literary studies. In the following year his work Fuochi di Novembre gained him the praise of Italian poets such as
Eugenio Montale.
In 1951 he moved to
Rome. His marriage to Ninetta Giovanardi had given him two sons,
Bernardo (1941–2018) and
Giuseppe (1947–2012), both future film directors. In 1951 he also published La capanna indiana and won the
Viareggio Prize for literature. In this period he cemented a friendship with
Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Viaggio d'inverno ("Winter Voyage") of
1971 is one of Bertolucci's finest works. This work saw a noteworthy change of style in Bertolucci's poetry: while the first works were, according to
Franco Fortini, characterized by "the choice of a humble language for pastoral situations", Viaggio d'inverno was more complex and was marked by an unsureness of feelings. From 1975, together with
Enzo Siciliano and
Alberto Moravia, he directed the literary review Nuovi Argomenti. He won another Viareggio Prize for the narrative poem Camera da letto (1984–1988).
His last work was La lucertola di Casarola (1997), a collection of works from his youth and other unpublished poems.