Before the Revolution (1964) review

Fabrizio (Francesco Barilli), a student from Parma, is having an existential crisis over his bourgeois upbringing and his interest in the Communist Party - he follows the teachings of Cesare (Morando Morandini), a Marxist - and also unsure about his engagement to Clelia (Cristina Pariset); his life gets more complicated for him after his friend Agostino (Allen Midgette) commits suicide and he becomes a little too cozy with his screwy aunt Gina (Adriana Asti).  Bertolucci was only in his early twenties while making this, and he's able to capture that youthful disillusion and confusion many young people face, but the issue is that, at this stage in his career, he's entirely too infatuated with the films of Jean-Luc Godard: the film starts to weaken following a decent opening, with Gina repeatedly going bonkers and the already patchy narrative inexplicably leaping forward in time.  There are some wonderful shots in here - Aldo Scavarda's the DP but the great Vittorio Storaro was one of the camera operators - and though it's made with earnestness, it's all posturing and no gumption (to echo Mr. Zinn: you cannot be neutral on a moving train).  It is correct regarding two of its points, both courtesy of Fabrizio's cinephile pal: (a.) Anna Karina's a powerful symbol of the era and (b.) that Rossellini fellow is a pretty good filmmaker.