CINEMA CLASSICS SEMINAR: THE LAST EMPEROR

$30 for BMFI members, $40 for non-members Saturday, November 7, 2026, 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm Instructor: Maurizio Giammarco, Ph.D., Temple University In the 1980s, when the Chinese government granted Bernardo Bertolucci unprecedented access to the Forbidden City, an entire cinema suddenly became a new frontier for Western viewers. The resulting achievement, The Last Emperor (1987), proved an international hit and multiple Oscar winner, becoming a breakthrough for Chinese images in Western cinema. Unfolding through flashbacks ranging from 1908 to 1967, the film follows the life of Pu Yi, the last monarch of China who ascended the throne at age three, “abdicated” in 1911, collaborated with the Japanese during World War II, and was imprisoned, then rehabilitated by the Chinese Communists during the Cultural Revolution. These turbulent historical moments depict Pu Yi’s struggle to reconcile himself with the masses and with the destiny thrust upon him. Bertolucci’s visual style, characterized by elaborate camera moves that capture the spectacular setting, his meticulous lighting, and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro’s symbolic use of color to reflect the different episodes of Pu Yi’s life demonstrate that The Last Emperor is a film that balances the scope of a David Lean epic with the intimacy of a Yasujirō Ozu drama. In doing so, it reveals the story of a man who embodied the contradictions and paradoxes of 20th-century China.