Partner
1968 · Italy · 105 min
- Director
- Bernardo Bertolucci
- Screenplay
- Bernardo Bertolucci, Gianni Amico
- Producer
- Bernardo Bertolucci
- Music
- Ennio Morricone
- Editing
- Roberto Perpignani
- Based on
- The Double
What the critics say
91 % Rotten Tomatoes positive reviewsCast
What it is about
A college student leads a routine life until he encounters a man who is his double, though the two are not related. He gradually discovers that this companion has qualities he lacks, and the comparison begins to unsettle his way of being in the world. The film loosely adapts Dostoevsky's story into a modern setting.
How it was made
Bertolucci wrote the screenplay with Gianni Amico, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella The Double (1846), and also served as producer. Ennio Morricone composed the score and Roberto Perpignani edited the film. The cast includes Pierre Clémenti, who plays both Giacobbe I and II, alongside Stefania Sandrelli, Tina Aumont, Ninetto Davoli and Sergio Tofano.
Reception and legacy
Partner was shown at the 29th Venice Film Festival and in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs section at the 22nd Cannes Film Festival. Its US debut was very limited, with only a screening at the 1968 New York Film Festival. The critic Pauline Kael called it an "inventive but bewildering modernization" of The Double.
Stills
Trailer
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Trivia
A nearly invisible US debut
The film had a very limited US release, and its only screening in the country was at the 1968 New York Film Festival.
One actor playing the double
Pierre Clémenti plays both Giacobbe I and Giacobbe II, the two characters who embody the double motif.
More films by Bernardo Bertolucci
The Last Emperor
Last Tango in Paris
1900
The Dreamers
Little Buddha
The ConformistOriginal Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.