Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor": Multiple Takes

The collection begins with the filmmaker's perspective. In "Take One", an interview with Bertolucci discusses the potential of psychoanalysis to transgress social order which Bertolucci explores in The Last Emperor; cinematographer Vittorio Storaro's essay on the photographic conception of The Last Emperor offers a glimpse of the creative impulse at work; and a chapter from Fabien S. Gerard's shooting diary records the excitement and tedium on the set of The Last Emperor.

Analyzing the character and psycho-pathology of Aisingioro Pu Yi as Bertolucci represented him, clinicians Bruce H. Sklarew, Estelle Shane, and Morton Shane explore the relationship between psychoanalytic theory and art criticism in "Take Two". Diane Borden and Bonnie S. Kaufman look at the use of psychoanalysis and the formal aspects of film-making, such as images, camera shots, and framing in The Last Emperor.

In "Take Three", Fatimah Tobing Rony investigates Bertolucci's representation of Eastern culture from what she argues is a Euro-phallocentric position; T Jefferson Kline gives an overview of Marxist, psychoanalytic, and cinematic issues intersecting in thefilm; and Lynda K. Bundtzen looks at the theme of castration and its resonance with auteur theory. In "Take Four", the late sinologist John K. Fairbank and academic art historian Ding Ning look at historical versus artistic representations of history in The Last Emperor, while Robert Burgoyne, Robert Zaller, and Ellen Handler Spitz look at contrasting historical processes.

Although we can never fully know the real Aisingioro Pu Yi, Bertolucci used his vision of the intricate relationship between art, ideology, and the psychic experience to tell the story of one ordinary man's extraordinary life. Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" hopes to illuminate this complex and often enigmatic creation as well as renew an excitement about the possibilities of interdisciplinary criticism in film studies.