Two directors, born on different continents, 15 years apart, would seem to share little in common. But, each does celebrate a significant birthday during the later part of March and both made their mark at an early age with recognition for their honest, sometime controversial approach to an exploration of human emotions and relationships.
Italian born director Bernardo Bertolucci just celebrated his 65th. He was born into a family with a love of the arts and literature. His father taught literature and was also a film critic. As a child, Bernardo accompanied him to films. He appeared to be following in his father’s foot steps, receiving literary honors at an early age and attending the University of Rome. But, he left school to pursue film studies independently, making his directing debut in 1961 with La Commare Secca (The Grim Reaper). This film won recognition, but was not commercially successfully. With the release of Il Conformista (The Conformist) he first began to receive world wide recognition. His next film Prima della Rivoluzione (Before the Revolution) won him recognition at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. But as The New York Times All Movie Guide notes, he is best known in this country "for sweeping epics (The Last Emperor) and for helping to bring eroticism into general release with Last Tango in Paris.”
American Spike (Shelton) Lee reached the half century mark on March 20th. Lee has been quoted as saying his mother nicknamed him “Spike” because he was a tough baby. Born in Atlanta to a literature teacher and Jazz musician father he moved to Brooklyn as a small child. Following in the family tradition of his father and grandfather, Lee graduated from Morehouse University and then went on to get his graduate degree from NYU’s well known Tisch School of Arts graduate film program. Like Bertolucci, he showed early promise, winning a student film award and praise for his early releases. But it was his comedy about an unapologetic young woman pursuing three relationships at once, She’s Gotta Have It, that first garnered Lee international recognition. The film earned the young director the Award of the Youth at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival and the New Generation Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival. His list of accolades and accomplishments has grown with the years including two Oscar nominations. Last year, his powerful documentary series about the devastation in New Orleans, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts brought human faces to the suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina.