“For me a film grows from an image.”

Bellocchio's films include China Is Near (1967), Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina (Slap the Monster on Page One) (1972), Nel Nome del Padre (In the name of the Father – a satire on a Catholic boarding school that shares affinities with Lindsay Anderson's If....) (1972), Victory March (1976), A Leap in the Dark (1980), Henry IV (1984), Devil in the Flesh (1986), and My Mother's Smile (2002), which told the story of a wealthy Italian artist, a 'default-Marxist and atheist', who suddenly discovers that the Vatican is proposing to make his detested mother a saint.

In 1991 he won the Silver Bear – Special Jury Prize at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival for his film The Conviction.

In 1995 he directed a documentary about the Red Brigades and the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, titled Broken Dreams.

In 2003, he directed a feature film on the same theme, Good Morning, Night.

In 2006 his film The Wedding Director was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1999, he was awarded with an Honorable Prize for the contribution to cinema at the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.

In 2009 he directed Vincere, which was in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. He finished Sorelle Mai, an experimental film that was shot over ten years with the students of six separate workshops playing themselves. He was awarded with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 68th Venice International Film Festival in September 2011.

His 2012 film Dormant Beauty was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival. On 6 September 2012, Bellocchio condemned the Catholic Church's interference in politics after the premiere of his controversial film about a high-profile euthanasia case. The film approaches the topic of euthanasia and the difficulty with legislation on end of life in Italy, which has Vatican City within its borders. The subject is inspired by Eluana Englaro's case. Following the decision of the jury of the Venice Film Festival, which excluded the film from the Golden Lion, Bellocchio has expressed strong criticism against President Michael Mann.

Bellocchio made a big impact on radical Italian cinema in the mid-1960s, and was a friend of Pasolini. In 1968, he joined the Union of Italian Communists (Marxist-Leninist), a Maoist group, and began to make politically militant cinema. However, in a 2002 interview, he talked about divided state of the Italian left, politics' lacking from the aim of radical change, and how such a radical change not being appealing for him anymore:

    "I can talk about my personal ideas but Marxism has little to do with it now. Today politics means administration, either a good or a bad administration, and nobody is talking any more in terms of changing things. The left in Italy is now very divided, as if it doesn't have the strength to form an opposition. No party is now proposing a radical change of anything, and radical change is no longer very interesting to me as an artist."

In another interview conducted in London Film Festival of 2006, he insisted still being a leftist, but argued for a need to reinvent the term:

    "In Italy politics is pretty mediocre and depressing. It is not the same situation as in the 60s when you had the idea to change the society through politics that doesn't exist anymore. It is not necessarily to make Italy into socialist republic but in any case to change a few things radically. Because in Italy like the rest of Europe politics now is more based on running a public administration and so there is not a big difference between left and right. [...] I am still on the left but socialism and the left should be reinvented. It is difficult. Basically old values are invalid anymore and we have to find new ones."

He was candidate for Italian Parliament in 2006, with Rose in the Fist list, a political cartel made by socialists and Italian Radicals (a liberal, social liberal and libertarian party).

He is an atheist. (Wikipedia)

Filmography

Director

    La colpa e la pena (1961)
    Fists in the Pocket (1965)
    China Is Near (1967)
    Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina (1972)
    Victory March (1976)
    Il gabbiano (1977)
    A Leap in the Dark (1980)
    The Eyes, the Mouth (1982)
    Henry IV (1984)
    Devil in the Flesh (1986)
    The Witches' Sabbath (1988)
    The Conviction (1991)
    The Butterfly's Dream (1994)
    The Prince of Homburg (1996)
    The Nanny (1999)
    My Mother's Smile (2002)
    Good Morning, Night (2003)
    The Wedding Director (2006)
    Vincere (2009)
    Dormant Beauty (2012)
    Blood of My Blood (2015)
    Sweet Dreams (2017)
    The Traitor (2019)
    Marx Can Wait (2021)
    Exterior Night (2022)
    Kidnapped | Rapito (2023)