Before the Revolution

Before the Revolution Italian Prima della rivoluzione is a 1964 Italian romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. It stars Adriana Asti and Francesco Barilli and is centred on political and romantic uncertainty among the youth of Parma.

Parma, 1962. Fabrizio, a young student, warns of the difficulty of reconciling the middle class with the militancy of the Italian Communist Party. He remains traumatized by the death of his friend Agostino, who has drowned in the River Po. The arrival of Aunt Gina, an elegant young lady who lives in Milan, increases his worries. The aunt falls in love with him and Fabrizio reciprocates. But the aunt returns to Milan. Fabrizio, conscious of his own weakness and his inability to realize his aspirations and political ambitions, chooses to go along with convention. He gives up Gina and marries Clelia, a beautiful young girl who comes from a respectable family.The title of the film is derived from a saying by Charles Maurice de TalleyrandPrigord Only those who lived before the revolution knew how sweet life could be. The names of the characters in the film are the same as those in Stendhals novel La Charteuse de Parme the principal character and narrator, Fabrice, is now Fabrizio del Dongo, a young Marxist from a bourgeois family, who attracts his young aunt, Gina, now Gina Sanseverina, and finally marries a girl from a good family, Cllia, now Clelia Conti. ........

Source: Wikipedia