“Joie de vivre” was an expression particularly dear to Bernardo Bertolucci, one he often used to evoke both the lightness that makes life beautiful and the wonder and beauty of filmmaking. The documentary begins with my personal connection to Bernardo and his work, before opening up to conversations with some of his closest collaborators and most passionate admirers. Together, we will explore the legacy of Bertolucci’s cinema: how his films can revolutionize our very idea of the seventh art – especially for those who have yet to discover them – and why certain critical interpretations that have become established over time have proved profoundly short-sighted and, ultimately, misleading.

It is a long journey that takes us to different corners of the world to meet Bertolucci’s longtime producer, Jeremy Thomas, alongside exceptional filmmakers, scholars and cinephiles who share the master’s own aspiration: the courage to conceive of cinema not as a phenomenon confined to a local or national scale, but as a cosmopolitan language without borders.