Andrea Pallaoro Revives Bernardo Bertolucci's Final 'The Echo Chamber' Screenplay for Venice

Andrea Pallaoro's film 'The Echo Chamber,' based on Bernardo Bertolucci's final screenplay, will debut in competition at the Venice Film Festival in September, according to Deadline. The project revives the last work of the legendary filmmaker, who died in 2018.

The film is an Italian-Belgian production starring Alicia Vikander, Luca Marinelli, and Susan Sarandon. Producer Nicola Giuliano brought the screenplay to Pallaoro, who worked closely with Bertolucci's original co-writers, Ilaria Bernardini and Ludovica Rampoldi, to develop it. 01 Distribution will release the film in Italy on September 10.

What is 'The Echo Chamber' about?

The film follows Leo, a music producer, and Anne, a physiotherapist, as they are drawn into an unlikely love affair. Susan Sarandon plays a storied singer named Ava. Pallaoro told Deadline the story explores the boundary between the need to control and the need to care for someone, as well as the relationship between physical and emotional pain.

How did Andrea Pallaoro approach the screenplay?

Pallaoro said he felt a great responsibility to honor Bertolucci's material. "The way to honor the material... was to be as sincere as possible and to make it my own and see it through my own sensibility," he said in the interview. He described the screenplay as providing an architecture, which he and the co-writers evolved over a long development process with the cast in mind.

The film's world premiere will be at the Venice Film Festival. International sales are being handled by Paradise City, with UTA Independent Film Group co-representing the film for North America.