{ "id": "epqdzmr43s", "slug": "partner-1968-film", "title": "Partner (1968 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": 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"geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.novel-and-short-fiction-adaptations", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Films based on novels, novellas, and short fiction", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.novel-and-short-fiction-adaptations", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.novel-and-short-fiction-adaptations", "label": "Films based on novels, novellas, and short fiction", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.novel-and-short-fiction-adaptations" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Partner. is Bernardo Bertolucci's 1968 Italian drama, freely adapted from Dostoevsky's The Double, starring Pierre Clémenti as a drama teacher and his revolutionary double, with Stefania Sandrelli, Tina Aumont, and music by Ennio Morricone.", "snippet": "Partner. is Bernardo Bertolucci's 1968 Italian drama, freely adapted from Dostoevsky's The Double, starring Pierre Clémenti as a drama teacher and his revolutionary double, with Stefania Sandrelli, Tina Aumont, and music by Ennio Morricone.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.novel-and-short-fiction-adaptations.films-based-on-19th-century-classics", "markdown": "# Partner (1968 film)\n\n**Partner.** is a 1968 Italian drama directed by [Bernardo Bertolucci](https://www.edgepedia.org/bernardo-bertolucci), freely adapted from [Fyodor Dostoevsky](https://www.edgepedia.org/fyodor-dostoevsky)'s 1846 novella *The Double: A Petersburg Poem* and updated to the student-protest Italy of the late 1960s. Pierre Clémenti plays a timid drama teacher, Giacobbe, who meets his own double, a hard-hearted revolutionary alter ego, against the backdrop of the 1960s student movement.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/414630/) • [2](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/partner)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / screenwriters | Bernardo Bertolucci; screenplay by Bertolucci and Gianni Amico, freely inspired by Dostoevsky's *Il sosia* (1846)[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/414630/) • [3](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/) |\n| Country / year | Italy, 1968; produced by Giovanni Bertolucci for Red Film[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/414630/) |\n| Runtime | 105 minutes (some releases list 108 or 112 minutes)[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/414630/) • [2](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/partner) • [4](https://www.blu-ray.com/Partner/241887/) |\n| Lead cast | Pierre Clémenti (Giacobbe I and II), Stefania Sandrelli (Clara), Tina Aumont (a detergent salesgirl), Sergio Tofano (Petrushka)[3](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Ugo Piccone (Technicolor, Techniscope, 2.35:1); editing Roberto Perpignani; music Ennio Morricone; art direction Francesco Tullio Altan[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/414630/) • [3](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/) |\n| Italian release | 7 September 1968 per Cineuropa; IMDb and 25thframe list 25 October 1968[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/414630/) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063414/) |\n| Reception | Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 91% from 11 reviews; IMDb rating 6.1/10 from about 1,000 votes[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1032808-partner) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063414/ratings/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nGiacobbe is an introverted and neurotic professor at a Roman drama school. Walking along the Lungotevere, he encounters another \"self,\" whom he hides in his home from the eyes of his old servant Petrushka.[3](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/) The Guardian describes the film as an abstract, political pastiche in which a timid drama student momentarily touches on his revolutionary alter ego.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/88675/partner) Rotten Tomatoes' synopsis puts it as a young man who concocts an alter ego with revolutionary ideas.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1032808-partner)\n\nThe official Bertolucci foundation's plot material also includes a mock dossier on Giacobbe, listing arrests, five-year sentences, six escape attempts, arms and drug trafficking, and the assumption of a priest-worker's identity, a character sheet that signals the film's fragmentary, invented-biography method.[3](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/)\n\n## Source and style\n\nBertolucci and co-scenarist Gianni Amico took Dostoevsky's 1846 novella *The Double: A Petersburg Poem*, written before the author's imprisonment, moved it to Italy, and updated it to the pro-Vietcong student-protest present.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/414630/) The film is systematically punctuated with the blue and red of the Vietcong fighters, and its visual inventions and syntax show affinities with the recent Godard of *Pierrot le fou* era titles such as *Made in U.S.A*; critics also found references to [Antonin Artaud](https://www.edgepedia.org/antonin-artaud) and the Living Theatre.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/88675/partner)\n\nBertolucci himself later confirmed the theatrical influence. In a 1996 interview he said the Living Theatre was the first time he had enjoyed theater, and that *Partner* was very much influenced by it.[9](https://dailybruin.com/1996/10/22/bertolucci-reminiscing-of-time) The film's score by [Ennio Morricone](https://www.edgepedia.org/ennio-morricone) mixes original music with a Vivaldi flute concerto, the protest song *Bandiera rossa*, and the song *Splash* by Morricone and Nohra, sung by Peter Boom.[3](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/)\n\n## Production and release\n\nThe film was shot in Rome between March and May 1968, at locations including Monteverde Vecchio, Cinecittà, the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Largo di Torre Argentina, the Trajan's Markets, and Valle Giulia.[3](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/) It was presented at the Venice film festival of that year.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/88675/partner)\n\nRelease dates vary by source. Cineuropa lists Italy 7 September 1968, the UK 27 November 1968, France in May 1969, [West Germany](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-germany) 4 May 1970, Portugal 30 December 1977, and Greece in November 1996.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/414630/) IMDb and 25thframe give an Italian release of 25 October 1968, and 25thframe adds a US release of 6 February 1974 and a French release of 2 [January 1970](https://www.edgepedia.org/january-1970).[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063414/) • [10](https://www.25thframe.co.uk/movies/partner~1968) Rotten Tomatoes lists a wide US theatrical release of 8 February 1976 through New Yorker Films.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1032808-partner)\n\n## Reception\n\nContemporary critical response was divided. In *Cahiers du Cinéma* in November 1968, Jean Narboni called *Partner* the most \"current\" film imagined and shot in Italy in those years, a film of great importance and sincerity even where it failed, while Sylvie Pierre, in the same issue, described a film saturated with odors and traumatizing, and Michel Capdenac in *Les Lettres françaises* wrote that he had detested it at first viewing, seeing a regression into complacency relative to *Before the Revolution*.[3](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/) Capdenac nonetheless credited Clémenti's performance and read the film as an explosion of personality and subjectivity, a soliloquy in the colors of self-rejection.[3](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/)\n\nLater assessments have been similarly split. Time Out calls it an exuberant response to the student riots of 1968, aggressively \"new wave\" in style, and an invaluable aid to understanding the 1960s.[11](https://www.timeout.com/movies/partner) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 91% Tomatometer from 11 reviews against a 60% audience score; Nora Sayre of *The New York Times* gave it 4/5, writing that the specific meaning of many scenes is obscure but the total effect is that of a youthful explosion of movie talent.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1032808-partner) MUBI rates it 7.2/10 from about 500 user ratings.[2](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/partner)\n\nBertolucci later described the film's failure as formative. \"I felt like I was at a dead end,\" he said of the period after *Partner*, adding that the film was so extreme that he realized he had to change, and that survival meant accepting that someone would have to see and enjoy his movies.[9](https://dailybruin.com/1996/10/22/bertolucci-reminiscing-of-time)\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe film has been called a lost artifact of the Italian New Wave; Edoardo Bruno's *His Days of Glory* (1969) borrows a scene from *Partner* to open that film, and the 2000s NoShame DVD release paired the film with interviews with Bertolucci and editor Roberto Perpignani.[12](https://film-forward.com/history/partner.html) A trigon-film synopsis argues that the film links Marx and Freud in a cool way and may be the first Lacan-inspired film, calling it a kind of manifesto of 1968 cinema.[13](https://trigon-film.org/de/filme/partner/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Partner. – Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/414630/)\n2. [Partner – MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/partner)\n3. [Partner – Bernardo Bertolucci official site](https://bernardobertolucci.org/film/partner/)\n4. [Partner 1968 – Blu-ray.com](https://www.blu-ray.com/Partner/241887/)\n5. [Partner (1968) – IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063414/)\n6. [Partner – Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1032808-partner)\n7. [Partner (1968) - Ratings - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063414/ratings/)\n8. [Partner – The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/88675/partner)\n9. [Bertolucci: reminiscing of times pre-restoration – Daily Bruin](https://dailybruin.com/1996/10/22/bertolucci-reminiscing-of-time)\n10. [Partner. 1968 – 25thframe.co.uk](https://www.25thframe.co.uk/movies/partner~1968)\n11. [Partner – Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/partner)\n12. [Film-Forward Review: Partner (1968)](https://film-forward.com/history/partner.html)\n13. [Partner – trigon-film](https://trigon-film.org/de/filme/partner/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on novels, novellas, and short fiction › Films based on 19th-century classics*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/partner-1968-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/partner-1968-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Partner (1968 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/partner-1968-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Partner (1968 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/partner-1968-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/partner-1968-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/partner-1968-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Partner (1968 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/partner-1968-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Partner. is Bernardo Bertolucci's 1968 Italian drama, freely adapted from Dostoevsky's The Double, starring Pierre Clémenti as a drama teacher and his revolutionary double, with Stefania Sandrelli, Tina Aumont, and music by Ennio Morricone." }