Marco Bellocchio born 1939 in Northern Italy, made a striking debut with his 1965 feature, I Pugni in Tasca, a study of the destructive tensions within an epileptic middle-class family set provincially with Colombian actor Lou Castel as the rambunctious, murderous brother. La Cina e Vicina (China is Near,1966|) would again center on a family satirizing the contemporaneous political climate of Italy and not even sparing the Maoists with whom Bellocchio's own sympathies lay. 1971's Nel nome del padre (In The Name of the Father) would use a Jesuit school to essentially stand for the ills of society. A Leap in the Dark (Salta nel vuoto, 1980) was a claustrophobic observance of familial life and concentrated on the enigmatic relationship of a pair of middle-aged siblings. While The Eyes, The Mouth (1982) would form long delayed and anti-climactic sequel to the superior Fists in the Pocket.
And though Bellocchio's films veered from the the mainstream fray and are little recognized outside the country of their origin, they each in their own right stand as essential works and the director certainly won't be slowing down any time soon, with a historical drama slated for release in 2015; L'ultimo vampiro.