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"THE OIL ROUTE" THE RESTORED VERSION OF DIRECTOR BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI'S FIRST AND ONLY DOCUMENTARY TO OPEN THE 2008 LOS ANGELES, ITALIA - FILM, FASHION AND ART FEST O SUNDAY FEBRUARY 17TH, 2008 LOS ANGELES, Jan 11, 2008 - On the occasion of the official presentation to director Bernardo Bertolucci of a Star on Hollywood’s “Walk of Fame”, on the opening day of the “3rd Los Angeles, Italia – Film, Fashion and Art Fest” Eni, in cooperation with the Italian Cineteca Nazionale, presents the U.S. premiere of “La via del petrolio” (The Oil Route), the director’s first and only documentary. In Auditorium 1 of Hollywood’s Mann Chinese 6 Theater – on Sunday, 17 February 2008 at 4 pm – it will be possible to watch the three episodes that Bernardo Bertolucci made in October-November 1965 to recount the “journey” made by oil, from the exploration and extraction phase to its transportation by ship to the pipeline that supplies the refinery. The film begins in the oil fields of the Zagros Mountains, in Iran, where Bertolucci captures the faces of a “magical” country, suspended between the past and the dawning of progress. The camera then boards the Agip Trieste oil tanker, with evocative shots of the Suez Canal. Finally, during the third part, Bertolucci gives free vent to his passion for the cinema. Rebelling against the rigidity of documentaries, he turns to a friend – the Argentine poet Mario Trejo – entrusting him with the role of sole actor, getting him to recount, step by step, the underground journey of the pipeline – the construction of which began in 1961 at the request of Enrico Mattei – that takes the oil from Genoa to the Ingolstadt refinery in the Bayern region. Enrico Mattei himself, during the mid 1950s, decided to turn to the cinema to recount and describe the activities of the company by creating a fully fledged internal “cinema office”. Several works of art were produced, by artists of the calibre of Gillo Pontecorvo, Folco Quilici and the Taviani brothers, in association with prestigious collaborators such as Alberto Moravia, Leonardo Sciascia, and Alberto Ronchey for the drafting of texts and scripts. Aware of the cultural import of the works commissioned over the years from some of the leading exponents of contemporary Italian culture, Eni is committed to restoring, cataloguing and enriching of its cultural heritage, ensuring its conservation through time. The extremely diverse material, in terms of content and type, available at the Eni Historical Archive offers a full overview of the company. The documentaries, produced from the early 1950s, describe the decisions that led to the use of methane gas, the construction of a methane pipeline network, the technical works involved, and, soon afterwards, the company’s development abroad, its oil exploration in complex geographical areas, and its collaboration with different ethnic groups.