The Sheltering Sky (1990)

Bernardo Bertolucci does not really make fast-paced movies, let's face it. But very often (The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, La Luna,) they're beautifully crafted character studies set in amazing landscapes. Bertolucci also handles his cast with great talent and the performances delivered by actors in his movies are always intense. Here Debra Winger is captivating, and aptly supported by John Malkovich and a strong supporting cast. The story slowly unfolds itself, and the nuances in the script, dialogue, cinematography and acting are splendid. The throughout subtle presence of Paul Bowles adds great melancholy. When I first saw it on the big screen, I left the theater in a state of total despair, because the characters are so miserable.

Fmovies: Two post-WWII Manhattan sophisticates who travel to avoid standing still embark on a soul-searching expedition into the Sahara Desert, where the beautiful but desolate landscapes provide a mirror to their own troubled relationship. The film is nothing if not exotic, presenting some of the purest visions of the desert since Peter O'Toole first rode a camel in 'Lawrence of Arabia'. But the scenario works best when presented as an ethnic travelogue, ushering viewers into an utterly foreign world. The messy marital plot conflicts are, by comparison, all rather vague, especially after Debra Winger goes native in a Bedouin harem. The story never really finds an ending, because there isn't anything to resolve: the characters all exist in a (handsomely photographed) vacuum, and their motivations are even more mysterious than the Arab culture surrounding them. The intrusive (and, as usual, unnecessary) voice-over narration is by novelist Paul Bowles himself, briefly glimpsed in the film's opening scenes.

American couple Port (John Malkovich) and Kit Moresby (Debra Winger) see themselves as travelers looking for new experiences. They go to Tangier after the war with their friend George Tunner (Campbell Scott) who they see more as a tourist. Port is introduced to a prostitute and is robbed. Kit and George take a train trip. Port is jealous and follows them catching a ride with the Lyles (Jill Bennett, Timothy Spall).

It's a grand meandering story about being aimless. It's not just about being aimless but there is also a pointlessness about the movie. The location shoots are wonderfully exotic. Malkovich is chewing up the scenes and Spall is being weird. However the movie struggles to find a meaning.

The Sheltering Sky fmovies. Please do not read this review if you have not yet seen the film, because I find it necessary to discuss elements of the film which reveal the plot.

The whole film was for me a long introduction into the silence of myself. I like the desert a lot, am not afraid of the void, when the mind can finally be still. Port also actually came home to Africa. He was ready to die, ready to leave behind his intellectuality, to get rid of the inner mess that was himself. Although he seemed unconscious of it, his inner soul brought him by force to his own roots. When in delirium his hands dance happily, demanding the music to continue, to push him through and out of this existence, Kit is left aside and alone, madness kissing her forehead for the first time, unable to stop the approaching avalanche which will sweep over both of their lives, leaving one dead. Kit, ...how one must feel going to a foreign country to mate again with the mate with whom you, through so many silly, careless incidents, have lost essential contact - and to suddenly find him dead and silent lying in front of you in the vastness of an indifferent desert. The desert we all live in unawares. "Oh, God, what have I done, how could I have allowed this to go so far?" Suddenly she wakes up to notice the immense impact of nothingness.

Her mind broken, she goes off with a Bedouin, and this is actually what I like most about the film. It allows me to let my mind break too, traveling with her through the desert, mostly listening to the silent sound of camels and bells and voices crying out in a strange unknown language.

Some of the professional critics didn't to go down that path. They need their thoughts to run incessantly, .. for them it must have certainly been a threatening movie, or so their comments would suggest.

At some point in the last 100 years.....there is one film that is likely to stand out as truly exceptional. Not surprisingly, such a film might not be well received by the critics or even be a great success at the box office. True brilliance finds its own place in people's hearts and this film has every ingredient to make it the kind of film people will talk about in a hundred years time. Unlike so many films "created" today with lacklustre characters and inept and one dimensional acting - the sheltering sky is moving and funny and ingenious because it offers true artistic and moving portrayals of the ending of a long term relationship amidst the kind of locations the most adventurous backpacker might not know about. Every film is about human meaning and should guide us to know what the author felt and experienced. Somehow the sheltering sky reaches into your heart by honestly portraying the emotions of the complexity of loving another human being. It isn't pretentious or dull as dishwasher art house cinema. It belongs in a category of its own and to anyone who loves beautiful art and poignant and moving story's that go beyond the solar plexus: you will truly love and treasure the experience of this work of art that so many failed to "get". Yes....good films happen. Great films occur from time to time....but the Sheltering sky is neither of these two things....it is the most honest and beautiful and emotionally mature work of cinema that I have ever seen. This film makes us feel good about being human...because it shows us how flawed and wonderful we are despite our lack of honesty even with ourselves. The sheltering sky will break your heart and and bring you to life. It will lift you and make you feel like repainting the cistine chapel. It is a brave and noble friend of a film...that wants us to see beauty and pain in all its glory. If you've never seen it......I wish I were you watching it for the first time again. Go get it.! Robert. ps. if you've read the book....don't watch it! no film is going to match your own interpretation of a favourite book...but this movie stands on its own two feet and with some grace at that.

Bernardo Bertolucci co-wrote and directed the film of the classic post WW2 novel by author, Paul Bowles, who also narrates.

The opening shot (after the credits roll over 1947 New York City and a ship disembarks from its port) is of Port's (John Malkovich) face as he awakens in a North African hotel room, the same scene that opens in the novel. Debra Winger is her most attractive as his young wife,'Kit.' They are accompanied by a randy travel companion, 'Tunner.'

The "casbah" atmosphere of the Moslem city's narrow stone streets, flooded with Arab denizens, camels, livestock invites the viewer in.

As soon as the odious "Mrs. Lyle" and her sweaty, overweight son came into the fly-ridden hotel lobby in the hot sultry desert nowhere, I knew I'd love to hate them.

John Malkovich is seduced by a street-smart, young Arab who beckons him to follow through dark streets into a girl prostitute's desert tent. (live chickens inside are a wonderful touch.)

The Sheltering Sky is a good representation of the novel. The book's narrative of setting, characters, and plot is dramatically envisioned and colored by the reader's point of view and imagination. We literally make the story ours; so when we watch the film version, we tend to judge the director's interpretation seriously.

Bertolucci's vision was entertaining and realized well, especially the lead character: the vast Sahara Desert, and exotic ambiance; the cinematography was beautiful. i look forward to watching it on DVD.