The Sheltering Sky (1990)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.6/10   

Director:

Bernardo Bertolucci

Escritores (WGA):

Paul Bowles (book)
Mark Peploe (screenplay) ...

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

12 diciembre 1990 (USA)

Género:

Aventura | Biografía | Drama

Frase comercial:

A woman's dangerous and erotic journey...

Plot:

The American artist couple Port and Kit Moresby travel aimlessly through Africa, searching for new experiences that could give sense to their relationship. But the flight to distant regions only leads both deeper into despair.

Plot Keywords:

Travel | Brooklyn Bridge | French | Male Nudity | Cunnilingus

Premios:

Won Golden Globe. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Looks good but the plot struggles to hold before eventually just being hard work

Reparto

Debra Winger	...	Kit Moresby
John Malkovich	...	Port Moresby
Campbell Scott	...	George Tunner
Jill Bennett	...	Mrs. Lyle
Timothy Spall	...	Eric Lyle
Eric Vu-An	...	Belqassim
Amina Annabi	...	Mahrnia
Philippe Morier-Genoud	...	Captain Broussard
Sotigui Kouyaté	...	Abdelkader (as Sotigui Kouyate)
Tom Novembre	...	French Immigration Officer
Ben Smaïl	...	Smail
Kamel Cherif	...	Ticket Seller
Mohammed Afifi	...	Mohamed
Brahim Oubana	...	Young Arab
Carolyn De Fonseca	...	Miss Ferry

También conocida como:

Il tè nel deserto (Italy)
El cielo protector (Spain) [es]
Refugio para el amor (Argentina) [es]

Duración:

138 min

País:

UK | Italy

Idioma:

Inglés | Francés | Arabe

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Dolby (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Clasificación:

Australia:M | Italy:T | Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Sweden:11 | UK:18 | USA:R | South Korea:18 | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/16

Locaciones de Filmación:

Ait Benhaddou, Ouarzazate, Morocco

Compañía:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivialidades:

Paul Bowles, author - and thinly disguised subject - of the autobiographical novel on which the film is based, said, "? it should never have been filmed. The ending is idiotic and the rest is pretty bad." This quote comes from a rare interview that was part of the film Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (1998).

Errores:

Continuidad: There is a moment when Port is with Kit in her room, she is sitting and he is caressing her belly. A good deal of pubic hair is notoriously visible, but immediately follows a closer shot in which she is completely covered.

Citas:

Tunner: You've been to North Africa before, Port. Kit and I will just follow your plan.
Port Moresby: My only plan is, I have no plan.

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in "Oi treis harites: Kai o Theos eplase... tin Bebeka" (????)

Banda de Sonido:

Goulov Limma

Looks good but the plot struggles to hold before eventually just being hard work

Port and Kit Moresby are travellers who come to North Africa to spend a year or so. With them travels a friend, George Tunner. Their journey hides the gradual breakdown of their relationship - a fact that is only highlighted when Port visits an Arab prostitute and Kit sleeps with Tunner after a drunken train journey together.

Before you sit down to see this film, you really need to have asked yourself what sort of mood you are in. Are you looking for a fast film, something entertaining and slick to distract you from life, or provide background noise in the room while you iron? If you are looking for such a movie then there must be thousands of action movies and comedies that you can watch. If you are in a contemplative mood or are able to accept the story that comes at you no matter how slow or difficult to get into then you may as well give this a stab. The film focuses on the relationship between Kit and Port, a relationship that has been crumbling for many years before we are brought into the story. The film then uses the journey as a journey of them both and, ultimately, Kit to find more about themselves, each other and their lives.

If this sounds straightforward then forgive me, for it is not. The film doesn't help; it is difficult to get into the story because at times it doesn't seem to really be about anything. It is not so bad for the majority of the film, but Kit's wander in the last 30 minutes is difficult because it seems to be going nowhere and not be connected to the emotions that we only assume she might be feeling. This is the main problem with the film - not so much the slow pace but the fact that it could be running but it wouldn't matter because it would still feel like it isn't actually going anywhere. It is possible to take something from this film but the actual intension was lost on me - when the final lines of dialogue came I hoped they would be as a torch in a dark room - but they only served to lose me that much more. I hate arty films when they seem to revel in their sheer impenetrateability, sadly that seemed to be the case here.

Malkovich and Winger are both very good; they acted wounded and hurt very well within their veneer of respectability and normalcy. It's a shame that, although their performances help us get into Kit & Port's relationship, they are unable to help us understand (or care) when the film begins to become `deeper' than that. Scott is quite interesting but underused, although Spall and Bennett are reasonably good. The star here is the desert, and it looks great. For all his faults as a storyteller here, Bertolucci can frame a shot, producing a great sense of place as well as some really gorgeous travelogue moments. If that's your thing (a `deep' and beautiful film) then you'll be OK, but I needed some emotional buy in or at least something approaching a narrative that could be easily followed with a bit of thought.

Overall this is an interesting but ultimately frustrating film. It looks great and it all seems very worthy, but where it goes was beyond me. I enjoyed watching it as it forced me to think instead of just vegging out (like so many other films do) but at the end of the day I was left wondering if this was artistic posturing on a big scale or if it really did have an emotional core that I just couldn't reach.