Stealing Beauty

Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty was one of the movies that I had been longing to see from a long time. Finally, when I laid my hands on the DVD I couldn’t wait to see it… and guess what… it was a great experience…

Stealing Beauty — released in theatres in 1996 — is a homecoming of sorts for the Italian film-maker. It is his first film shot in his native land since the early ’80s. Now, as part of their home video series, Palador has launched the movie’s DVD.

Stealing Beauty is about Lucy, an American teenager, vacationing on a hilltop villa in Italy with a group of her late mother’s artist friends. She wants to reunite with the Italian boy she fell in love with four years ago during her last visit to the villa. However, her main agenda is to find her father. A dairy of her late mother suggests she was conceived on that hilltop. So who could be her father – the Italian war correspondent who wrote to her mother for 20 years, the dying English playwright or the artist who makes sculptures from trees? Amidst all this Lucy also finds it the perfect atmosphere to loose her virginity.

Lucy’s arrival scene in the villa — where her sexual status instantly becomes the main topic of conversation — lingers in memory long after the film is over. “There’s a virgin in the house,” exclaims one of the characters. Lucy’s entry also affects the other women, who are either challenged or reminded of their youth.

American actor Liv Tyler plays Lucy. The film also stars Rachel Weisz (The Mummy) and Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare In Love) among others.

However, the true star of the movie is Bertolucci himself. The Italian countryside has never looked more alluring as he’s made it look in every frame. Before starting work on this film, for 15 years Bertolucci — the creator of The Conformist and Last Tango in Paris — lived in self-imposed exile from his homeland. During that time, he worked on his ‘Eastern Trilogy’ – The Last Emperor (1987), which won nine Oscars, The Sheltering Sky (1990) and Little Buddha (1993).

Though he is better known for these films, Stealing Beauty remains one of the most complex, rich and penetrating movie he’s ever tackled.

THE WORLD-CINEMA ORGY

Over the last five days, I happened to see quite a few movies — 11 to be precise. At the end of the week I surprised myself… I had actually spent close to 25 of the last 120 hours in watching movies.
This entire experience left me wanting for more — for more such world-class movies! Because I’ve never seen such great films — each one better than the other — in a long, long time. If I hadn’t watched those, I would have surely missed out on something.
Once the ‘movie orgy’ — as I would like to call it — was over, I decided to devote some time to review each film. And guess what… I surprised myself with the reviews I wrote. I say ‘surprised’ because I’ve never ever written a review before this. So I didn’t know where and how to start. But eventually the brilliance of each movie made it a roller-coaster ride for me — and the reviews turned out quite good… yes, for someone writing a review for the first time, it was indeed a satisfying and enriching experience…

Over the next few blogs, all that I’ve decided to do is publish those reviews one by one.
Here they go… starting with five films of Alfred Hitchcock — the undisputed king of mystery and mayhem.

Of thrills and chills

Mistaken identity, innocents falsely accused, betrayal, hair-raising escapes, double-crosses etc., are some of the recurring themes in Alfred Hitchcock’s movies.
As a tribute to the film-maker, Palador recently launched a collector’s edition boxset of five DVDs containing some of his earliest works. The movies include The Manxman (1929), Blackmail (1929), Murder (1930), The Skin Game (1931) and Rich And Strange (1931).

 The Manxman – Hitchcock’s last silent film – is the story of two friends in love with the same woman. Rejected by the girl's father when one of them goes to a foreign land to seek his fortune, the other sees his chance with the girl. The Manxman is remembered for its stunning scenery, shot on location in Cornwall.
 Hitchcock made the transition to sound film with Blackmail. Here, a woman accidentally murders a man. She is seen by a criminal. When the woman’s policeman boyfriend is assigned the case, the criminal blackmails them. Hitchcock shot almost the entire film in sound, back-to-back with a silent version for distribution to the many cinemas not equipped for sound. The result was a critical and commercial triumph and confirmed Hitchcock as an acclaimed director.
 In Murder, an actor is found standing over the body of a murdered colleague and has no memory of what happened. The jury sentences her to death. One juror disagrees and, using his theatrical skills, probes into the case only to discover the real murderer in a thrilling climax. Hitchcock has a cameo role near the midpoint of the film, as a passerby in front of the house where the murder took place. The film contains a number of innovations, including what some believe to be the first use of a voice-over.
 The Skin Game revolves around two rival families. When the aristocratic patriarch of one of families resorts to blackmail to settle a dispute over land rights, it leads to disastrous results. Hitchcock was, reportedly, bored by the project, but entertained himself with one particular shot – the climactic scene – which, however, didn’t even make it into the completed film.
 Rich and Strange is about a married couple who go on a world cruise to escape their humdrum lives. But their relationship begins to fall apart when they both become attracted to other people. The film is notable for the techniques utilised by Hitchcock that would reappear later in his career. Most notable are the sets, including a recreation of a full-sized ship in a water tank.