Fantastic. Bertolucci has not lost it.

zetes

SLIGHT SPOILERS

I can't fairly claim Bernardo Bertolucci as one of my favorite filmmakers, because I've seen relatively few of his films. However, he did make my third favorite film of all time, Last Tango in Paris. Besides Besieged, the only other film of his I'd seen was The Last Emperor, which I like very much, also.

Now, I vividly remember seeing the episode of Siskel & Ebert (or whatever it was called at the time that this film was released) and hearing Ebert proclaim that Besieged was racist and crying, "What has happened to Bertolucci? He used to make these beautiful and personal films!" I want to know what the hell movie he saw in place of Besieged, because the Besieged I saw was "beautiful and personal," and it was certainly not "racist." The film is about an African woman (Thandie Newton, who was later to star opposite Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible II, which I now have to see) whose husband was arrested for political reasons (we're never really told in which country they lived, nor is the political climate explained or described). Some time late (that, too, is unspecified), she immigrates to Italy where she is hired as a live-in maid by an English pianist (David Thewlis). He is extraordinarily shy and inhibited; he barely even leaves his lavish home. Soon, he is attracted to Newton's exoticism and tells her he is in love with her, even asks her to marry him. She's terribly offended and feels used: she shouts that she already has a husband, and that he was arrested in Africa. Thewlis yields from his pursuit, and, because of his guilt (and also because he is still attracted to her), he begins on a quest to find and set free Newton's husband.

What results is one of the more complex films of the past few years. The art film is not dead. Bertolucci's direction is filled with interesting angles, camera movements, colors, jump cuts, and all sorts of beautiful and effective tricks. The only thing I didn't like was the use of slow motion - that's one technique that is difficult to use well in the cinema, and, with hand-held cameras, it looks awful. A couple of individual scenes were clunky, especially the scene in which Thewlis declares his love for Newton. It's not bad, per se, but, well, like I said, it's a bit clunky, if you know what I mean. It doesn't work completely. The film relies on very little dialogue, which makes the whole thing more sublime. Thandie Newton and David Thewlis are both excellent. I can't wait to see Newton in other films.


To answer Ebert's claim of racism, if he had said that Thewlis' character was a racist, then that would have been understandable. His "love" is just lust, and what he is really attracted to is her Africanness, her exoticness. And also her perceived primitiveness. This is not an uncommon attraction, even if it is offensive. But these feelings are actually DEALT with, they're not just simply accepted. Ebert also said that the goal of the film, its entire point, was to get to the sex. Not so. The way Thewlis uses and manipulates Newton caused me pain. It caused HER pain. The final scene is just overflowing with power. I loved this film. Please see it and see it with an open mind. 9/10.

score 9/10

zetes 28 October 2001

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0547979/