1st watched 9/4/2005, 7 out of 10(Dir-Bernardo Bertolucci): Wonderfully, artistically-told story of an African woman who loses her husband to the authorities for what appears to be political reasons and is thrown in jail. She then moves into a building owned by an eccentric piano player as his maid and begins going thru medical school at the same time. Mr. Kinsky, played by David Thewlis, is infatuated with her very early on and even states that he loves her but her response is basically, show me by getting my husband out of jail. Kinsky then very secretly pursues this. Much of the story is shown to us visually and we kind of have to figure out what's going on which is an extremely fascinating use of visuals rather than dialogue that is so un-American and very European in it's style. The story unfolds not unlike a piano concerto before our eyes as the pieces of the puzzle start fitting together and Bertolucci gets us to watch the characters and be interested in them as they're going thru this. Even after Oscar wins and at an elderly age, Bertolucci is still making extremely character driven artistic movies that are each one of a kind and this one doesn't disappoint either.

"Besieged", written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, is a very contemporary take on O Henry's "Gift of the Magi" story within an updated geo-political/racial context. This is an intellectual date movie as both characters change.

With very little dialog and leisurely development of the simple plot but complex emotions, the relationships are established with very lush, intense close-ups (I've read this was originally made for Italian TV) and through sounds, particularly music - Western classical vs. Afro-Pop (terrific very high class Africa Fete music, like Papa Wemba),and rhythms - cerebral vs. hip-shaking, with the Italians and the Italian environment put somewhere in the middle with elements of both.

A woman behind me complained at the end "So now what is she going to do?" and doubtless folks will argue, convinced of one or the other conclusion.

The lens was all scratched up so the beautiful cinematography was hard to appreciate. I don't know if the heads kept being cut off by the director or the projectionist, among the many projection problems.

(originally written 6/6/1999)

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.