The Sheltering Sky (1990)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Must See Movie...

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

While good actors, Winger and Malkovich are not particularly charismatic. Campbell Scott, while good-looking, has a lesser role. We suffer with the Malkovich character for what seems like a long time. Then there are long stretches in Act 3 with no dialogue other than grunting. So this is a film that doesn't pander to anyone. That said, however, the photography is shockingly beautiful, the music is complex, and if one is never quite sure what it's supposed to be 'about', that enhances its art-house bona fides. Easy for me to confuse this with Antonioni's 'The Passenger', starring Jack Nicholson (hard not to like), another cranky desert saga with sparse dialogue. I prefer 'The Passenger' but 'The Sheltering Sky' is not easily dismissed. With caveats, recommended.

Italian screenwriter and director Bernardo Bertolucci's eleventh feature film which he co-wrote with Kenyan screenwriter and director Mark Peploe, is an adaptation of a novel from 1949 by American author, translator and composer Paul Bowles (1910-1999). It was shot on location in Morocco, Algeria and Niger and is a UK-Italy co-production which was produced by English producer Jeremy Thomas. It tells the story about Port and Kit Moresby, an American couple whom without having made any plans and with the intention of working out their marriage, travels to North Africa with their single friend Tunner. Subtly and precisely directed by Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated by expatriate Paul Bowles and from multiple viewpoints, draws an engaging and intimate portrayal of a composer and a playwright's increasing alienation whilst staying in a foreign country and striving to resolve their marital issues. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, sterling production design by Italian production designers Fernando Scarfiotti and Gianni Silvestri, cinematography by Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and costume design by English costume designer James Acheson, this character-driven, narrative-driven, sensual, literary and dramatic love-story about the unawareness and lack of honesty and communication within a gradually dissolving matrimony where the half-hearted attempts to rationalize a dysfunctional relationship drives a man and a woman to the edge of their sanity, depicts two interrelated studies of character and contains a great score by Japanese composer Rhyuici Sakamoto and American composer Richard Horowitz. This atmospheric, psychological, at times humorous and internal journey where two travellers are heading in the same direction as their marriage, is set against the hot, dry and exhausting Sahara desert during the 1940s and is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity and editing by Italian film editor Gabriella Christiani and the fine acting performances by American actor, director and producer John Malkovich, American actress Debra Winger and supporting acting performances by American actor Campbell Scott in his second feature film role, English actor Timothy Spall and English actress Jill Bennett (1931-1990) in her last feature film role. A lyrical, somewhat romantic and existentialistic road-movie from the early 1990s which gained, among several other awards, the BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography Vittorio Storaro at the 44th British Academy Film Awards in 1990.

Have you ever had one of those nights where you couldn't sleep? You wake up tired, but you know you have to go to work the next day. Everything you do makes you tired, but you must press on. That's the feeling I got from this film. Fatigue. As Winger and Malkovich make their respective ways through the Saharan obstacle course, I wonder what horror is around the next corner. Ultimately, we need to ask the question, "Why are they there." The ennui they represent is hard to fathom. They have bought into this mess and have no intention of leaving it. The characters are exhausting in that they are reckless. They put themselves in constant danger. I guess it's to experience something that will bring them out of their self imposed comas. The acting is excellent; the scenery phenomenal. I felt like I was riding along with them on those awful buses. At some point, I guess, Debra Winger's character has some sort of epiphany and sexual fulfillment, but what lies ahead. Exhausting!

Bertolucci's superb The Conformist is one of my all-time favourites, meaningful, succinct, powerful and erotic. The Sheltering Sky is not quite up there with it, it seduces the senses with visual grandeur, rather than emotional significance. Set in North Africa shortly after WW2, not too distant in time frame from his masterpiece, it is not so much an epic without a plot or a love story as some have suggested, it's more a parable, but it needed deeper motivational elements for its' central characters to compel.The majestic dunes of the Sahara, stark beauty of a barren landscape, is beautifully captured, as is the slim sensuality of Debra Winger; she doesn't seem to mind too much about the sand and flies getting everywhere - in one scene, a fly surreptitiously wanders along her thigh and up her dress during love-making with her husband in the desert - an unpaid extra, who nevertheless, contributes to the realism. In my neck of the woods, flies always demand rehearsal fees.What is it with Italian directors and sex in the desert? Think Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, an artistic orgy, mind - not a fly in sight! Believe me, there are plenty here - not just up Ms Winger's dress, but buzzing around buses, in hair, on faces, attacking raw meat on sale in markets, everywhere.John Malkovitch, as the husband, doesn't provide any reason for his professorial ambiguity - married to a beautiful woman, trying to reignite their relationship, but as soon as the opportunity arises, exploring North African prostitution with a wholly non academic interest. And the character of George Tunner, their part-time fellow-American travelling companion, captivated and at the mercy of Debra's charms, seems unaware or unconcerned by at least one of the Ten Commandments - quite a big thing in those days - why, Cecil B. DeMille even made a film about them.I like meaningful films, I liked this one, in spite of - or maybe because of - it's significance being at best eclectic, and perhaps confused. When any movie character does anything, you have to ask why. Here, you shrug your shoulders and wistfully wonder, why not? Luscious landscapes are more for painters. The images here needed more cohesion and purpose behind them. But they are images to enhance your spirituality, eventually providing a warm glow, even in an ultimately dismal context.