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| Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci; Starring Thandie Newton, David Thewlis, and Claudio Santamaria |
I guess that I would count as a somewhat fan of Bernardo Bertolucci. His films ranging from character studies (Last Tango in Paris) to epics (The Last Emperor) have almost always enthralled me. Unfortunately that is not the case with Besieged. Telling the story of will she/won’t she, Besieged has about as much faith in its storytelling as it has dialogue (my guess is that there may be 8 pages worth of dialogue in the entire film).
This would be shallow filmmaking at its best. It has beautiful visuals and looks good, but has no emotions or care in the entire ninety minutes. Yes, the characters seem to want to have emotion, but rarely is anything even near that shown. Instead we are treated to long shots of people staring at each other. If watching David Thewlis watch Thandie Newton iron clothing is your cup of tea, than this might be perfect for you, but otherwise it is an overlong bore. Not once was I truly interested in the characters in this film or what future they might lead. Yes, Bertolucci shows us a bunch of nice scenery, especially ranging in Rome, but he is no Ingmar Bergman with the camera. When Bergman would take a quiet close up on Ingrid Thulin or Liv Ullman, there was honest feeling there, with Bertolucci it is how many shots of Newton he can have before showing her nude. In fact that seems to be all he cares about here, what can he entice us with. Sure it happened with Stealing Beauty and it worked then. But it does not work now.
I liked the performance of David Thewlis as Mr. Kinsky, a pianist that falls deeply for an African lodger named Shandurai (Newton) despite the fact that she is married to a jailed African freedom fighter (when he is taken away, Bertolucci’s choice to show fear in Newton is…urinate on herself). Newton gives a dry and uninteresting performance, easily overshadowed by the commanding and eloquent one from Thewlis. I liked what I saw at times, but little else, though I did like its nice subtle questioning ending.
