Movies-TV

much ado about nothing

To comprehend this empty, meaningless drivel, one must accept, as do the characters in it, the premise that Liv Tyler is a veritable goddess of love. Unfortunately, as she is stultifyingly dull, inane, superficial, selfish, coy, and vapid, this is impossible. God only knows why Bertolucci cast her in this role, surrounded by others who can actually act. Not even consummate pro Jeremy Irons can make his fascination with this simpering whiner sound sincere.The story is as banal as she is: teenage Lucy (Tyler) returns to Italy to lose her virginity, dreaming of a sexy young Italian she met at 13. She does not delight in the Tuscan landscape, study art, or learn Italian, which she insists on pronouncing with an excruciating American accent. Lucy lodges with a fatuous English sculpture and family who live the kind of 'bohemian' life only available to the idle rich. The boys are beautiful (young Joseph Fiennes is stunning) and, their hormones raging, are after just one thing.The only thoughtful character is a middle-aged man dying of AIDS (Irons). His inexplicable presence and predicament may have been the director's idea of adding 'weight' to this fluff. He and Lucy become friends, though one cannot grasp why. Perhaps she admires his ability speak in sentences that parse. Her utter self-absorption is forgotten for a moment as he is whisked away to die in a hospital. But as soon as the ambulance is out of sight, pretty, perky, pouty Lucy quickly comes to her senses and returns to the task at hand: giving it up.The only other American in the film is a thoroughly odious entertainment lawyer who, when not on the phone making deals, cheats on his wife at every turn. Being within earshot, she always catches him. He follows her around and grovels.But back to Lucy! She is a relentless tease and remorselessly leads on her paramour. When the time comes, however, she spurns him with one last shrill whine of consternation, and flounces out of the room leaving him decidedly 'blue'.Bertolucci must have been in love to have been this blind.

Beautiful...a visual feast!!!

Talk about eye candy!! The lush scenes of Tuscany were so beautiful, and the shots were exquisite. One thing I really liked about this movie is that it puts to life a beautiful dream of mine...falling in love while on vacation in another country! It's perfect, every girl's dream, what with the romantic countryside and the sexy Italian guys running around everywhere!! This movie made me want to run out and buy tickets to fly to Tuscany!! If you're a fellow girl, while watching this movie, you truly wish you could change places with Lucy, the main character. It brings real meaning to the phrase 'living vicariously'! It was a deeply moving film, to say the least. I love how this movie kept you in suspense, never letting you know who Lucy was going to give her heart (and herself!!) to in the end. Though I personally thought her having sex with the guy at the end was a bit sudden, I love and admire her desire to make sure it was special and that they were in love before doing so. The guy (she chooses) is so unbelievabely sweet, and I was so happy for both of them when Lucy chose him!! I love Liv Tyler; she is a fabulously talented, beautiful, and classy actress. (a good role model). She played the role perfectly. No one could have done a better (or even as good as)job playing the beautiful, innocent Lucy. I also loved the whole "artsy-farty" side of the film. Being a poet is another dream of mine as well. This movie also has a fabulous soundtrack (which I myself am dying to buy!!). My only complaints: I think some of the directing is a little screwy, cause every now and then there would be some scenes where I would say, "What the hell did they do that for??". I wouldn't know what was going on; it would just be this totally random bit that had nothing to do with the plot. Also, the movie seemed a bit sex-obsessed. As a girl, I have a bit of a problem with this. It's obvious that the director was Italian and a guy!! lol. All things in moderation! However, the film was totally hot and sensual, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

A decent film. The presence of Jeremy Irons was the best part

This was a kind of strange movie. The story was okay and I think that could have been a better movie than it was. I was plesantly surprised by the presence of Jeremy Irons. I did not know that he was in the movie but it turned out that he was the best part and its only saving grace. The setting was exceptionally lush and the beautiful and often upstaged the actors. Which in some scenes was a good thing. I also must just say that the so-called sculptures were hideous. If you are a big Liv Tyler fan you will probably love this movie, for all others it may be a bit too boring to sit through.

Really good film

Stealing Beauty was an amazing movie that should have been recognized in some way for it's content and ability to make you feel like the character Lucy. I loved this movie to bits, and would definitely recommend it to any teenage girl from about ages 15-30. It was wicked, and a delight to see.

Deep or flat?

A question especially uneasy to answer in this case. The plot, of course, is very simple and even trivial: young girl loses her virginity and discovers her father's identity, gaining love and surrendering death (the never understood death of her mother), while her older admirer (Jeremy Irons) who only felt in love once - with her mother - gains love again but death at the same time. This pretty kitschy plot, together with the lack of movement in great part of the film, could make it unbearable. But it results much more ambivalent... First note that you wouldn't think at all you're dealing with a movie from 1996. Actually, when I saw it I had no idea from when it was and I estimated it to be from the late 1970's or early 80's. That has to do, above all, with the ethereal landscape-cinematography, this really magnific beauty of every movement the camera (and Liv Tyler!) make, but with the music, too. When there appears Mozart's clarinette concert, for the first time, while you see the field and the house sleeping "siesta", it can make you cry because of pure beauty you conceive... And there are many moments in this film, where music (timeless and time-switching) and picture make you feel so unsure about the era this film is telling about. "Beauty hurts the heart" says Jean Marais' character once. And actually, it does. The eroticism of this movie, for my taste, was sometimes almost painfully sad and joyful at once. Difficult to describe. Between, there are many occasions where you can find the vulgarity of the story just repelling, but then comes such a vigorous sequence again... It reminds me of some of the last Rohmer movies, in some respect, although it is much warmer and not that boring. (Rohmer's coolness, nevertheless, prevails him for falling in kitsch, something that Bertolucci doesn't avoid.) The movie, in some precious moments, does exactly do what its title promises: it steals pieces of beauty from this incredible world - but it has few awareness of it. Its explicitly "deep" parts are too immature and presumptious, but its superficiality contents a profoundness that convinced me. As a piece of art, I have to consider this movie too superficial, as a piece of " just feeling" (a word that I normally hate), I cannot let to like it. 6 of 10.

Perfect

I thought it was a great movie. It was so beautiful, both visually and intellectually - and sensually also. I loved it. It was slow and easy and relaxed and had a wonderful feel to it. I'm an action-adventure fan, but I just ate this movie up. I highly recommend it.

Tribute to lustful desires with addition of some art

Having seen some of Bernaldo Bertolucci's films, STEALING BEAUTY appears to me as rather a different work. Its content does not seem to offer much to a viewer who expects something ambitious. While seeing the movie, I must admit that I felt disappointed, sometimes even angry with the whole thing; yet, I don't deny that I liked some aspects of it. What surely remained in my memory after I gave a view to STEALING BEAUTY?First, it is definitely Liv Tyler. She is beautiful and sensual in the lead. Her character of Lucy is seemingly innocent, she is called "a virgin" since she waits and waits patiently to find the love of her life. When we see her through the first half of the movie, we discover her, get to know her similarly as we get to know someone in real life. It's like a sort of "striptease of emotions." Lucy's straightforwardness is conveyed in her love to her late mother, Sarah, who had once been to Tuscany before Lucy was born... However, her innocence is not that endless... The lusts and desires take over soon... But concerning Liv Tyler alone in this picture, she is really good and fits to the role. Unforgettable!Second, it is the dreamlike locations that you will not forget. Bertolucci, after his far away exotic movie journeys to China, Sahara Desert and Tibet, comes back to his homeland, to Italy and, more precisely to the beautiful Tuscany where, as many poets wrote, the sun shines more pleasantly, the hills bear a magical power and the people best understand the word "Amore" (Love). Yes, the movie can boast some romantic moments in the marvelous region with its olive trees, picturesque hills and almost heavenly colors.Third, it is for Jeremy Irons that you will not forget the film. He does a great job in the interesting and moving role of seriously ill Alex whom Lucy supplied with the "incredible frivolity of the dying." Irons does his best to express the desire to live, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, a change of heart forced by his cruel destiny. Alex is one of these people whom Lucy really trusts.But that is all that talks for the movie's value. If it weren't for the three above aspects, STEALING BEAUTY would be just a sheer waste of time, a film that has nothing to offer, that carries no good message. Its content is not ambitious at all; there are chaotic moments; the action is deadly predictable; there are weak performances, including Carlo Cecchi or Sinead Cusack. I also disliked the many vulgar scenes in which everything appears to be focused on lust and no feeling. As a matter of fact, the entire movie is about sexual desire, which occurs to be provocative, tempting, vulgar, sometimes even deviated. Lucy observes the people she meets, is fascinated by their making love to one another (consider the moment she finds Niccolo with a girl in the park). The final moment is one of the most erotically detailed scenes of cinema and excuses itself by the fact that it is meant to show the first love. A 19-year old virgin who at last takes a man! It is true that it is the first time for both, Lucy and her "vacation lover" but it cannot be called beauty or art. The moments the youngsters smoke marijuana are also vulgar and obscure. Moreover, music is nothing special in this movie, which disappointed me keeping in mind that it could have been so great. Actually, the film is about love affairs in Tuscany...Putting it in a nutshell, STEALING BEAUTY is not a film for everyone. People who know Bertolucci will be shocked by his "difference" here. Ambitious viewers will find it "so so" just average. People who want a movie to carry a message will leave the seat in disappointment. Yet, I don't discourage you to see it. There is some art around these lustful desires, the art of Liv Tyler's girlish beauty, the art of picturesque land of artists and the art of great acting by Jeremy Irons. 4/10

Bertolucci's Portrait of the Virgin at 19

Stealing Beauty is a character piece, not so much ever really driven by plot, and which makes it a particularly European-flavored entry in the Bernardo Bertolucci cannon of films he's made. This shouldn't be a surprise; the guy's been making them this way for most of his career, save for when he can't not have some semblance of a story (i.e. 1900 and Last Emperor, which were epics). It's got some purely luscious cinematography- thanks, in part, to the equally luscious and vibrant locations out in these Tuscan fields and villas and vineyards and homes, all secluded like in an over-elaborate dream- and some brilliant moments, though in the end it's almost something of a minor work for the director. The most admirable aspect is that he's able, in short, to make a contemporary movie that doesn't feel stuck in time.It's a 90's movie, with a hot-young-talent in her first role (I think it's her first), Liv Tyler, and in a way it works that she's not all that great in the part. Her awkwardness, her moments of sadness over her character's loss of her mother and the confusion over who her father really is, and the girlish and nearly overrated conundrum of still being a virgin, works to her ability as a 'first-timer', so to speak. And, luckily, she's surrounded by much better actors, people like Jeremy Irons who has a presence that is immense and cool even when bed-ridden for much of the film (thankfully it doesn't turn out how I originally thought the set-up would be with him wooing Tyler), and Rachel Weisz in one of her early roles as a woman who has reasonable suspicion her self-absorbed American husband is a lying/cheating louse. There are others as well, like the one who plays the old Frenchman (I forget his name), who's incredible as the old crank who can't bear to be where he's at.If it does feel like a minor work, as I mentioned, it's that Bertolucci- working from his original concept with a screenwriter- doesn't give very much depth to the situation, or to some of the characters, until a little more than halfway through the movie. For a while it feels like a shallow enterprise, the kind of "will she or won't she" attitude towards sex that should be above him. But at some point there's something that opens up a little bit, then a little more, and all the while as Tyler's Lucy becomes more aware of what matters the central conceit starts to become less and less like some big hurdle and something more natural. As well as this, Bertolucci does litter his film, which is uncharacteristically good in the present setting (he blends musical choices very well, from alternative rock to old R&B and classical and jazz) and has a couple of really tremendous scenes. The bit at the party where Tyler and a possible-father dance and the dancers all choreographed and strange come in, it's enthralling.Fans of the director should check it out, as should for those of the actors, but this being said it's almost kind of a light work. Lacking really hardcore dramatic tension, it's mostly predicated on a 19-year old girl's quasi-coming-of-age. Which is interesting, up to a point.

Tuscani, Italy creates a beautiful and sensual vibe to this!

This movie is far from a thriller but it just shows that women are in need to. No matter how beautiful you are you still have problems and are in need just like men. I like it because that is the side of women we never see..they are so cool, ya know? But this film shows a beautiful woman that wants to have sex badly but just can't find that right guy! And when you look at her you are like man ? I wish I could help out so bad! But anyway, it is beautifully filmed and the setting is beautiful. It makes you feel like you are actually visiting that country. I am not hot on slow movies unless they are weird or mind stretching, but this one is really interesting to watch. Expecially to see a beautiful woman for once struggling with passion and sex!And it has some comic relief in it as well! The tactic's that some of those men used to try to get her in bed, was completley Uproarious! Liv Tyler pertrays such a virginal and Innocent performance. There isn't any huge nudity parts in this film, she only shows her upper torso. But anyway I love this movie alot every sense I rented it I have missed looking at it. Which means this title will be purchased very shortly!The party scene was so beautiful, to see the dance culture and the various personalities at the event. This is definitley a atmosphere movie just as "Under the Cherry Moon was which was filmed in France. Definitley if you are a cultural person and you like eye candy this is the film to get. I think you will learn alot about Italy watching this film. I got this one because of my interest in her beauty after I saw "Lord of the rings."

Arish

BEAUTIFUL!!!!

If you loved this one, you have GOT to see "Sirens." Are there any more like these two out there?

A Sensuous Film Not To Be Missed!

Absolutely incredible! Though I am a sucker for a lot of soul-searching types of chick-flicks, never before had I been so enraptured by a movie that has been dubbed a chick-flick. Liv Tyler's acting was commendable, and the rest of the cast lived up to and beyond the challenge of overcoming her beauty. The cinematography was breath-taking and the storyline grabbed me from the beginning. Few movies are about a young girl's longing for love AND sex, and I was pleasantly surprised that Stealing Beauty did a remarkable job of portraying boh.

Simply beautiful...

this was the first proof I really got that European film is something different and extraordinary! Set out in beautiful Tuscany the scenery in this movie is stunning; the landscape, the details, the architecture. And when it comes to acting oh dear, Jeremy Irons is really something! *lol* Playing a dying man he is still intriguing and keeping the mystery of this film going. Seducing young Liv Tyler's carachter and leading her forward in this somewhat odd story. The film is doing a great job at showing the confusion of being young, so therefor I think the oddness serves a good purpose. No matter what you think of the story, you will remember it a long time after for it's beauty.

Beautiful film

After a trio of exotic disappointments (The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha), director Bernardo Bertolucci teturned to his native Italy for the first time in fifteen years with Stealing Beauty. The result is his most intimate film since Last Tango In Paris, a coming-of-age tale in which 19-year-old Lucy Harmon (Liv Tyler) travels from America to Tuscany to spend time with family friends following her mother's suicide. She has a couple of ulterior motives for taking the trip--to discover the real identity of her father and lose her virginity to Niccolo, an Italian boy who was her first love as a young teenager.

The story is a flimsy construct but it's well supported by Tyler's appealing, open performance, some sharp playing from Jeremy Irons, Donal McCann and Sinead Cusack, and Darius Khondji's supple, deep focus photography. Bertolucci relies a little heavily on music cues to telegraph emotions but he's in full control of this subtle tale, which proceeds in a languorous daze to a tender and touching close. There are those who still bemoan the director's forsaking of political themse to concentrate wholly on the personal, but the film-making skill and the understanding of the human heart apparent in such films as The Spider's Stratagem and The Conformist are still very much in evidence here. It may focus on the soul rather than the state, but Stealing Beauty feels just as important as anything Bertolucci has made in the past.

Simple pleasures

Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci brings that certain European pacing and feel to his movies, even though the past several have been made in English and often with at least one American actor. This means you can expect a great amount of talking and very little action, which can be wonderful if you are in the right frame of mind. He also brings that European attitude toward sexuality and nudity (and no, I am not equating the two), which is to say his actors are fairly uninhibited. He usually peppers his films with a fair amount of nudity and/or sex, and "Stealing Beauty" is no exception. It is no secret the average American is much more inhibited about his or her body than the average European, which provides the filmmaker with an opportunity for commentary. American teen, Lucy, visits her family in Tuscany shortly after her mother's passing in order to find her father. She is taken aback, however, when she heads to the swimming pool one day and finds everyone lounging about naked. She declines to join in. Eventually, however, she loosens up enough to expose a breast while posing for a portrait. "When in Rome..." (or in the vicinity, anyway). Bertolucci is providing a view of the Italian way of life, or at least those aspects that interest him most, through the eyes of an American. He compares and contrasts the two cultures with details that seem too obvious to even illuminate. It is interesting that Lucy seems to find more in common with some of the Italians she meets than she does with some of the Americans there. Over the course of the film, beauty takes precedence over deeper levels of meaning, though this is not necessarily to the film's detriment. This is essentially a coming-of-age story, with Lucy learning to enjoy life's simple pleasures, including sex. It is evident that Bertolucci finds beauty and pleasure to be of the utmost importance, which makes this subject a perfect fit for him. Liv Tyler is up to the task of carrying this film and the rest of the cast is marvelous as well. This is one to enjoy for its characters, its mood and yes, its beauty.

What about "no stars"?

As an Italian (who teaches Italian in HS and college in the U.S.) I really looked forward to a good film after one of my students recommended this one to me.

As a professor, I can sit through a lot of boring stuff, but this movie was so awful I couldn't even finish it. The scenery is nice but after watching this film for over an hour I found it to be pointless.

Elegant, sweet, pleasant

This is not a "great" film, but it's elegant, well-shot, and staffed with superb actors & actresses that know their work & do it well.You have all read the plot line, so I won't dwell on that. I will say, though, that viewers searching for a typical "story-conflict-wrapup" will be disappointed. This film is about life...several lives... and we are shown a brief window into those lives.Lucy's story (Lucy = Liv Tyler) is, I believe, the least interesting -- we always observe her, and never get into her head, and yet know what she's about. But...she's 19... she knows very little... and Bertolucci knows that.The real stories are how the others, older, react to her and to each other... lust, memory, envy, nostalgia for lost youth, jealousy, pride, recognition, understanding of the motion of life...All of these evoke other stories that, unfortunately for all of you that want a nicely wrapped-up movie, you are going to have to make up in your own heads. But that's the beauty of this film.While I hate to generalize, teens will dislike this movie, as will adults who think that suburban life is pretty good. It's never explained what any of these people actually DO, and I know that's an important problem for many movie goers.But the rest of you... give it a try.

A true masterpiece.

Simply put, this is a must see movie. Truly a cinema photography masterpiece. The director captures your attention with his skillful use of colors and beauty. Don't rent this, BUY IT! You'll enjoy this many times over. If you don't love the artistic qualities of this film, you'll at least love the beauty and inocence of Liv Tyler. The plot is a little weak, but the film's beauty more than makes up for it.

Great potential...but falls short

The first twenty minutes of this movie had me riveted. The Italian landscape was incredible and upon meeting all the diverse characters, one would think this was the perfect stage for a fine film.But it wasn't.Lucy's search for her father is first pushed on the back burner then brought miraculously to life near the end of the movie. Meanwhile the plot involves the entire house buzzing like old maids about the poor girl's virginity, as if the topic were front page news. But then again Jeremy Irons character said it best: "Up here on this hill, the only thing we have to talk about is each other". Hm, maybe so, but the idea quickly becomes dull.Instead of becoming interested in Lucy, the only scenes I found enjoyable involved Miranda and her dim-witted "boyfriend". Richard made me laugh so much that I nearly forgave the pointless plot. And I would've been very disappointed were it not for Jeremy Irons and his wonderful character of Alex. Alex's musing, thoughts and expressions made me smile and made me think. (" 'The incredible frivolity of the dying' You have to allow me a little frivolity")As far as what Lucy sees in Nicholo or what made her take the plunge with someone she barely knew, baffles me. Take the beautiful cinemetography, interesting characters and mold them in an entirely different way and you've got yourself a much better movie than what was presented. Such potential..wasted *sigh*

Beautiful movie

This may not appeal to the US market, a slightly slow film but beautifully cast and photographed. Liv Tyler reaches peaks she has not had the script or direction to reach since, Jeremy Irons plays his best role for years and the rest of the ensemble, largely-British cast (including a very young Joseph Fiennes) also excels in roles where what is not said is sometimes more important than the dialogue. And the soundtrack is fantastic. I'm delighted this is coming out on DVD: it's a thoughtful and thought-provoking film - buy it if you've ever read and enjoyed a book (don't buy it if the book was one you had to colour-in).

Beautiful Scenery with Ugly Plot holes

First I'll start with the good things of this film before I begin ranting: 1. The scenery was beautiful
2. Joseph Fiennes is in it 3. See #1 But one must know that scenery does not make a movie or does an extremely minor character make a movie. So what I have left is what I didn't like about the movie. It was way too long for what it covered, but for some reason it left me with question marks running through my head. I felt that Jeremy Irons's character was underdeveloped and I didn't feel the importance or the chemistry between him and Liv Tyler. His character wasn't the only one underdeveloped. Many actions weren't explained - like Why does Christopher get on a computer and use Lucy's name in a chatroom? Why does Liv Tyler like the guy who she first believes is her father? The world may never know. There was so much emphasis on the sex and nudity in this movie that I believe the makers forgot the storyline in a lot of the parts. Movies like "The End of the Affair" and "Shakespeare in Love" which use nudity and sex to represent love, art, and beauty succeed at continuing the story and not losing itself among the beautiful actors. Liv Tyler flaunts herself a lot in this movie. It made me wonder why she would ever argue with Martha Fiennes over not doing a nude scene in "Onegin". Because she sure bared her soul in this movie and didn't seem bothered by it. Maybe I didn't pay attention. I was too distracted by the numerous scenery shots I guess. Maybe there was some deep message that I missed. But the only deep thing I could think of is that this movie is just deep in fodder. Phew! Don't bother!