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Format: VHS
Nov 1999
Rated R
Recording Mode: Dolby Surround
Sound: Stereo
Closed Captioned
95 min.
Color
UPC: 794043485831 |
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* ML=ships from multiple locations, AE/AP/AA=ships from U.S. Military location.
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* ML=ships from multiple locations, AE/AP/AA=ships from U.S. Military location.
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Movie Description
A young African woman named Shandurai (Thandie Newton) flees to Rome when her husband is jailed by an oppressive regime. There she studies medicine and earns room and board by keeping house for Mr. Kinsky (David Thewlis), an English composer and piano teacher. When this shy, reclusive man declares his love for her, she makes a demand she believes he cannot meet--to free her husband from jail.
Synopsis
In BESIEGED, Bernardo Bertolucci returns to the taut, slow-burning intimacy of LAST TANGO IN PARIS; this film is predicated on smaller victories, however. Heroine Shandurai (Thandie Newton) left Africa when her husband was made a political prisoner, and she numbs her grief in Rome by keeping busy at medical school. By day she earns her keep cleaning house for Mr. Kinsky (David Thewlis), the classical pianist who inherited the villa in which they both live. When Kinsky finally admits his infatuation with his downstairs tenant, she shocks him by demanding that he free her husband. What follows is a profound sacrifice that reminds these two frightened people that the differences between them need not be insurmountable. BESIEGED is partly about getting to know people by looking at them, and the film itself seems nearly wordless. Bertolucci charts emotion in handheld close-up shots and wraps his principals in rich color, texture, and music. Rome is modern and sumptuous at the same time, just as the villa is nestled between a busy subway station and the Spanish Steps. The small-narrative feel is no accident; the film is based on a short story by James Lasdun.
Film Notes
Besieged was shot in 28 days in Kenya and Rome.
For the African griot, or story-singer, who appears throughout the film, Bertolucci and his crew hired a Luo tribesman from their Kenya location.
Mr. Kinsky plays Mozart, Grieg, Bach, and Chopin, while Shandurai listens to African musicians Salif Keita, Papa Wemba, and Ali Farka Toure.
Industry Reviews
"...Bracingly fresh....Filled with rich, glinting images of the world imagined as a confusingly lovely mosaic..."
New York Times - Stephen Holden (05/21/1999)
"...An intimate and painstaking tale that's complemented by exquisitely restrained acting..."
Box Office - Susan Green (11/01/1998)
"...Bertolucci invests it with tension both visual and aural..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (05/21/1999)
"...Enchanting....A film that combines a stunning sensuality with a rigorous economy....Ravishingly beautiful..."
Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas (05/21/1999)
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