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What our customer's say!

"The ending", This is a long movie. The intimacy was short and then the movie was over.

"Makes Me Want to Move to Italy", This film has a relaxing quality about it that just soothes the soul. The cast is very good together as well, and the film really does have a nice ensemble quality even if Liv takes up the majority of screen time. I bought the DVD after watching on IFC, and the television version has english subtitles when Italian is being spoken. The DVD does not, as many others have mentioned. This is very annoying, because you do lose some sub-plot information by not knowing what is being said between characters speaking Italian.

I would have loved to have seen a director's cut with commentary. Anyway, regardless, this is a great film for any time you want to really escape for a couple of hours. The film is such that after you've watched it, you feel as if you've become one of the summer house guests. I think I read another review somewhere that was critical of the fact that this area of Italy is shown as being "old country" and that these areas are much more urbanized than portrayed. However, I think this is actually being addressed in the film when they show the television station/towers being built and comment on it.

All in all, I do love this film. I love watching it, I love watching certain scenes, and it's very, very relaxing!

"Got virginity?", Stealing Beauty stars Liv Tyler, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, and a host of talented Italian actors. (I only mention the names preceding because those are probably the names you will recognize. Other than Tyler and Irons, most of the substantial roles seem to have been performed by Italian actors.)

At any rate, Tyler stars as Lucy Harmon, the 19-year-old, virginal daughter of a famous poet who has recently committed suicide. Lucy, upon going through her late mother's things, finds evidence that the man she thought was her father is not, indeed, her father. Her mother's notes suggest that an Italian man is Lucy's true father. Curious, Lucy goes to an art colony (of sorts) in Italy that her mother used to frequent to find out more.

There, we are introduced to a bohemian way of life and an eccentric cast of characters. Lovable Alex (Irons), a writer with a terminal illness, becomes fast friends with Lucy. As the summer progresses, Lucy discovers the identity of her father and finds her first love.

This film is beautifully shot. It takes a nostalgic, romantic view of Italy and the artist's life. The film explores the concepts of love, secrets, and youth. I enjoyed watching most of it, though there was a bit too much nudity and profanity for my taste. This is definitely an adults-only film, but there are some good performances (notably Tyler, Irons, and a solid turn by Sinead Cusack) that make the film worth watching.

(The film actually reminded me a bit of an arty version of those old "losing your virginity" movies of the 80s. It's sort-of the same concept, but treated with a loftier, more serious tone and set in a MUCH more atmospheric location.)

"Dream On", Stealing Beauty is about Lucy Harmon (Liv Tyler), who goes to Italy to have her portrait done. Actually, a sculpture carved in wood with a chain saw. Do we ever see it? I don't think we ever do, but by then it isn't really so important. The portrait is the film, a portrait of a beautiful but awkward young woman, and the writers, artists, and Italians who come to this beautiful Italian villa for various reasons.

Lucy has other reasons for coming here besides sculpture, too. Her mother, Sara Harmon, was a poet who committed suicide. From her mothers notebooks she infers that she may have been conceived here, in an olive grove atop a hill. She wants to find out who her real father is, and the likely candidates are all here as well. Not only does she want to find out who her father is, she would also like to lose her virginity, hoping for the right person and a suitable beautiful setting.

It is a beautiful setting, but for some, like English playwright Alex (Jeremy Irons) who is aged and infirm, there is little to do but gossip. Others have affairs of their own to occupy them, but they are not immune to gossip either, and Lucy's virginity becomes a subject of intense interest.

Director Bernardo Bertolucci began as a poet, worked for Pier Paolo Pasolini as assistant director, and switched from poetry to films, but approaching film more as poetry. His best film is The Last Tango in Paris (1972), but The Last Emperor (1987) walked away with nine Academy Awards. Stealing Beauty is not up to that caliber, but it isn't as bad as you think it is going to be when you first see Liv.

She seems like a dork, and all the men seem like lecherous creeps, especially Irons. You are expecting a big train wreck, that Liv Tyler, as beautiful as she is, won't be able to act, and Bertolucci will be arrested for stealing beauty.

For instance, her poetry:

The three poems we see Lucy (Liv Tyler) compose while in Italy are:
1. I have her secret deep within for years I've had to hide I've bought the clues And now I'm hoping To bring the truth outside
2. I wait I wait so patiently I'm as quiet as a cup I hope you'll come and rattle me Quick! Come wake me up.
3. The dye is cast The dice are rolled I feel like **** you look like gold.

For someone who is supposed to be the daughter of a poet, and a character in a film by a director who began as a poet, this is not very impressive. However, Lucy just seems to express herself that way, and it comes natural to her. She doesn't expect to win the Wurlitzer prize for it, she just tears it out of the newspaper she scribbled it on and uses it for a bookmark.

Anyway, Liv Tyler ends up doing a pretty good job of acting in spite of her inexperience, dyslexia, and lack of training. Perhaps she had life experience to draw from. The daughter of Bebe Buell and Steve Tyler, she grew up thinking that Todd Rundgren was her father. Seeing that Tyler's daughter Mia could be her twin, she figured out the puzzle, and had her last name changed to Tyler by age 12.

So, while not Bertolucci's best work, Stealing Beauty is not nearly as bad as Ithought it would be. Alex ends up being not such a bad guy after all, and there are plenty of lecherous creeps, and some that are just plain lecherous, but there are also some decent male characters. Not to mention the female characters, besides Liv. Add all that to the beautiful settings, and I was able to steal a bit of beauty from this movie myself.


FILMS DIRECTED BY BERTOLUCCI

Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor : Director's Cut [Import, All-region] (Dvd) (1987)
Last Tango in Paris(1972)

FILMS AND ROLES OF JEREMY IRONS

Lolita (1997) .... Humbert Humbert
Damage (1992) .... Dr. Stephen Fleming
Kafka [Region 2] (1991) .... Kafka
Dead Ringers (1988) .... Beverly Mantle / Elliot Mantle
Swann in Love (1984) .... Charles Swann

FILMS AND ROLES OF LIV TYLER

Jersey Girl (2004) .... Maya
The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition) (2001) .... Arwen
Armageddon (1998/I) .... Grace Stamper

"Woman's Movie", In spite of Jeremy Irons and and Bertolucci directing, I was dissapointed in the sentimentality that surrounded this film.

Not for everyone. What I would call a "woman's movie" and not a high recommendation on my list.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Stealing my money", Slow boring plot, other than 2 brief nude scenes, this movie is about as slow as it gets. Not really a story line to this and the actors who are top notch are wasted. Not an NC-17 movie.. other than a guy shows his Johnson for a VERY short time and so fast you would have to be superman to see it.. (Yeah I guess you ladies could freeze frame it)

"City Kid", This movie is erotic in every way but more than that it appeals to all the senses. Tremendous acting, plausible story line, lush country side scenery, interesting insight into the lives and minds of real artists living the lives of real artists with all their human frailties, intense and interesting relationships that variously develop, restore, and erode into oblivion. Excellent movie on all levels and for the life of me I cannot figure why the price of this DVD is so cheap.

"Dumb and dumberer!", I can just imagine the guys who dreamt up this movie sitting around over a few too many cocktails and wondering out loud how they could finagle a trip to Tuscany. They would have had to be totally sloshed to come up with this laughable storyline: ....Ok, let's have a great looking chick go to Tuscany; hey, let's make her a virgin; no, no, let's make her an illegitimate orphan virgin who goes looking for her father who just happens to live in a fabulous villa in Tuscany. Ok, now what? Say, her dad could be an artist, after all isn't everyone in Tuscany a scowling, bad tempered artist with five o'clock shadow? Of course, there would have to be continuous outdoor meals overlooking the vineyards. Naturally there would have to be lots of naked people running around the place in every other scene; after all isn't that normal in fabulous Tuscan villas where there are never fewer than a dozen or two visitors at every meal to eat all that endless food and to swim (nakedly) in the obligatory slimy green concrete swimming hole? Ok, what else can we do with this? So...the virgin comes trying to identify which of the many naked visitors could be her father. But that's not all! Of course, she's a VIRGIN, which means that all the endless visitors to the fabulous Tuscan villa, including the gentleman dying of AIDS (who naturally will share her primitive stone guest house), will give all their waking thoughts to thinking up ways to get her laid. The poor audience can only hope that it will not be the scowling artist (her father) who ends up doing the dastardly deed. No, that would be just too much, so let's have everyone else take a shot at her - or at least have it cross their minds. As for the virgin herself, although she of course tempts everyone, she must remain pure throughout the movie (until almost the end), saving herself for the strange looking, curly haired, trumpet-playing virgin Tuscan peasant boy. Add to all this the Artful cinematography: the endless lingering close up shots of nipples and pubic hairs and drool running out of the corners of mouths, and there you have it: the quintessential virgin-gets-deflowered-on fabulous-Tuscan-hillside (at sunset) (while nibbling olive leaves) movie. The only saving grace to this cinematic howler is actress Liv Tyler who plays the virgin. The singular beauty and sincerity she brings to the role almost make up for the rest of the rubbishy bits.

"One of my Favorites", I first saw this movie several years ago, and fell in love with it. The story is nice and entertaining, but it's the setting that truly captivates. A young Liv Tyler stars in this movie, and she goes to visit friends of her late mother in Italy. They have a villa in the countryside, housing an amusing mix of eccentric people living the life. Tyler is there supposedly to have her portrait done, though she also has the hidden motive of discovering the identity of a man in one of her mothers poems whom she believes may be her true father. She also seeks love, and it is a fun tale saturated with a heady golden sunlight, flecked with terra cotta sculptures as much a part of the house and land as the residents. I've watched it many, many times since then, and the effect is never lessened. I highly recommend it.



"What happened to Bertolucci ?", This is what I think every time I watch his later work. Is it really the same Bertolucci who made "La Commare Secca", and "The Conformist", and "The Spider's Stratagem" ? What happened to this director who certainly had a genius and could have been on a par with the Italian giants: Fellini, Antonioni and Pasolini ?

This film is yet another example of a pitiful deterioration that began somewhere in "1900" and progressed through "The Sheltering Sky" and "The Last Emperor".

Often it seems to have been shot by a young amateur. A bunch of not particularly interesting people stuck in a country house, an American virgin trying to have it - there isn't really much to work with. The characters, with a possible exception of that of Jeremy Irons', are shallow, often annoyingly so.

There are too many people, there is no time to explore any of them. The guy who lives deluding himself into thinking that he is a sculptor, is outright pathetic, given the miserably low artistic level of his "work".

There isn't really much to write about. If you are a Bertolucci fan, then you should probably see it. Otherwise, you wouldn't lose or miss much.

There are some occasional sequences which reminded me of Bertolucci as he used to be. It has been a pleasure to see Jean Marais. The Italian countryside is of course beautiful. What else ? Well, that's about it.

It is a grossly overrated, pathetically pretentious low-grate production, in my humble opinion. Those bows to Antonioni's "The Red Desert", with paint-games, and to "Blow Up", with the pantomime actors who are as extraneous to the film as so many other things, only make the show more woeful.

I continue to hope that Bertolucci will come to his senses and remember that he probably still has his genius buried somewhere deep inside. Perhaps, it is a vain hope - but miracles do happen sometimes...