The Sheltering Sky (1990)

Paul Bowles Novel Comes to the Screen

Sheltering Sky is a great novel; the atmospherics of "place" -- Sahara desert -- play a big role. The film combines Bernardo Bertolucci and John Malkovich and is perfect, but dark. Lots of footage on the lives of Sahara nomads interpersed with the plot. Supporting cast is excellent. I think it helps to have read the book. July 7, 2008

THE FABULOUS BERNARDO

Dear Guys and gals, searching for an evening to relax with a wonderfeul movie. Then go nowhere else. Sit back in your couch, an arm round your girl friend, and view Bernardo Bertulucci's 'The Sheltering Sky'. It is a fabulous movie which I am sure you will enjoy very much. Think i'm jokin'? nah.. why should I . My aunt in India, a Carnatic Musician(what a mouthful), is gonna send me The DVD of The Sheltering Sky as soon as she gets it. The Amazon US guys, are very prompt. I only hope, the amazon guys do not send the DVD by Courier. I once had a terrible experience with the Indian Couriers. They open packs, and do all kinds of....stuff!
I hope the US Amazon guys, send it by good ol' postal service.
NALINI THILAK April 8, 2008

Finding Meaning While Following the Lost

I couldn't find the edition I read of "The Sheltering Sky" here on [...] but my copy includes an introduction by Paul Bowles written a year or so before he died. In the introduction, he says "the less said about the film version, the better."

(His only other comment about the film was to mock the filmmakers for trying to make Debra Winger look like his wife Jane and sell the story as a thinly-veiled account of their trip into the Sahara...a trip that Bowles swears he never took with Jane).

I'd seen the movie before reading the book and was intrigued with the story enough to read the novel. Then I watched the movie again. The film is certainly more interesting if you've read the book. That's probably because you can follow the inner thoughts and feelings (or lack of feelings) of the characters, something you'd only have to guess at while watching the film otherwise. It seemed to me that some really good dialogue was left out of the film between Port and Kit, especially in their final scenes. (That some of this dialogue was given to the author during his cameo at the beginning and end of the film didn't make it any easier either).

I love John Malkovich but I think he's not really right for Port. Port comes across (to me) as a vain, handsome but empty man stubbornly trying to free himself from his privileged existence. Malkovich is too intense and interesting, too unpredictable to be a pretty boy foolishly blundering through the Sahara to shake himself off. He's a great actor but his talents obscures this character (again, my opinion).

And I've really learned to appreciate Debra Winger. She really is one of this country's finest actresses, taking on some really tough roles and making them work. When she's left to carry the movie by herself, I wished there had been more scenes earlier to draw her character out more. Three years after this film, she was also great in "Shadowlands" with Anthony Hopkins.

The brutality of the novel is downplayed when Kit wanders off to join a caravan late in the film. In the movie, she becomes involved with an Arab trader like a mini-romance where she eventually gives herself to him. In the novel, she's immediately passed between the two men leading the caravan and accepts her total loss of identity. I think you'll agree there's a huge difference between a romance and a rape, right?

But the film follows the storyline somewhat faithfully and has some really wonderful photography of the Sahara Desert. I thought the ending was a little confusing...until I read the book and rewatched it. I'm sure the movie will be more interesting if you did that...I'm just not sure you'd want to invest that much time in it.

I thought it was worth it. December 9, 2007

Quick Sand

I love Bertolucci and I love Paul Bowles, but I think this movie fails both artists. It is, of course, a stunning visual masterpiece, as usual it must be said, because of the cinematographer. It is luscious and hypnotic, no doubt about that. I think the weakness is in the cast who, although talented in their own ways, really fail here. Winger is capable of greatness; she is terrific in many films, but here she seems so weak, no passionless. Malkovich is the darling of the art set, but doesn't really have it as far as I am concerned. His is a peculiarly neurotic sort of masculine power. He pouts and purses his lips, and sulks. By now he has got this down as though it were a comic routine. He seems all wrong for this role. I liked the scenes of Winger out in the desert with the Bedouin; this is a real S/M fantasy if there ever was one, but I don't think the ending has much resonance. When she runs back into the casbah, it isn't clear in the movie as it is in the novel that she has nothing to go back to. Partly this is due to the odd framing device with the elderly Bowles reading from the text in that awful monotone voice of his. Nostalgia is not the right note to strike but there it is. Bowles by himself, and the entire scene suddenly becomes romanticized, like a TV commercial for Lucky Strike. November 21, 2007

Bertolucci's most underrated film, and a masterpiece...

This is definitely Bertolucci's most underrated film. It's a real masterpiece. It's incredibly cinematic, well acted, deep, and mysterious. John Malkovich, Debra Winger, Campbell Scott, and Timothy Spall gives great performances, and it's another film that showcases Bertolucci's brilliant camera work (again lensed by Vittorio Storario), and Bertolucci's mastery of erotic cinema. The last 45 minutes or so of this film has almost no dialogue (unheard of in a film released by a major studio), but you are mesmerized by it anyway. It's a real ambiguous film, leaving you with more questions than answers. I have not read the original novel, but reportedly Bowles was unhappy with it. A friend of mine who did read the original novel and saw the film loved them both. I think this film got dissed a bit because it was done right after The Last Emperor, so maybe critics felt that they had to take Bertolucci down a notch. Another great Bertolucci film.... March 13, 2007

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