Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Sheltering Sky” (1990) is about in North Africa of 1947 and filmed within the Sahara Desert, Morocco and Algeria.
It’s primarily based on Paul Bowles’ 1949 novel and performs like a depressed David Lean epic.
After we meet Package and Porter, performed by Debra Winger and John Malkovich, they’re engaging, younger, nicely attired and have been on trip for fairly a while. “We’re vacationers, not vacationers,” they inform us and announce, with out irony, that they “may not come again in any respect.”
Campbell Scott performs Tunner, the third wheel, an irritating journey companion who solely appears considerably conscious of how irritating Package and Porter discover him.
The fascinating however unlikable Package and Porter aren’t touring simply to seek out transcendence; they’re bored and would moderately push onward to a different spot than face the state of their unsteady marriage.
Bowles seems as The Narrator. It’s a bizarre cameo, as we hear his narration, a method of getting extra of his nice prose into the movie, however his lips by no means transfer. The narration comes throughout as his inside monologue however, as a result of he’s by no means recognized, these unaware that they’re taking a look at Paul Bowles might surprise who this mystical previous man is and why he’s within the film.
A “making of” documentary declared the movie, with out irony, a “producer’s nightmare.” Bertolucci and Mark Peoples wrote the screenplay, which makes an attempt to be as trustworthy to the novel as doable.
That is Bertolucci basking within the Oscars and field workplace success of “The Final Emperor” (1987), leaning into his fame as an beautiful director who takes on provocative, difficult materials. Bertolucci paints his visible canvas just like the artist he’s and has a real grasp capturing the various visions available.
Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography matches the grandeur and magnificence of “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962). This is among the dreamiest, most beautifully photographed movies I’ve ever seen. The music and imagery are celebrated, whereas the remainder will check your persistence, whether or not you’ve learn the e book or not.
“The Sheltering Sky” is flush with imagery I’m joyful to revisit, combined with disagreeable melodrama that’s laborious to observe, adopted by extra visible splendor and again to extra melodrama.
For a movie so lavish and intricately detailed, it typically feels prefer it’s a coasting, downbeat travelogue. The novel typically discovered sufficient inner perception and nuance to distinction this, whereas the movie struggles when the characters aren’t touring their new environments.
When the movie fails, it appears as airless and unceasing as Package and Porter’s voyage. When it soars, nevertheless, there are riches right here to expertise no less than as soon as.
thirty fifth Anniversary: THE SHELTERING SKY (1990) Bernardo Bertolucci pic.twitter.com/BCr8pl4FhD
— Cinema Phenomenology (@phenocine) October 25, 2025
It begins with a beautiful crane shot, with the digicam flying upwards into New York. The celebrated scene and well-known single take of Winger strolling up a sand dune, with miles of desert behind her, is elegant.
So are the sequences of journey events making their means by desert landscapes, with not a footprint or signal of life in sight. Or the shot of camels sitting round after a protracted day’s stroll by miles of sand.
Winger and Malkovich have been on the high of their fields right here and succeed at reaching what the screenplay requires at floor stage, however they fail to deliver true nuance and pathos to their characters, which the movie sorely wanted.
The third act is nightmarish, however it could be much more harrowing with actors who related with Package and Porter’s humanity. Winger and Malkovich are compelling and work laborious, however they’re taking part in snobs and little extra.
Bertolucci makes Tunner and the viewers a vacationer alongside for the journey, which is usually fascinating and sometimes a check of our persistence. Each off-putting scene with Timothy Spall’s grotesque caricature makes me grateful for the lengthy passages of journey.
“The Sheltering Sky” is stronger as a visible journey by a misplaced time than a correct exploration of a failing marriage and the couple’s doomed adventures. Bowles’ novel isn’t unfilmable, as some have complained, however for all the extreme performing and narration available, the movie by no means totally penetrates the aching coronary heart of its characters.
FAST FACT: Bernardo Bertolucci’s father, a movie reviewer, uncovered the long run Oscar winner to the artwork type at an early age. Bertolucci shot his first two brief movies at 15.
The primary time I learn Bowles’ novel was on a protracted practice journey from Colorado to Oregon. I sat in a practice automotive with large home windows and lengthy couches, offering an area for passengers eager to learn (the most well-liked automotive on the practice, with out a lot competitors, was the one designated for Smoking).
Though the story is unhappy and the narrative developments of Package and Porter are tragic, I sat enraptured, taking my time to complete the novel. It stays one in every of my favourite books.
The final phrases within the movie are uttered as ideas from Bowles himself. This passage seems early within the novel and was intriguingly repositioned to conclude the movie. As a result of I adore it a lot, having learn and re-read it typically, right here it’s, in full:
“As a result of we don’t know once we will die, we get to think about life as an inexhaustible nicely.
Issues occur solely a specific amount of occasions. And a small quantity, actually.
What number of occasions will you keep in mind a day of your childhood…a day so deeply part of you that you could’t be with out it? Maybe 4 or 5 occasions extra? Maybe not even that.
What number of occasions will you watch the moon rise? Maybe 20. But, all of it appears limitless.”
-Paul Bowles, “The Sheltering Sky”
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