Besieged

source: Besieged

Picture David Thewlis as a romantic lead. Picture Thandie Newton as a softer character than she normally portrays. If you cannot, this is a must see. Thewlis and Newton have electrostatic chemistry. The tension and passion between the two main characters is palpable. Bertolucci again shows us love. Love in a very human and imperfect situation. The film may be a little slow for some. But it's a welcome change of pace. It will leave you asking yourself what you would do in a similar situation.

Looks to me like old man Bertolucci is losing his hand. His chronicles of unrequited love and passion gone mad have grown ever less poignant since "Last Tango" (his apex IMHO), as "Stealing Beauty" had shown us before. Here we have an implausible refugee (carried out with talent by the still not mature, though very promising, Thandie Newton) from an imaginary African nation meet with her also unlikely English landlord and boss (in Rome, of all places!) and how the story of their difficult relationship unfolds. Add to that some vague references to political disturbance in said imaginary country and a distant husband held as a political prisoner, stir well and presto: instant artistic film with political undertones. Sadly, inspiration was not one of the ingredients in the mixture and the result shows: not so subtle camera tricks, sparse and boring dialogue. View it if you must (if you are a fan of Bertolucci's, as I confess to being) but this is far away from his best.

"Besieged" plays out like a confused, misguided remake of Bernardo Bertolucci's much more assured "Last Tango in Paris." It is an ineffective combination of political and romantic drama, meandering back and forth between the two and never really concentrating on either. The film has an interesting setup, with the imprisonment of Shandurai's husband and the emotional instability of Kinsky, but the story gradually falls apart after that. There is no real emotional force driving the events in the film; the audience is kept at a distance by the cold, almost passionless tone, and there is never any satisfying realization of Shandurai's sadness or Kinsky's self-loathing. Having said that, there's still a fine performance by Thandie Newton in the lead, and the always interesting David Thewlis does a fairly competent job as the eccentric pianist. But Bertolucci's inability to balance out the two halves of the story constituted by these performances impede the characters from reaching their full potential, and robs us of what could have been a fascinating drama.

I fail to understand where all these 8, 9 & 10 votes come from... the film is more concerned with cinematography than telling a story. OK it was beautifully done, but there was nothing in the story that couldn't have been told in half the time - and then used the other half to fill us in on the background and the results (did he pay for it?, did she go back to him?). As it stands, the most memorable thing about the film is the introductory sequence featuring that wonderful music, from-the-bones singing and later on the wonderful facial contortions from John C. Ojwang. 5/10

What a lovely film this is! I usually do not go for the kind of heavy-handed aestheticism Bertolucci has been partial to in his last few movies ("Stealing Beauty", "Little Buddha", "The Last Emperor" et al.), so imagine my surprise when this movie turned out to be an exquisitely rendered intimate love story. There are basically only two main characters: Jason Kinsky, a reclusive expatriate British pianist in Rome with an uncertain past (played here with great delicacy and understated charm by David Thewlis, in a 180 degree turnabout from the profane misanthrope he played in "Naked"), and Thandie Newton's Shandurai, his African housekeeper, who fled her strife-torn native country to train as a medical doctor in Rome while supporting herself by performing domestic drudgery. The striking, almost wordless opening sequence serves as an introduction to Shandurai's past. Then the camera rapidly cuts to the present day Rome, where already besotted Kinsky orbits around his beautiful and distant housekeeper, not realizing that her nights are tormented by the memory of her husband, a political prisoner left back in Africa. When Kinky approaches Shandurai with a hasty declaration, he is met with a steely and passionate resistance. Chastened, he retreats into a polite distance from the object of his desire. But from then on, nothing goes as expected. For the rest of the movie is about the change in the balance of this relationship, and the singular way through which the capitulation of Shandurai is achieved. The central sacrifice in the story is a grand romantic gesture of Gastbian proportion, simultaneously selfless and selfish. I was completely enthralled at the way this movie unraveled itself, layer by delicate layer, with little dialogue but with a kaleidoscope of imagery and most of all, with music. Bertolucci is frequently obssessed with his heroine's beauty, and this is no exception. The camera frequently lingers on the gentle curve of Newton's arm, the slope of her back, and on her great dark eyes. However, Bertolucci has for once given us a compelling female character, a woman of determination as well as beauty, unlike his usual bevy of vacuous/self destructive mannequins (e.g. Liv Tyler in "Stealing Beauty", Dominique Sanda in "1900", etc). Shandurai's new-world vigor and her sense of purpose contrast starkly with Kinsky's aimlessness, his solitude, and especially his music, which permeates the movie with exquisite melancholy (the music consists mainly of solo piano pieces by Bach, Chopin, Scrabin and Coltrane). Likewise, the effect of their relationship on Kinsky is expressed most effectively through the transformation in his music, as primitive beats of Africa are blended into the lyricism of Kinsky's composition. The movie is short, sparse and as different as night and day from the usually action-driven fares of Hollywood. Bertolucci, in a rare form, has fashioned a truly adult film that deftly navigates through the complexities of the human heart.

Warning. Slight Spoiler. The idea for this movie was noble, I thought. How he would give up all that he has for a woman he loves. Not only expecting nothing ... but not telling her, because it was truly benevolent. He sells everything including his grand piano (he's a piano teacher) to get her husband back to her. But where that great idea was going simply just made the rest worse. As a character, Jason Kinsky at first is shown (intentionally or not) to be pitiful. He's goes through her stuff, moves her clothes around ... all the while she is his maid. When he finds out she's married (in a badly acted scene I might add, but more on that later) that's when he tries to get her husband back to her (he is in jail in "Africa"). This redeems him to us and to her. To show this you have your token shots of her looking at him lovingly, with those puppy dog eyes (I'm sure you all know what I mean). His selfless love wins her over... despite the fact that she is lovingly married for all we know. As a whole though this movie sucked. David Lewlis acting was perhaps worse than the dork who played Anakin Skywalker in the Phantom Menace Star Wars movies. Completly over the top. Then of course is the racism. For all you people that didn't see it, yes it wasn't as hug as say some other movies. But, whenever "Africa" is shown in the movies there is ALWAYS a guy with the thumb piano singing something "African", as in this movie. African cultures vary significantly more than European do, but you wouldn't know it from this or any other movie. When Europe is shown, you don't see "European" scenes or that "Europeans" don't all speak the official "European" language. When Europe is shown it is always some specific place, Italy in this case. However, whenever an "African" country is shown it is non-descript, with the languages, culture, music and a flag that has the continent on it (find a country ANYWHERE, where you would see the whole continent) like in this movie. To make matters worse they are in your face about it ... why does that thump piano guy keep appearing when she has memories or dreams about "Africa"? Finally, we (fortunately and very painfully) get to the ending. It sucked. Talk about not committing; the cheapest way of not resolving any conflict and making appear "dramatic". On a scale of 1 to 10 I give it a -2. I'm rating it this high because Thadie Newton's beauty is the ONLY thing that made this watchable.

Promising med student Thandie Newton (BELOVED, who is still not afraid to pee and slobber on camera) cleans Italian villa of eccentric English piano teacher (David Thewlis, THE BIG LEBOWSKI) after fleeing dictatorial takeover in her native Africa, her school teacher husband imprisoned. After a series of awkward encounters, the two warm to each other, their musics blend, and expensive objects are sold for a reason. Selections by Mozart, Scriabin, Bach, and a fascinating J.C. Ojwang, who functions as an agitating one-man chorus during the first half. Those who came to this for Bertolucci because of a vague memory of LAST TANGO IN PARIS (1973) and for Newton because she is black will get to see fine acting, great camera work and scenery, real Africans, the streets of Rome, and to hear excellent piano playing by Stefano Arnaldi, and, hopefully, not be disappointed that they weren't force-fed any scenes with chickens or homies gettin' shot up in the 'hood to a gangsta rap soundtrack.

Very few times do I see movies that leave me with no emotion other than boredom. This is one of those few movies. I don't recall seeing any of Berdolucci's earlier work, but he possesses a knack for assembling images. He's definitely a fine visual artist, and I felt some of the sets were beautiful, as well as the music. Unfortunately, the script might as well have been a series of blank pages. I'm sure many will praise the film because of its lack of dialogue, and how artful that is since so many modern films depend too much on dialogue. Well, that may be true, but no dialogue alone doesn't make a movie work. "In the Bedroom" contained long scenes with no dialogue, but the silent images helped tell the story, and the brilliant facial expressions by both Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek gave the audience great insight into how they were feeling. I'm not bashing the actors in this movie, and Thandie Newton and David Thewlis are both genuinely talented, but they're not given much to work with. The story contains very little conflict. At times the love affair between Newton and Thewlis seems to be forgotten, and the whole affair itself contains no passion. You know a movie's awful when it has NO effect on you. It didn't make me angry, it didn't annoy me, it didn't repulse me, it did nothing! And even at 90 minutes, it felt like a miniseries! My score: 2 (out of 10)

SLIGHT SPOILERS I can't fairly claim Bernardo Bertolucci as one of my favorite filmmakers, because I've seen relatively few of his films. However, he did make my third favorite film of all time, Last Tango in Paris. Besides Besieged, the only other film of his I'd seen was The Last Emperor, which I like very much, also. Now, I vividly remember seeing the episode of Siskel & Ebert (or whatever it was called at the time that this film was released) and hearing Ebert proclaim that Besieged was racist and crying, "What has happened to Bertolucci? He used to make these beautiful and personal films!" I want to know what the hell movie he saw in place of Besieged, because the Besieged I saw was "beautiful and personal," and it was certainly not "racist." The film is about an African woman (Thandie Newton, who was later to star opposite Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible II, which I now have to see) whose husband was arrested for political reasons (we're never really told in which country they lived, nor is the political climate explained or described). Some time late (that, too, is unspecified), she immigrates to Italy where she is hired as a live-in maid by an English pianist (David Thewlis). He is extraordinarily shy and inhibited; he barely even leaves his lavish home. Soon, he is attracted to Newton's exoticism and tells her he is in love with her, even asks her to marry him. She's terribly offended and feels used: she shouts that she already has a husband, and that he was arrested in Africa. Thewlis yields from his pursuit, and, because of his guilt (and also because he is still attracted to her), he begins on a quest to find and set free Newton's husband. What results is one of the more complex films of the past few years. The art film is not dead. Bertolucci's direction is filled with interesting angles, camera movements, colors, jump cuts, and all sorts of beautiful and effective tricks. The only thing I didn't like was the use of slow motion - that's one technique that is difficult to use well in the cinema, and, with hand-held cameras, it looks awful. A couple of individual scenes were clunky, especially the scene in which Thewlis declares his love for Newton. It's not bad, per se, but, well, like I said, it's a bit clunky, if you know what I mean. It doesn't work completely. The film relies on very little dialogue, which makes the whole thing more sublime. Thandie Newton and David Thewlis are both excellent. I can't wait to see Newton in other films. To answer Ebert's claim of racism, if he had said that Thewlis' character was a racist, then that would have been understandable. His "love" is just lust, and what he is really attracted to is her Africanness, her exoticness. And also her perceived primitiveness. This is not an uncommon attraction, even if it is offensive. But these feelings are actually DEALT with, they're not just simply accepted. Ebert also said that the goal of the film, its entire point, was to get to the sex. Not so. The way Thewlis uses and manipulates Newton caused me pain. It caused HER pain. The final scene is just overflowing with power. I loved this film. Please see it and see it with an open mind. 9/10.