Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 15-January-12
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The Sheltering Sky (1990)

In terms of landscape, Bernardo Bertolucci's adaptation of Paul Bowles' novel The Sheltering Sky is a humdinger. The movie was shot in the Sahara at locations notable for their stark beauty and antique exoticism, which are the very things that prompted this month's "Desert Dreams" Spotlight series.* The combination of the desert (nature at once cruel and wonderful) with a tribal culture at one of history's busiest crossroads is irresistible to the arm chair traveler. As befits a story of people who are dangerously adrift, Bertolucci does not romanticize his settings too much. The cities are dirty but exciting. The natives are unfathomable but fascinating. The sands are blistering but inviting if you want to get lost.

It's a shame that visitors to the land of The Sheltering Sky must do so in company with Kit and Port Moresby, characters with whom it is very difficult to engage. I remember thinking this when I read the book, so the fault does not rest with the film's stars, Debra Winger and John Malkovich. The Moresbys arrive in North Africa a few years after the end of World War II to act like bohemian nomads and put their marriage on solid ground. In both respects, they have no clue how to reach their end. As they negotiate the foreign society, mostly by throwing money at it, she frustrates him with her constant fears while he frustrates her with his distancing composure. One symptom and cause of marital strain is that they travel with a trust fund brat (Campbell Scott) who is often underfoot and has obvious designs on Kit. After getting rid of him the Moresbys progress deeper into the unknown, until one is left at the mercy of the strange land, without learning from the experience. The lack of a satisfying conclusion (which need not be happy, just definitive) is exacerbated by the movie's absurd use of the author Bowles as a guardian angel/Greek chorus. Overwhelmed by emotional stagnation like its characters, The Sheltering Sky looks like a thrilling journey but feels like philosophical pretension.

*See the Index by date for a list of other films in this month's series.

Copyright © 2012 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.