Besieged (1999)

To me, this movie is perfection.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"Besieged", written and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, is a very contemporary take on O Henry's "Gift of the Magi" story within an updated geo-political/racial context. This is an intellectual date movie as both characters change.With very little dialog and leisurely development of the simple plot but complex emotions, the relationships are established with very lush, intense close-ups (I've read this was originally made for Italian TV) and through sounds, particularly music - Western classical vs. Afro-Pop (terrific very high class Africa Fete music, like Papa Wemba), and rhythms - cerebral vs. hip-shaking, with the Italians and the Italian environment put somewhere in the middle with elements of both.A woman behind me complained at the end "So now what is she going to do?" and doubtless folks will argue, convinced of one or the other conclusion.The lens was all scratched up so the beautiful cinematography was hard to appreciate. I don't know if the heads kept being cut off by the director or the projectionist, among the many projection problems.(originally written 6/6/1999)

1st watched 9/4/2005, 7 out of 10(Dir-Bernardo Bertolucci): Wonderfully, artistically-told story of an African woman who loses her husband to the authorities for what appears to be political reasons and is thrown in jail. She then moves into a building owned by an eccentric piano player as his maid and begins going thru medical school at the same time. Mr. Kinsky, played by David Thewlis, is infatuated with her very early on and even states that he loves her but her response is basically, show me by getting my husband out of jail. Kinsky then very secretly pursues this. Much of the story is shown to us visually and we kind of have to figure out what's going on which is an extremely fascinating use of visuals rather than dialogue that is so un-American and very European in it's style. The story unfolds not unlike a piano concerto before our eyes as the pieces of the puzzle start fitting together and Bertolucci gets us to watch the characters and be interested in them as they're going thru this. Even after Oscar wins and at an elderly age, Bertolucci is still making extremely character driven artistic movies that are each one of a kind and this one doesn't disappoint either.

Bertolucci's lush photography is mirrored by the velvety performances of the two co-stars. There's nothing fancy here. The lighting, camera angles, and other directorial touches support and do not supplant a simple story of two people whose generosity prompts them to take important actions independently. It is Thandie Newton's movie all the way (for that matter, so was "Flirting" almost ten years ago, and she is grown up now, yet with still that wistful, girlish smile). But David Thewlis is quirky enouhg to be believable. The fairy tale works. Bravo, Bernardo!

A lot of reviews of BESIEGED said Bernardo Bertolucci was returning to LAST TANGO IN PARIS territory. That may very well be true, but there's one distinction about TANGO which Bertolucci should have remembered; in TANGO, it was a story between two fully realized characters(we may remember the movie for Brando, for better or worse, but Maria Schneider was every bit his equal), and so it resonates long afterwards. In this movie, on the other hand, we get every sense of Thandie Newton, through her acting(as this and previous works such as BELOVED prove, she's one of the most expressive actors out there), and through the gorgeous use of imagery and music, especially in the Africa scenes(if it wasn't for the fact that there's a film coming out next year with that name, this might be called I DREAMED OF AFRICA). Even though very little dialogue is used, we get a history and arc to her, so we care what happens to her.But a love story, which this purports to be, is best when it's two equals. What of David Thewlis here? Well, we get a sense of his piano playing, which changes the longer Newton stays around(the scene where he incorporates African type rhythms into his music is quite good). And certainly his actions speak for themselves(he's clearly trying to free her husband). But still, he remains closed off from us; not as an enigma, but as in not expressive. It doesn't help that Thewlis is probably more suited to a role where he has more dialogue(he can be expressive, as he showed in NAKED), and seems lost here. But we never really get a sense of him, so when the two finally come together, it doesn't move us the way it should.Still, the other half of the film, Newton's half, does work enough for me to recommend the film. And while I am a fan of good dialogue, it didn't bother me how little there was here.