La luna (1979)

Director:

Bernardo Bertolucci

Writers:

Franco Arcalli (story) &
Bernardo Bertolucci (story) ...

Release Date:

30 September 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.

Plot Keywords:

Opera | Heroin | Diva | Verdi | Opera Singer

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win

Cast

Jill Clayburgh	...	Caterina Silveri
Matthew Barry	...	Joe Silveri
Veronica Lazar	...	Marina
Renato Salvatori	...	Communist
Fred Gwynne	...	Douglas Winter
Alida Valli	...	Giuseppe's Mother
Elisabetta Campeti	...	Arianna
Franco Citti	...	Man in Bar
Roberto Benigni	...	Upholsterer
Carlo Verdone	...	Director of Caracalla
Peter Eyre	...	Edward
Stéphane Barat	...	Mustafa
Pippo Campanini	...	Innkeeper
Rodolfo Lodi	...	Maestro Giancarlo Calo
Sara Di Nepi	...	Concetta (as Shara Di Nepi)

Also Known As:

Luna (USA)

Runtime:

142 min

Country:

Italy | USA

Language:

Italian | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Italy:VM14 | France:-16 | Argentina:X (original rating) | Argentina:16 (re-rating) | Australia:R | Finland:K-16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Caracalla Thermals, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Fiction Cinematografica S.p.a.

Trivia:

Bernardo Bertolucci reportedly admitted that Carlo Verdone's character is an imitation of Franco Zeffirelli, who is also an appreciated opera director.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Buongiorno, notte (2003)

Soundtrack:

Un ballo in maschera

A riposte to Freudianism?

Not many discuss Bertolucci's La Luna as one of his most challenging films but I beg to differ. In 1979 I presume the film's campy allure had not been registered but today it's all to be seen; call it kitsch or ironic, but la Luna encapsulates two worlds Bertolucci tried to negotiate in most of his films - the world of appearances and surfaces against the inner world of the protagonist. La Luna plays both against each other as a masquerade, because what we think we are getting is not what we really are seeing. Bertolucci presents the first part as a post-Freudian fable in late 70s Rome where an Opera singer and her son indulge in an Oedipal relationship. Bertolucci then introduces the lost but real father to the scene as if to eradicate Freudian psychoanalysis as a spurious retelling of Greek myth. It seems the son only wants his father's recognition and love, while the mother is marginalized. It's a very masculine thesis for Bertolucci, one that reinforces the illusory fundamentals of Patriarchy, while negating the matriarchal as a mere bypass to the final journey(father's love).

Jill Clayburgh's acting is off-key most of the time but this unwittingly invests the film with its latter-day camp quality, while Matthew Barry looks dazed and confused throughout the entire film. Rome is undoubtedly the best part of the film as well as the sumptuous visuals that capture its sun-drenched beauty and decaying but grand monuments.