The Sheltering Sky (1990)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Bernardo Bertolucci

Writers (WGA):

Paul Bowles (book)
Mark Peploe (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

12 December 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography | Drama

Tagline:

A woman's dangerous and erotic journey...

Plot:

The American artist couple Port and Kit Moresby travel aimlessly through Africa, searching for new experiences that could give sense to their relationship. But the flight to distant regions only leads both deeper into despair.

Plot Keywords:

Travel | Brooklyn Bridge | French | Male Nudity | Cunnilingus

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Debra Winger	...	Kit Moresby
John Malkovich	...	Port Moresby
Campbell Scott	...	George Tunner
Jill Bennett	...	Mrs. Lyle
Timothy Spall	...	Eric Lyle
Eric Vu-An	...	Belqassim
Amina Annabi	...	Mahrnia
Philippe Morier-Genoud	...	Captain Broussard
Sotigui Kouyaté	...	Abdelkader (as Sotigui Kouyate)
Tom Novembre	...	French Immigration Officer
Ben Smaïl	...	Smail
Kamel Cherif	...	Ticket Seller
Mohammed Afifi	...	Mohamed
Brahim Oubana	...	Young Arab
Carolyn De Fonseca	...	Miss Ferry

Also Known As:

Il tè nel deserto (Italy)

Runtime:

138 min

Country:

UK | Italy

Language:

English | French | Arabic

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Australia:M | Italy:T | Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Sweden:11 | UK:18 | USA:R | South Korea:18 | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/16

Filming Locations:

Ait Benhaddou, Ouarzazate, Morocco

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The last film of Jill Bennett.

Goofs:

Continuity: There is a moment when Port is with Kit in her room, she is sitting and he is caressing her belly. A good deal of pubic hair is notoriously visible, but immediately follows a closer shot in which she is completely covered.

Quotes:

Port Moresby: You know, if Tunner didn't take such long siestas, I'd never be alone with you. I think he's in love with you.
Kit Moresby: Port, don't be silly.
Port Moresby: Sillier things have happened. The way he hangs around making inane conversation, the way he looks at you when he fingers his DDT can...
Kit Moresby: What else?
Port Moresby: Oh, the ferocity with which he counts your luggage.
Kit Moresby: Oh, he counts yours too.
Port Moresby: It's not the same.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Jeopardy!: (2005-12-05)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Goulov Limma

For me an initiation

Please do not read this review if you have not yet seen the film, because I find it necessary to discuss elements of the film which reveal the plot.

The whole film was for me a long introduction into the silence of myself. I like the desert a lot, am not afraid of the void, when the mind can finally be still. Port also actually came home to Africa. He was ready to die, ready to leave behind his intellectuality, to get rid of the inner mess that was himself. Although he seemed unconscious of it, his inner soul brought him by force to his own roots. When in delirium his hands dance happily, demanding the music to continue, to push him through and out of this existence, Kit is left aside and alone, madness kissing her forehead for the first time, unable to stop the approaching avalanche which will sweep over both of their lives, leaving one dead. Kit, ...how one must feel going to a foreign country to mate again with the mate with whom you, through so many silly, careless incidents, have lost essential contact - and to suddenly find him dead and silent lying in front of you in the vastness of an indifferent desert. The desert we all live in unawares. "Oh, God, what have I done, how could I have allowed this to go so far?" Suddenly she wakes up to notice the immense impact of nothingness.

Her mind broken, she goes off with a Bedouin, and this is actually what I like most about the film. It allows me to let my mind break too, traveling with her through the desert, mostly listening to the silent sound of camels and bells and voices crying out in a strange unknown language.

Some of the professional critics didn't to go down that path. They need their thoughts to run incessantly, .. for them it must have certainly been a threatening movie, or so their comments would suggest.