MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Down 1,905 this week

Besieged (1998)

 -  Drama | Romance  -  21 May 1999 (USA)
6.7
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 6.7/10 from 3,013 users  
Reviews: 42 user | 50 critic

When an African dictator jails her husband, Shandurai goes into exile in Italy, studying medicine and keeping house for Mr. Kinsky, an eccentric English pianist and composer. She lives in ... See full summary »

Watch Trailer
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 10000 titles created 3 months ago
 
a list of 1742 titles created 1 month ago
 
a list of 33 titles created 9 months ago
 
a list of 33 titles created 08 Jan 2012
 
a list of 7 titles created 3 months ago
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Besieged (1998)

Besieged (1998) on IMDb 6.7/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Besieged.
2 wins & 11 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X  

After her mother commits suicide, nineteen year old Lucy Harmon travels to Italy to have her picture painted. However, she has other reasons for wanting to go. She wants to renew her ... See full summary »

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Stars: Carlo Cecchi, Sinéad Cusack, Jeremy Irons
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

Oilman Jan is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when Jan urges her to have sex with another.

Director: Lars von Trier
Stars: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgård, Katrin Cartlidge
The Piano (1993)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A mute woman along with her young daughter, and her prized piano, are sent to 1850s New Zealand for an arranged marriage to a wealthy landowner, and she's soon lusted after by a local worker on the plantation.

Director: Jane Campion
Stars: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

A young Parisian woman begins a sordid affair with a middle-aged American businessman who lays out ground rules that their clandestine relationship will be based only on sex.

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Stars: Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Maria Michi
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

A man and a woman move in to neighboring Hong Kong apartments and form a bond when they both suspect their spouses of extramarital activities.

Director: Kar Wai Wong
Stars: Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Ping Lam Siu
Before Sunset (2004)
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

It's nine years after Jesse and Celine first met; now, they encounter one another on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Vernon Dobtcheff
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

A compassionate young man, raised in an orphanage and trained to be a doctor there, decides to leave to see the world.

Director: Lasse Hallström
Stars: Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, Delroy Lindo
Comedy | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

Through the neighborhoods of Paris, love is veiled, revealed, imitated, sucked dry, reinvented and awakened.

Directors: Olivier Assayas, Frédéric Auburtin, and 20 more credits »
Stars: Florence Muller, Leonor Watling, Juliette Binoche
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Evan Welch
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

In 1968, a Czech doctor with an active sex life meets a woman who wants monogamy, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives.

Director: Philip Kaufman
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one romantic evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Andrea Eckert
Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A British medical doctor fights a cholera outbreak in a small Chinese village, while also being trapped at home in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife.

Director: John Curran
Stars: Catherine An, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
...
...
Agostino
John C. Ojwang ...
Singer
Massimo De Rossi ...
Patient
Cyril Nri ...
Priest
Paul Osul ...
Piano Buyer
Veronica Lazar ...
Piano Buyer
Gian Franco Mazzoni ...
Piano Buyer (as Gianfranco Mazzoni)
Maria Mazetti Di Pietralata ...
Piano Buyer
Andrea Quercia ...
Child pianist at concert
Alexander Menis ...
Child at concert
Natalia Mignosa ...
Child at concert
Lorenzo Mollica ...
Child at concert
Elena Perino ...
Child at concert
Edit

Storyline

When an African dictator jails her husband, Shandurai goes into exile in Italy, studying medicine and keeping house for Mr. Kinsky, an eccentric English pianist and composer. She lives in one room of his Roman palazzo. He besieges her with flowers, gifts, and music, declaring passionately that he loves her, would go to Africa with her, would do anything for her. "What do you know of Africa?," she asks, then, in anguish, shouts, "Get my husband out of jail!" The rest of the film plays out the implications of this scene and leaves Shandurai with a choice. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

jail | italy | composer | african | gift | See more »

Taglines:

Touched by Genius. Cursed by Madness. Blinded by Love.

Genres:

Drama | Romance

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for brief sexuality | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

|

Language:

| |

Release Date:

21 May 1999 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Asediada  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$159,289 (USA) (21 May 1999)

Gross:

$2,032,621 (USA) (30 July 1999)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

(Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Connections

References Chungking Express (1994) See more »

Soundtracks

"Ostinato"
Written by Alessio Vlad
Performed by Stefano Arnaldi
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
A refreshingly beautiful fable of a film from Bernardo Bertolucci
14 June 1999 | by (sf, usa) – See all my reviews

It's refreshing to have a film that has no special effects, does not have to deliver every word, tell you every step of the plot -- the plot line is implied. It is by showing what is happening and letting us the audience connect the frames.

This film "L'assedio" (The Siege) is more visually expressed vs. through articulating dialog. We are presented with scenes, imageries, expressions, wide or high angle shots through perceptive conscious editing. I especially noted the repeats of the beautiful shadow pattern of the spiral railing leafy design -- 'besieged' in a rather elegant environment (perhaps evident to the audience more than to the central character herself). The besiegement is not exactly physical, it is more of the internal emotional dilemma and struggles our heroine feels. We are shown the various artistic collections and beauty of things around the house as we follow her housekeeping routines. She could very well be too wrapped up in her own world (pursuing her medical studies, preparing for exams, and her flashbacks/dreams of homeland events in Africa) and opened herself not to the other person or what's really around her.

The opening sequence is actually a critical flashback for our heroine Shandurai, portrayed by Thandie Newton (w-d John Duigan's "Flirting" 1989; Jonathan Demme's "Beloved" 1998 with Oprah Winfrey). David Thewlis (w-d Mike Leigh's "Naked" 1993; Jean-Jacque Annaud's "Seven Years in Tibet" 1997 as Brad Pitt's adventurous companion) is Mr. Kinsky, the other part of the quotient in this fable like story that Bertolucci interweaved. Shandurai was from Africa and is now a medical student in Rome, staying at Mr. Kinsky's house where she does daily housekeeping chores in exchange for her own room and board.

There is also a "beseeching" undertone to this tale. He (Mr. Kinsky) the solitary composer/pianist in want of her love. She (Shadurai) the solitary soul 'exiled' from home (Africa) in want of the freedom of her loved one. Trust -- a human dilemma? How do you trust a stranger? Does the person really listen to you? Does s/he hear what you're saying?

Trust in another person, a total stranger, is not easy to come by. Society has made it a norm that you have to earn it -- trust. If you say something or make a request, you don't really expect it to come true. That the other person actually listened and took it to heart and do something about it to make a wish happen is only in dreams! Well, whole-hearted loving is possible and we should not take things for granted.

There are no extraneous frames here. Visual and sound (the music, the piano pieces) are both purposefully fulfilling in unraveling the story. Thewlis delivered a superb subtle performance. Newton followed up her "Beloved" role with equal concentration. Bertolucci weaved his magic once again. What a statement -- what a story he has given us! A beautiful film. A fable, indeed.

The wonderful photography (cinematography by Fabio Cianchetti), especially the use of cast shadows reminded me of the silent B/W German classics by Robert Wiene, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" 1919, in which shadows were used thematically in repeated graphic forms -- very effective filmmaking.


8 of 12 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
The Ending Kay_Tee
sympathy for kinsky jgutie84
Song Question seagull_wu
the man always singing.... Gina00077
Shandurai and her friend ana_cherrynose91
what's that song? during the final scene wendywro
Discuss Besieged (1998) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?