Raetsonwe
Redundant and unnecessary.
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
MisterWhiplash
Stealing Beauty is a character piece, not so much ever really driven by plot, and which makes it a particularly European-flavored entry in the Bernardo Bertolucci cannon of films he's made. This shouldn't be a surprise; the guy's been making them this way for most of his career, save for when he can't not have some semblance of a story (i.e. 1900 and Last Emperor, which were epics). It's got some purely luscious cinematography- thanks, in part, to the equally luscious and vibrant locations out in these Tuscan fields and villas and vineyards and homes, all secluded like in an over-elaborate dream- and some brilliant moments, though in the end it's almost something of a minor work for the director. The most admirable aspect is that he's able, in short, to make a contemporary movie that doesn't feel stuck in time.It's a 90's movie, with a hot-young-talent in her first role (I think it's her first), Liv Tyler, and in a way it works that she's not all that great in the part. Her awkwardness, her moments of sadness over her character's loss of her mother and the confusion over who her father really is, and the girlish and nearly overrated conundrum of still being a virgin, works to her ability as a 'first-timer', so to speak. And, luckily, she's surrounded by much better actors, people like Jeremy Irons who has a presence that is immense and cool even when bed-ridden for much of the film (thankfully it doesn't turn out how I originally thought the set-up would be with him wooing Tyler), and Rachel Weisz in one of her early roles as a woman who has reasonable suspicion her self-absorbed American husband is a lying/cheating louse. There are others as well, like the one who plays the old Frenchman (I forget his name), who's incredible as the old crank who can't bear to be where he's at.If it does feel like a minor work, as I mentioned, it's that Bertolucci- working from his original concept with a screenwriter- doesn't give very much depth to the situation, or to some of the characters, until a little more than halfway through the movie. For a while it feels like a shallow enterprise, the kind of "will she or won't she" attitude towards sex that should be above him. But at some point there's something that opens up a little bit, then a little more, and all the while as Tyler's Lucy becomes more aware of what matters the central conceit starts to become less and less like some big hurdle and something more natural. As well as this, Bertolucci does litter his film, which is uncharacteristically good in the present setting (he blends musical choices very well, from alternative rock to old R&B and classical and jazz) and has a couple of really tremendous scenes. The bit at the party where Tyler and a possible-father dance and the dancers all choreographed and strange come in, it's enthralling.Fans of the director should check it out, as should for those of the actors, but this being said it's almost kind of a light work. Lacking really hardcore dramatic tension, it's mostly predicated on a 19-year old girl's quasi-coming-of-age. Which is interesting, up to a point.
mario_c
Lucy (played by Liv Tyler) is a 19 American girl which travels to Italy after her mother die. She's coming back to a farmhouse where her mother lived once. It's not the first time she's going there, she had been there four years earlier, so she knows almost everyone in the house. She's young, she's beautiful, she's very attractive, but she's also very innocent and… virgin. Every man in the house, from the older to younger, feel her presence and enjoy it, on one or another way, because she's everything but invisible. Her presence is really noticed, but she's not provocative at all. In fact she's very calm and shy. The entire plot is about her, her feelings, people which surround her, and the way she's growing as a woman. It's all that together what makes this movie so beautiful and intimate, because it's a portrait of the fears and hopes, disillusions and happiness, joy and anger of a teenage girl which is having some "feelings" for the very first time.I enjoyed the story but also the settings used, because it's all so peaceful and calm, it's all so quiet in that lost place somewhere in Italy… The cinematography is beautiful and has this "special touch" European cinema use to have, with those little details which turn the movie so truthful and realistic. I like it a lot! About the acting I must say I enjoyed especially two characters and the respective actors who played them. They were the character "Lucy", played by Liv Taylor and "Alex", played by Jeremy Irons. It's especially those two characters which make this story so beautiful to me.To sum up, it's a simple but wonderful movie and another excellent work by Bernardo Bertolucci.
SunSeekerScot
I think I saw this film at a film festival when it was newly released (or prior to release) and seem to recall a scene that was missing when I watched it again recently.Remember when they all go over to that grand villa for the evenings party and the artist guy stays home to carve away at his tree stump with the chainsaw. I remember him sanding more and creating this lovely (and suggestive!) hole in it that later when his wife returns home and finds him caressing the hole suggestively and the two of them then make love. This time when I watch the film it just cuts to the place where she leans against the wall and hikes up her dress above the knee (what the hell is that all about?). The original was one of my favorite parts because of how that scene was enhanced with the music soundtrack... but now it's gone! So my question is: Am I right or dreaming? Anybody else remember this?
Radoslav Karapetkov
I had the opportunity to watch this movie twice in a single day - first in the morning, and then, unexpectedly, again - in the evening.Maybe it was my destiny.. Just maybe...So at first, I gave it a "9" because I thought there were some minor plot weaknesses.But when I saw it again, everything just worked...This isn't a movie that you watch once and you say "Oh yeah!" It just requires more attention. You have to think harder and, something more - you have to feel harder...As with every great work of art, you have to experience it several times, in order to actually get into it...And when you do, you could find anything in it...In time, I'll watch it again, and I hope I can learn something from a true cinema virtuoso.Watch it more than once - 10/10.
