SSFF & Asia Staff Blog One of my favorite movies of all time is “Stealing Beauty” by Bernard Bertolucci with Liv Tyler when she was merely one of the unknown actresses trying to break into the industry. When I was an university student, I was so much into Italian language and cinema. There was no doubt that I was fascinated by dir. Bertolucci’s films while my university offered a film course focused on his works, also taught by Italian professor. Having said that, I love “Stealing Beauty” over his other masterpieces such as “The Last Emperor” or “Sheltering Sky” or “Last Tango in Paris”. I was so fascinated by how dir. Bertolucci captured “femininity” and “beauty that surrounds “femininity” ” in the film by casting a young Liv. I must admit that “Stealing Beauty” is not his best and a cheesy coming-of-age piece at some point; however, the film exposes a nakedness of Liv through a course of her meeting with her first love and a notion of losing virginity with her true love. It may translate as “losing virginity = stealing beauty” but there can be another way of reading it; “exposing a beauty of virgin (Liv) = we steal her beauty by watching the film”. It does not matter whether acting or story is cheesy or rough, but it does matter that the film still attracts me in such an impressive way by using the craft of filmmaking. Dir. Bertolucci has a craft of capturing inner beauty and femininity of what’s on the screen. You can see the same craft in “The Last Emperor” with child actors, Richard Vuu and Tsou Tijger who played Pu Yi, the Emperor. Although they are boys, their femininity comes through the screen and mesmerizes the viewers, which is quite a surprising experience. (Yes, indeed, one of my classmates in the Bertolucci class wrote his paper on femininity in Bertolucci’s films.) It is same with Maria Schneider in “Last Tango in Paris”. I watch “Stealing Beauty” time to time just to see the ‘craft’ and each time, am thrilled to see how the ‘craft’ becomes transparent through Liv. Stealing Beauty trailer: youtube/watch?v=SStzlZz6lxc by M.K.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 06:44:41 +0000
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