Stealing Beauty | | Cast : | Jeremy Irons, Liv Tyler | | Director : | Bernardo Bertolucci | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | June 14, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | January 11, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 06, 2005 | | Summary | Beauty wounds the heart! | Content
 | Asertive statement pronounced by Guillaume (Jean Marais, the unforgettable Jean Cocteau Orpheus) just in the minute 75 of the film.
Since a nineteen years old, the lovely and ultra beautiful Liv Tyler decides to visit Tuscana, she will experiment the gradual transformation from her ancient crysallis to become in a real mature woman through those impresive months. She will exchange important encounters with a true caleidoscope of human beings. The art remains and even matchs with the sumptuous landscapes as the huge frame in which the seduction, the pleasure of the good food, the art, the ancient memories in search her dark mother past and her early childhood will lead her to a real grow up process. All the cast is exceptional, but the speciañ touching acting of Jeremy Irons one of the major actors all over the world plus the admirable directorial work of Bertolucci and his overwhelming employement use of the lenses will astonish you from the start shot of the picture. So considering the sum of all those merits I would say it is imposibble to pretend ignore and least to avoid to fall in love with this supreme artwork.
To my mind one of the best twelve films of 1996. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 19, 2005 | | Summary | still one of my favourite movies | Content
| The first time I watched this movie I was about seventeen. And from my considerably naïve 17 year old perspective this seemed like a deeply engaging, very interesting and ultimately romantic movie. Though I was not oblivious to the juxtaposition of things traditionally romanticized with less than romantic realities, I was largely distracted by Lucy's own journey to give anything else much thought. It was likely the first time that I saw a well developed character like Lucy who wasn't the confident bubblegum type of romantic heroine that I was accustomed to seeing. Perhaps that says more about the movies I was watching at the time than anything else, but Lucy's imperfections and awkwardness resonated with me and "Stealing Beauty very quickly became one of my favourite movies.
Last Sunday, almost ten yeats later, I sat down to watch it again.
I am more aware now of the interesting and at times somewhat fetishistic ways in which Lucy's virginity was treated by the men and women around her. This is just a personal opinion rather than a critique; but there's an interesting ugliness in the men's reactions to Lucy that is more pronounced now that I watch it again. I'm much more interested in the way that characters like Chris, Alex and Nicolo react to (and take advantage of) Lucy (and the idea of Lucy) as well as Lucy's responses to them. And I think that such interesting complexities are a credit to the way that Bertolucci tells his stories as a director. Though I see it differently now, Stealing Beauty remains one of my favourite films.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 09, 2005 | | Summary | oh dear oh dear! | Content
| Could have been a good and profound film but alas no.
The scenery is certainly stunning and one could spend the whole film wishing one was in the location, just as well really given their is no plot to entertain you. The film labours under the misguided aprehension of being a modern telling of the muse story and the woeful, scarred muse with a deep dark secret at that. The problem is Tyler does not have the requisite skill or understanding to carry off such a role, so she appears to be rather wet and misplaced. Amongst the rest of the cast are some heavy weight performers but they are not used properly and no one reeks of artisitc flair or ambition, they all come across rather as bitchy and perverse and the kind of people a good hard day's work wouldn't sort out (not to mention a slap around the face or two!)
The only thing I got from the film was desire to visit the location and a stronger desire to avoid arty, ex pat types when I got there! Photographically beautiful, otherwise very tedious and extremely irritating! |
| Rating | | | Date | March 06, 2005 | | Summary | intimate drama | Content
| Liv Tyler vividly conveys Lucy's ambivalent feelings about sex and the different ways she tries to negotiate the uneasiness (or intrigue) of her elders in the presence of such youthful innocence. Stealing Beauty demonstrates that Bernardo Bertolucci is as adept at intimate drama as he is with epic productions.
This is also a movie for every girl who wished losing her virginity had been more pleasant.
Say under a tree on a hilltop in Tuscany with a gentle, compassionate boy after spending a week at a vineyard having probing and interesting conversations with a dozen artists and writers.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 06, 2005 | | Summary | One of my Sunday night favourites | Content
| I am not a film critic or a student of Bertolucci's work. I was simply looking for an interesting, character-driven movie and I certainly found it in Stealing Beauty. I was completely charmed by this movie. |
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