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 | Male Frontal Nudity | Market Place | Arab | Passion

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 (as Ben Smail)
Kamel Cherif	...	Ticket Seller
Mohammed Afifi	...	Mohamed (as Afifi Mohamed)
Brahim Oubana	...	Young Arab
Carolyn De Fonseca	...	Miss Ferry (as Carolyn de Fonseca)

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 | Hungary:16 | 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:

Paul Bowles, author - and thinly disguised subject - of the autobiographical novel on which the film is based, said, "? it should never have been filmed. The ending is idiotic and the rest is pretty bad." This quote comes from a rare interview that was part of the film Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (1998).

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: The crew is reflected in the bus window before Port bites his tongue.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Port Moresby: Well, terra firma.
Tunner: We're probably the first tourists they've had since the war.
Kit Moresby: Tunner, we're not tourists. We're travelers.
Tunner: Oh. What's the difference?
Port Moresby: A tourist is someone who thinks about going home the moment they arrive, Tunner.
Kit Moresby: Whereas a traveler might not come back at all.
Tunner: You mean *I'm* a tourist.
Kit Moresby: Yes, Tunner. And I'm half and half.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Jeopardy!: (#22.61)" (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.