Stealing Beauty
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 A woman takes her teenage daughter, Lucy, on a vacation with a group of Bohemian friends. This summer Lucy discovers the delights of being her own woman.
 Bernardo Bertolucci's cinematic return to Italy is a film in which very little happens - but beautifully. Scripted by novelist Susan Minot from a story by Bertolucci, it accurately targets the breed of expatriate aesthetes who have made Tuscany their own dreamscape. It also provides leggy uberstarlet Liv Tyler (here radiantly resembling a ganglier young Ava Gardner) with a rare opportunity to enamour, a break she capitalises on with composure. Tyler plays Lucy, a virginal, sensitive and artistic American teenager (we'll let pass those contradictions in terms), who visits the extended family of arty friends of her late poet mother at their villa for a languorous Tuscan summer. Presiding as Earth Mother is Sinead Cusack, with sculptor husband Donal McCann, dying friend/novelist Irons, wacky old coot Jean Marais, toy boy toting Stefania Sandrelli, jaded, brittle daughter of the house Rachel Weisz and an assortment of randy young men, Anglo and Italian. Lucy's freshness fascinates this uninhibited, sensation-craving set, and the revelation of her purity both amuses them and gets everybody's juices flowing. Meanwhile, she has two secret purposes to her visit: she intends to complete the seduction initiated by a handsome young Italian neighbour a few years earlier, and she wants to solve a romantic mystery hinted at in her dead mother's diary. How she gets on in both missions is delicately and deliberately paced while Bertolucci, with characteristic elegance and stealthy control, intrudes on the exclusive, unreal world the characters have created. The stately tempo he takes for this round of amorous, artistic and philosophical musings is not to everyone's taste. Neither is the undeniable and uncomfortable element of voyeurism implicit in the tireless ogling of the adolescent heroine. Bertolucci fans of old may well sigh for the political passion that made his earlier work more powerful. But the grace, craft and real wit in this country house party make it his most seductive film in a very long while. Coming out of seeing this film, I thought that either Bernado Bertolluci or cinematographer Darius Khandji, or both, have a great big crush on Liv Tyler, if the beautiful, almost loving, way she is presented and photographed in this film is any indication. This obvious emotion, coupled with the other aspects of the film -- casting, art direction, locale, and story -- help to make this pleasant little film a positive entry into the non-action genre we have all too much of right now. Liv Tyler is, physically, perfect for the role. She has the charm and presence on camera that make her interesting to watch. I'm just not sure just how much real acting she has to do. Her task through most of the film is to react to the camera. It will be interesting to see how she does in the upcoming film, "Heavy." On the supporting end of things, I have to give Jeremy Irons the nod as the best talent in the film. His middle-aged author and poet, dying from some undefined disease, is subtle and believable as he falls for the nubile, but innocent, young American. He knows he can never have her in any real way. He's just happy with the opportunity to fall in love with her. Which brings me to the main criticm of the film -- the central character is little more than an object of desire to those around her. The film doesn't really lose much because of this, but it is a criticism. The rest of the supporting cast, well anchored by Sinead Cusack and Donal McCann as the earth mother and father of the little commune, give, across the board, solid performances. The script is in keeping with the fabric of the film. It's languid and meanders about a bit, but, coupled with the lush and inviting Tuscany countryside, this is not a bad thing at all. Bernardo Bertolucci is renowned for his epic films, like "1900" and "The Last Emperor," with their sweeping scope. Even his "smaller" films, like "The Conformist" and "Little Buddha," have a grandness of production. "Stealing Beauty" is a much simpler film for Bertolucci. It's nice to see a master give his best even in his smaller works. We first meet Lucy as an anonymous male surreptiously videotapes her from when she departs the U.S. until she boards a train in Italy and his hand only is seen giving her the tape -- right from the onset, Bertolucci sets Lucy up as an object to be reacted to. It's this that gives Liv Tyler little more to do than look gamine and innocent. Granted, she does get a chance to do a bit more in her scenes with the dying writer played by Jeremy Irons and at the end when she discovers her true love. The jury's out on her acting ability, but this doesn't harm the film too much. "Stealing Beauty" is an odd film that mostly takes place at a Tuscan commune of ex-patriot Bohemian artists. Beautifully photographed by the versatile Darius Khondji ("Delicatessen," "Seven"), the film moves along at its own leisurely pace. Even though it's essentially about a young woman searching for her first love and the mystery of her father's identity, it struck me more as a slice of life or a short journey in a grander trip. There's some great support here -- Jeremy Irons is philosophically melancholy, yet has enough life left to desire Lucy. His real wife Sinead Cusack is also fine as the earth mother than grounds the group. Donal McCann, Cusack's husband who is sculpting Lucy, lets his character be discovered by letting layers be peeled away. The great Jean Marais (Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast") is fun to watch, but adds little as a senile former art dealer. Carlo Cecchi ... Carlo Lisca Sinéad Cusack ... Diana (as Sinead Cusack) Joseph Fiennes ... Christopher Jason Flemyng ... Gregory Anna-Maria Gherardi ... Chiarella Donati (as Anna Maria Gherardi) Jeremy Irons ... Alex Jean Marais ... M. Guillaume Donal McCann ... Ian D.W. Moffett ... Richard Ignazio Oliva ... Osvaldo Donati Stefania Sandrelli ... Noemi Francesco Siciliano ... Michele Lisca Mary Jo Sorgani ... Maria Leonardo Treviglio ... Lieutenant Liv Tyler ... Lucy Harmon http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117737/ Download Torrent 
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