Sheltering Sky (1990)

Master filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci applies his considerable talent to this haunting adaptation of the Paul Bowles novel. John Malkovich and Debra Winger play Port and Kit Moresby, characters loosely based on Bowles and his wife Jane, who flee New York for North Africa, where they hope to find mystical truths that will reignite the spark of their marriage. But instead they lose their moral bearings (with help from a friend, played by Campbell Scott, who has an affair with Kit) while traveling deeper and deeper into the Sahara. Before long, what started as a vacation at exotic lodgings has descended into a tour of hell, as they stumble farther and farther into an unknowable spiritual territory. Though long and at times slow-moving, the film features marvelously nuanced acting by Malkovich and Winger and visionary filmmaking that makes the landscape at once picturesque and threatening. --Marshall Fine Amazon.com essential video

My only plan is, I have no plan

The Sheltering Sky is based on the book of the same name by expatriate writer, composer, and traveler, Paul Bowles. Bowles himself has led quite an interesting life, besides appearing in a cameo and as the narrator of The Sheltering Sky, he has settled in Tangiers, Morocco, where he has lived for 52 years with his Jane, where their neighbor was William S. Burroughs. Another writer he met along the way was Christopher Isherwood who utilized his last name for the character of Sally Bowles in the story that provided the basis for the musical, Cabaret.

Port Moresby (John Malkovich) would seem to be modeled on Bowles himself; however, there are some important differences. In an autobiography, the one thing that you can be reasonably sure of is the protagonist will not die, but to think that The Sheltering Sky is an autobiography is a fatal assumption. Though based on autobiographical elements, midway through the narrative the main character slips away, and thereafter the focus shifts to his wife, Kit Moresby (Debra Winger). Since she has been having a clandestine affair with a traveling companion, George Tunner (Campbell Scott) you might think that the story would culminate in the lovers reuniting, but again that would be a false assumption. Kit's journey is a long and strange one, and any meaning that can be inferred by it is somewhat esoteric.

Director Benardo Bertolucci is best known for The Last Tango in Paris, and also for The Last Emperor. Stealing Beauty was another interesting effort. The Sheltering Sky falls somewhere in between the Zenith and Nadir. There are great location shots filmed in the North African Sahara desert, but there are also lots of scenes where it just looks so ugly. At one point, they are almost covered in flies, and often times Port Moresby stares off into the desert seeing a beauty only visible to him. Is he being ironic when he announces that the hotel is magnificent? Indeed, Port Moresby is quite an enigma and who better to portray him than John Malkovich? He is a curious mixture of shrewdness and naiveté. For instance, he steals his wallet back from a prostitute but can't resist flaunting it as he leaves, causing her to sound the alarm. Or when the parasitic tourist Eric Lyle (Timothy Spall) tries to borrow money he dispenses tough love, but then leaves his valuables unattended. Port Moresby is, by the way, the capital city of Papua New Guinea.

My favorite Malkovich moment was when Kit comments on the French colonials.
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Kit Moresby: Someday they're gonna kick the French out of this country.
Port Moresby: Well, with trousers like that, who can blame them?
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He also exhibits his shrewd/naive dichotomy when he conspires to split Tunner off from their traveling party:

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Kit Moresby: Is that the plan?
Port Moresby: More or less, yes.
Kit Moresby: More or less?
Port Moresby: Uh... Less, actually.
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Like John Malkovich, Debra Winger has also had quite an interesting life and career. Her voice was used for E.T. and she played Wonder Girl on the Wonder Woman television program. She later spoofed this on Letterman where she appeared wearing a flowing robe. Dave played a clip of Winger as Wonder Girl and she pretended to be annoyed. She stood up to leave, dropped the robe, and revealed her Wonder Girl costume as she ran off through the audience. Her break out role was as Sissy in Urban Cowboy, riding the mechanical bull to fame, but she also scored big with Terms of Endearment and An Officer and a Gentleman. She did an excellent job in The Sheltering Sky, in a very demanding role. The experience must have really moved her, as she remained there in the desert for more than a year after filming was finished. Lately, she is getting raves again for Rachel Getting Married.

Campbell Scott's job in The Sheltering Sky was to be handsome but somewhat shallow.

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Kit Moresby: Oh, Tunner, stop trying to be interesting. On you it looks terrible. And you're too good-looking.
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Some other notable roles of Campbell Scott were in Longtime Companion, which was the first film to tackle the AIDs epidemic, and in Cameron Crowe's Singles, which tried but failed to define Generation X. In retrospect that would have to be Reality Bites, sorry Campbell and Cameron.

Timothy Spall had a small but memorable role as reluctant tourist Eric Lyle. An accomplished character actor, there is no one else who can so effectively portray multiple character flaws as Spall. Catch his act as the road manager in Rock Star, or as The Mikado in Topsy-Turvy by Mike Leigh.

Though the cast and location are compelling, it failed to add up to much. Paul Bowles wasn't really impressed with the film. I enjoyed The Sheltering Sky, but have to judge it harshly with a mere three stars. And yet, I would recommend it as a journey worth taking. And the book would definitely be worth reading.

The Sheltering Sky (P.S.)
Last Tango in Paris
The Last Emperor - Criterion Collection
Stealing Beauty
Rock Star
Topsy-Turvy
Being John Malkovich
Searching for Debra Winger
Urban Cowboy
Singles

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Tunner: You've been to North Africa before, Port. Kit and I will just follow your plan.
Port Moresby: My only plan is, I have no plan.
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November 14, 2008

Paul Bowles Novel Comes to the Screen

Sheltering Sky is a great novel; the atmospherics of "place" -- Sahara desert -- play a big role. The film combines Bernardo Bertolucci and John Malkovich and is perfect, but dark. Lots of footage on the lives of Sahara nomads interpersed with the plot. Supporting cast is excellent. I think it helps to have read the book. July 7, 2008

THE FABULOUS BERNARDO

Dear Guys and gals, searching for an evening to relax with a wonderfeul movie. Then go nowhere else. Sit back in your couch, an arm round your girl friend, and view Bernardo Bertulucci's 'The Sheltering Sky'. It is a fabulous movie which I am sure you will enjoy very much. Think i'm jokin'? nah.. why should I . My aunt in India, a Carnatic Musician(what a mouthful), is gonna send me The DVD of The Sheltering Sky as soon as she gets it. The Amazon US guys, are very prompt. I only hope, the amazon guys do not send the DVD by Courier. I once had a terrible experience with the Indian Couriers. They open packs, and do all kinds of....stuff!
I hope the US Amazon guys, send it by good ol' postal service.
NALINI THILAK April 8, 2008

Finding Meaning While Following the Lost

I couldn't find the edition I read of "The Sheltering Sky" here on [...] but my copy includes an introduction by Paul Bowles written a year or so before he died. In the introduction, he says "the less said about the film version, the better."

(His only other comment about the film was to mock the filmmakers for trying to make Debra Winger look like his wife Jane and sell the story as a thinly-veiled account of their trip into the Sahara...a trip that Bowles swears he never took with Jane).

I'd seen the movie before reading the book and was intrigued with the story enough to read the novel. Then I watched the movie again. The film is certainly more interesting if you've read the book. That's probably because you can follow the inner thoughts and feelings (or lack of feelings) of the characters, something you'd only have to guess at while watching the film otherwise. It seemed to me that some really good dialogue was left out of the film between Port and Kit, especially in their final scenes. (That some of this dialogue was given to the author during his cameo at the beginning and end of the film didn't make it any easier either).

I love John Malkovich but I think he's not really right for Port. Port comes across (to me) as a vain, handsome but empty man stubbornly trying to free himself from his privileged existence. Malkovich is too intense and interesting, too unpredictable to be a pretty boy foolishly blundering through the Sahara to shake himself off. He's a great actor but his talents obscures this character (again, my opinion).

And I've really learned to appreciate Debra Winger. She really is one of this country's finest actresses, taking on some really tough roles and making them work. When she's left to carry the movie by herself, I wished there had been more scenes earlier to draw her character out more. Three years after this film, she was also great in "Shadowlands" with Anthony Hopkins.

The brutality of the novel is downplayed when Kit wanders off to join a caravan late in the film. In the movie, she becomes involved with an Arab trader like a mini-romance where she eventually gives herself to him. In the novel, she's immediately passed between the two men leading the caravan and accepts her total loss of identity. I think you'll agree there's a huge difference between a romance and a rape, right?

But the film follows the storyline somewhat faithfully and has some really wonderful photography of the Sahara Desert. I thought the ending was a little confusing...until I read the book and rewatched it. I'm sure the movie will be more interesting if you did that...I'm just not sure you'd want to invest that much time in it.

I thought it was worth it. December 9, 2007

Quick Sand

I love Bertolucci and I love Paul Bowles, but I think this movie fails both artists. It is, of course, a stunning visual masterpiece, as usual it must be said, because of the cinematographer. It is luscious and hypnotic, no doubt about that. I think the weakness is in the cast who, although talented in their own ways, really fail here. Winger is capable of greatness; she is terrific in many films, but here she seems so weak, no passionless. Malkovich is the darling of the art set, but doesn't really have it as far as I am concerned. His is a peculiarly neurotic sort of masculine power. He pouts and purses his lips, and sulks. By now he has got this down as though it were a comic routine. He seems all wrong for this role. I liked the scenes of Winger out in the desert with the Bedouin; this is a real S/M fantasy if there ever was one, but I don't think the ending has much resonance. When she runs back into the casbah, it isn't clear in the movie as it is in the novel that she has nothing to go back to. Partly this is due to the odd framing device with the elderly Bowles reading from the text in that awful monotone voice of his. Nostalgia is not the right note to strike but there it is. Bowles by himself, and the entire scene suddenly becomes romanticized, like a TV commercial for Lucky Strike. November 21, 2007

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