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BESIEGED Send This Review to a Friend
When Bernardo Bertolucci directs a film you can count on something special, and he delivers once again with "Besieged," a most unusual love story as captivating as it is obtuse. Thandie Newton, who made her mark in the overall disappointing "Beloved," plays Shandurai, a woman from an African country whose husband, arrested in the schoolhouse where he teaches, becomes a political prisoner. We next find her in Rome, where she is studying medicine and yearning for his release.
Shandurai takes a job keeping house for Mr. Kinsky, an English musician played by David Thewlis, at his villa near the Spanish Steps. Bertolocci, a master at telling a story visually with a minimum of dialogue, seduces us into grasping the nuances of what is happening. A strange chemistry develops between Shandurai and Kinsky, partly revealed by Kinsky's incorporation of African themes in the music he is composing. Thewlis, although perhaps making Kinsky a bit too eccentric, communicates a lovely gentility. Shandurai is drawn to him, and when he professes his love, she responds by asking him to help obtain the release of her husband.
To do so he secretly sells off his treasured possessions to raise the needed money. What is Shandurai do to when she realizes that her emotions have gradually shifted to her employer? The screenplay by Bertolucci and Clare Peploe tiptoes without excess exposition, leaning upon atmosphere created by the music, the settings, the cinematography of Fabio Cianchetti and the churning of emotions by exceptional acting. The film relies on audience intelligence, for which one must also be grateful.
With minimal fanfare Bertolucci has created one of the year's most exquisite love stories. A Fine Line release.
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